Impact of icebergs on net primary productivity in the Southern Ocean

Wu, Shuang-Ye; Hou, Shugui

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-707-2017

Articles | Volume 11, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-707-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) Second...

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-707-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 2

Research article

|

17 Mar 2017

Research article |

| 17 Mar 2017

Impact of icebergs on net primary productivity in the Southern Ocean

Shuang-Ye Wu and Shugui Hou

Data sets

Iceberg Database of the Merged Altimeters Altiberg Project ftp://ftp.ifremer.fr/ifremer/cersat/projects/altiberg/

Ocean Productivity Standard Product: Net Primary Production Ocean Productivity, Oregon State University Ocean Productivity http://www.science.oregonstate.edu/ocean.productivity/index.php

The Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database The Brigham Young University (BYU) Center for Remote Sensing http://www.scp.byu.edu/data/iceberg/database1.html

Short summary

The primary productivity in the Southern Ocean (SO) is limited by the amount of iron available for biological activities. Recent studies show that icebergs could be a main source of iron to the SO. Based on remote sensing data, our study shows that iceberg presence is associated with elevated levels of ocean productivity, particularly in iron-deficient regions. This impact could serve as a negative feedback to the climate system.