Glacial dust surpasses both volcanic ash and desert dust in its iron
fertilization potential
Abstract
The subarctic Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea comprise the second-largest
high nitrate, low chlorophyll region in the world, where primary
production is limited by the availability of iron (Fe). To estimate the
potential impact of different terrestrial aerosol Fe sources on marine
ecosystems, we performed a suite of laboratory assessments following
established protocols, including: 1) leaching with Milli-Q water, 2)
sequential extractions, 3) complete acid digestions, 4) X-ray
diffraction, and 5) grain size analysis. Measurements were performed on
20 fine-grained (<5 μm) glacier-derived sediments from Alaska
and the Yukon, 2 fresh, never-wetted volcanic ashes (Redoubt 2009 and
Pavlof 2016), and 6 weathered ashes (Redoubt and Augustine) which span
the past ~8700 years. We compared results to published
data on Asian desert-derived sediments, finding that the glacier-derived
sediments have five times higher easily-reducible Fe (median 2.3 ± 0.6
wt. %) than desert-derived samples (0.49 ± 0.1 wt. %) and fourteen
times higher easily-reducible Fe than fresh ash (0.16 ± 0.1 wt. %). In
addition, fractional Fe solubility was higher in glacial sediment
(median cumulative 0.31 ± 0.11% FeS) than volcanic ash
(0.04 ± 0.02 % FeS). Glacial sediments also contained
higher concentrations of bioactive metals including Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo,
Cd, and Pb. Inferred Fe availability increased with sample age, pointing
to the ability of environmental weathering processes to change Fe
geochemistry. Together these results suggest that glacier-derived dust
may provide the subarctic Pacific with more bioavailable iron per unit
mass than either volcanic ash or desert-derived dust.