title: Climatically sensitive transfer of iron to maritime Antarctic ecosystems by surface runoff.
abstract: Iron supplied by glacial weathering results in pronounced hotspots of biological production in an otherwise iron-limited Southern Ocean Ecosystem. However, glacial iron inputs are thought to be dominated by icebergs. Here we show that surface runoff from three island groups of the maritime Antarctic exports more filterable (<0.45 μm) iron (6-81 kg km-2a-1) than icebergs (0.0-1.2 kg km-2a-1). Glacier-fed streams also export more acid-soluble iron (27.0-18,500 kg km-2a-1) associated with suspended sediment than icebergs (0-241 kg km-2a-1). Significant fluxes of filterable and sediment-derived iron (1-10 Gg a-1and 100-1,000 Gg a-1, respectively) are therefore likely to be delivered by runoff from the Antarctic continent. Although estuarine removal processes will greatly reduce their availability to coastal ecosystems, our results clearly indicate that riverine iron fluxes need to be accounted for as the volume of Antarctic melt increases in response to 21st century climate change.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.|Arctic Geology, University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), N-9171 Longyearbyen, Norway.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hodson
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
authors.forename: Aga
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nowak
authors.affiliation: School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sabacka
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jungblut
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Matematica Aplicada, ETSI de Telecomunicacion, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, ES-28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5147-0067
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pearce
authors.affiliation: Arctic Biology, University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), N-9171 Longyearbyen, Norway.
authors.forename: María Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ávila-Jiménez
authors.affiliation: British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Convey
authors.affiliation: Centre for Geographical Studies-IGOT, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon 1649-003, Portugal.
authors.forename: Gonçalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vieira
mesh_terms: D000864:Antarctic Regions; D017753:Ecosystem; D005843:Geography; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*; D062312:Islands; D045483:Rivers; D012621:Seasons; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry*; D012995:Solubility; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D007501:Iron