Costa, K. M.; et al. (2016): No iron fertilization in the equatorial Pacific Ocean during the last ice age

Costa, K. M.; McManus, J. F.; Anderson, R. F.; Ren, H.; Sigman, D. M.; Winckler, G. et al. (2016): No iron fertilization in the equatorial Pacific Ocean during the last ice age. In Nature 529 (7587), pp. 519–522. DOI 10.1038/nature16453.

„Here we present meridional transects of dust (derived from the ²³²Th proxy), phytoplankton productivity (using opal, ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th and excess Ba), and the degree of nitrate consumption (using foraminifera-bound δ¹⁵N) from six cores in the central equatorial Pacific for the Holocene (0–10,000 years ago) and the LGP (17,000–27,000 years ago). We find that, although dust deposition in the central equatorial Pacific was two to three times greater in the LGP than in the Holocene, productivity was the same or lower, and the degree of nitrate consumption was the same. These biogeochemical findings suggest that the relatively greater ice-age dust fluxes were not large enough to provide substantial iron fertilization to the central equatorial Pacific.“

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