New dusty paper out: Saharan dust versus Amazon River water

Publication date: Tuesday 07 April 2020

Category: DUST

In their new paper that appeared today in the open-access version of Limnology & Oceanography, entitled “Multiple drivers of production and particle export in the western tropical North Atlantic”, Laura Korte and colleagues present a comprehensive study of particle fluxes in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean, where –next to Saharan dust—the Amazon River was shown to have a large fertilisation potential as well.

A sediment trap is being recovered from on board RV Pelagia

From our previous work we know fairly well that Saharan dust has a large impact on the ocean, and that this influence obviously decreases along the downwind path from East to West. Little did we know how large the influence of the Amazon River is on the surface ocean and how far this influence extends. Other studies had already demonstrated the fertilisation potential of the nutrients from the Amazon River, based on field studies in the western North Atlantic Ocean and Catarina Guerreiro had demonstrated in her 2017 paper that algal blooms can indeed be triggered by nutrient-rich freshwater from the Amazon.

Sediment-laden waters of the Amazon River flush into the Atlantic Ocean. (image from crazyask.com)

By studying a time series of downward fluxes of various organic and chemical components along one year of sediment-trap monitoring, combined with data from argo floats, onboard CTD measurements, satellite imagery and ocean modelling, Laura Korte and her co-authors demonstrate not only the fertilisation potential but also the required downward transport of organic material which can facilitate actual sequestration of atmospheric CO₂.

Laura (R) and Franzi tap water from the CTD-rosette

Some fun facts about the Amazon River (from Encyclopaedia Brittannica)

With a total length of 6,992km it is slightly longer than the Nile (6,853km)
On average, 209,000 m³ water flow from the Amazon River into the Atlantic Ocean per second, which is 1/5 of the total freshwater flow into the oceans. This discharge is larger than the total of the next seven largest rivers in the world
This water carries 1.3Mton sediment/day
It was discovered by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century when they noticed that they were sailing through freshwater >100 miles off the coast

Click here for a link to the paper on the Wiley website, and here for a post on the DustCo website

The Amazon River, the largest river in the world (from alchetron.com)

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Dust

Why are we so interested in dust?

It turns out that there are many direct and indirect links between dust and climate. The most straightforward one is fine-grained dust in the upper atmosphere blocking incoming sunlight, causing a net cooling effect. But there are warming effects too; in the lower atmosphere, coarser-grained dust particles absorb energy that was refelected at the earth's surface and this way, dust acts as a greenhouse gas.

There are many more negative and positive climate-related effects but the main link to the ocean is the fact that marine life may profit from nutrients in dust. When plankton reproduces, it takes up CO2 from the atmosphere. Thus, dust could potentially act as an ocean fertilizer, sequestering a greenhouse gas!

Recently published papers

Korte, L.F., Brummer, G-J A., Van der Does, M., Guerreiro, C.V., Mienis, F., Munday, C.I., Ponsoni, L., Schouten, S., Stuut, J-B W. (2020) Multiple drivers of production and particle export in the western tropical North Atlantic Limnology and Oceanography 65(9) 2108-2124 DOI: 10.1002/lno.11442
Van der Does, M., Brummer, G-J A., Van Crimpen, C.J., Korte, L.F., Mahowald, N.M., Merkel, U., Yu, H., Zuidema, P., Stuut, J-B W. (2020) Tropical rains controlling deposition of Saharan dust across the North Atlantic Ocean. Geophysical Research Letters 47 DOI: 10.1029/2019GL086867
Guerreiro, C.V., Baumann, K-H., Brummer, G-J A., Korte, L.F., Sá, C., Stuut, J-B W. (2019)
Transatlantic gradients in calcifying phytoplankton (coccolithophore) fluxes
Progress in Oceanography 176 DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2019.102140
Stuut, j-B W., De Deckker, P., Saavedra-Pellitero, M., Bassinot, F., Walczak, M.H., Nagashima, K., Murayama, M. (2019)
A 5.3 million-year history of monsoonal precipitation in northwestern Australia
Geophysical Research Letter’ 46 (12), 6946-6954 DOI:10.1029/2019GL083035
Van der Does, M., Knippertz, P., Zschenderlein, P., Harrison, R.G., Stuut, J-B W. (2018) The mysterious long-range transport of giant mineral dust particles
Science Advances DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau2768
Korte, L. F., Pausch, F., Trimborn, S., Brussaard, C. P. D., Brummer, G.-J. A., van der Does, M., Guerreiro, C. V., Schreuder, L. T., Munday, C. I., and Stuut, J.-B. W. 2018. Effects of dry and wet Saharan dust deposition in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean, Biogeosciences Discuss. (in review)
Van der Does, M.; Pourmand, A.; Sharifi, A.; Stuut, J-B W. 2018. North African mineral dust across the tropical Atlantic Ocean: insights from dust particle size, radiogenic Sr-Nd-Hf isotopes and rare earth elements (REE). Aeolian Research 33, 106-116 doi:10.1016/j.aeolia.2018.06.001
Van der Jagt, H.; Friese, C.; Stuut, J-B W.; Fischer, G. & Iversen, M.H. (2018). The ballasting effect of Saharan dust deposition on aggregate dynamics and carbon export: Aggregation, settling, and scavenging potential of marine snow. Limnology and Oceanography 63, 1386-1394, doi:10.1002/lno.10779 .
Schreuder, L.T., Hopmans, E.C., Stuut, J-B W., Sinninghe-Damsté, J.S., Schouten, S. 2018.
Transport and deposition of the fire biomarker levoglucosan across the tropical North Atlantic Ocean. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 227, 171-185
Schreuder, L.T., Stuut, J-B W., Korte, L.F., Sinninghe-Damsté, J.S., Schouten, S. 2018.
Aeolian transport and deposition of plant wax n-alkanes across the tropical North Atlantic Ocean. Organic Geochemistry 115, 113-123
Guerreiro, C.V., Baumann, K.H., Brummer, G.J.A., Fischer, G., Korte, L.F., Merkel, U., Sá, C., de Stigter, H., Stuut, J.B.W., 2017. Coccolithophore fluxes in the open tropical North Atlantic: influence of the Amazon river and of Saharan dust deposition. Biogeosciences Discuss. 2017, 1-26.
Korte, L.F., Brummer, G.J.A., van der Does, M., Guerreiro, C.V., Hennekam, R., van Hateren, J.A., Jong, D., Munday, C.I., Schouten, S., Stuut, J.B.W., 2017. Downward particle fluxes of biogenic matter and Saharan dust across the equatorial North Atlantic. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 17, 6023-6040.
Van der Does, M., Korte, L.F., Munday, C.I., Brummer, G.J.A., Stuut, J.B.W., 2016. Particle size traces modern Saharan dust transport and deposition across the equatorial North Atlantic. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 16, 13697-13710.

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New dusty paper out: Saharan dust versus Amazon River water

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