Laterally spreading iron, humic-like dissolved organic matter and nutrients in cold, dense subsurface water of the Arctic Ocean

Abstract

The location and magnitude of oceanic iron sources remain uncertain owing to a scarcity of data, particularly in the Arctic Ocean. The formation of cold, dense water in the subsurface layer of the western Arctic Ocean is a key process in the lateral transport of iron, macronutrients, and other chemical constituents. Here, we present iron, humic-like fluorescent dissolved organic matter, and nutrient concentration data in waters above the continental slope and shelf and along two transects across the shelf-basin interface in the western Arctic Ocean. We detected high concentrations in shelf bottom waters and in a plume that extended in the subsurface cold dense water of the halocline layer in slope and basin regions. At σθ = 26.5, dissolved Fe, humic-like fluorescence intensity, and nutrient maxima coincided with N∗ minima (large negative values of N∗ indicate significant denitrification within shelf sediments). These results suggest that these constituents are supplied from the shelf sediments and then transported laterally to basin regions. Humic dissolved organic matter probably plays the most important role in the subsurface maxima and lateral transport of dissolved Fe in the halocline layer as natural Fe-binding organic ligand.