The silica cycle in the Antarctic Ocean: is the Weddell Sea atypical?

Abstract

Estimates the annual production of biogenic silica in the northern Weddell Sea to be 810 to 870 mmol m-2 yr-1. This leads to a revised estimate of the total annual biogenic silica production in the Southern Ocean of between 11 and 32 Tmol Si yr-1. No more than 1% of the silica produced annually by phytoplankton in the upper water column reaches a depth of 800 m. This is consistent with the general distribution of high accumulation rates of opal in Southern Ocean sediments which evidence an unexplained gap in the Weddell Sea. -from Authors