Abstract
IT has recently been suggested that the deposition of mineral aerosol particles, primarily transported from Africa during sporadic but intense events1,2, may have a profound influence on the geochemistry and the sedimentology of the Mediterranean Sea1-3. Several studies in the open ocean4-7 have shown that such particles, with radii generally less than 5 μm, are removed from the surface waters within a few weeks, together with large organic particles produced by biological packaging7. Here we report data from time-series measurements of both atmospheric inputs and water-column participate fluxes at 200m depth obtained from sediment traps, which show that such a biological control also prevails in northwestern Mediterranean waters. On short time-scales, concentrations and fluxes in the upper water column can increase significantly following dust transport and deposition events, with a response time of the order of one week. Such non-steady-state behaviour must be taken into account when assessing the impact of pulsed atmospheric inputs on particulate trace element concentrations and fluxes in the water column.
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Buat-Ménard, P., Davies, J., Remoudaki, E. et al. Non-steady-state biological removal of atmospheric particles from Mediterranean surface waters. Nature 340, 131–134 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/340131a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/340131a0
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