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Biogeochemical tracers and fluxes in the Western Mediterranean Sea, spring 2005

TitleBiogeochemical tracers and fluxes in the Western Mediterranean Sea, spring 2005
Publication TypeArticolo su Rivista peer-reviewed
Year of Publication2010
AuthorsSchroeder, K., Gasparini G.P., Borghini M., Cerrati G., and Delfanti Roberta
JournalJournal of Marine Systems
Volume80
Pagination8-24
ISSN09247963
KeywordsBiogeochemical fluxes, Biogeochemical property, Biogeochemical tracers, Biogeochemistry, Box models, Carbon dioxide, Conservative tracers, data set, Data sets, Deep sources, Different origins, Dissolution, dissolved inorganic matter, Dissolved inorganic nutrients, Ecosystems, Export production, footprint, General description, Horizontal variability, Independent measurement, Mass transport, Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean Sea (West), New production, nutrient, Nutrient sink, Nutrient sources, Nutrients, Oceanography, Oxygen, Pelagic ecosystem, quantitative analysis, Quantitative estimates, respiration, spatial distribution, Stoichiometric ratio, Stoichiometry, Surface layers, tracer, water mass, Western Mediterranean, Western Mediterranean Sea, Wide area
Abstract

Only few studies about biogeochemical properties' distributions in wide areas of the Mediterranean Sea are available. We present a new biogeochemical dataset for the Western Mediterranean, collected in spring 2005. The paper presents a general description of the vertical and horizontal variability of dissolved inorganic nutrients and of the anomalous stoichiometric ratios. Nutrients are subsequently used as water mass tracers, comparing non-conservative with conservative tracers. The biogeochemical footprint of waters of different origin and ages has been revealed by the conservative parameters NO and PO, which combine oxygen and nutrients to cancel the alteration of both due to respiration. Using mass transports estimated with an inverse box model, the biogeochemical fluxes between different regions are computed. Our results confirm previous findings, i.e. that the eastern basin is a nutrient source for the western one. In addition we provide quantitative estimates of cross-basin biogeochemical fluxes. In the vertical, generally the surface layers act as a nutrient sink, to which corresponds a deep source. Finally, the biogeochemical fluxes were used to estimate the export production. A comparison with an independent measurement, confirms that this method is a valuable tool to obtain information about the CO2 removal and the functioning of pelagic ecosystems. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-73649088257&doi=10.1016%2fj.jmarsys.2009.08.002&partnerID=40&md5=73980885f820db7fcfe9de14ec2daa0f
DOI10.1016/j.jmarsys.2009.08.002
Citation KeySchroeder20108