Journal article
Closing the Global Marine 226Ra Budget Reveals the Biological Pump as a Dominant Removal Flux in the Upper Ocean
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol.49(12), pp.1-9
28/06/2022
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Abstract
Radium isotopes are powerful proxies in oceanography and hydrology. Radium mass balance models, including assessments of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD), often overlook particle scavenging (PS) as a pathway for dissolved radium removal from the world ocean. Here, we build a global ocean 226Ra mass balance model and reevaluate the potential importance of PS. We find that PS is the major 226Ra sink for the upper ocean, removing about 96% of the total input from various sources. Aside from vertical exchange with the lower ocean, SGD is the largest 226Ra source into the upper ocean. The biological pump transfers particles to the deep ocean, resulting in a major but often overlooked impact on the global 226Ra marine budget. Our findings suggest that radium mass balance models should consider PS in systems with high siliceous algae production and export fluxes and long water residence times to prevent underestimation of large-scale SGD fluxes.
Details
- Title
- Closing the Global Marine 226Ra Budget Reveals the Biological Pump as a Dominant Removal Flux in the Upper Ocean
- Creators
- Bochao Xu - Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and TechnologyM. Bayani Cardenas - The University of Texas at AustinIsaac R. Santos - University of GothenburgWilliam C. Burnett - Florida State UniversityMatthew A. Charette - Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionValentí Rodellas - Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaSanzhong Li - Ocean University of ChinaErgang Lian - Tongji UniversityZhigang Yu - Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology
- Publication Details
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol.49(12), pp.1-9
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
- Number of pages
- 9
- Grant note
- Natural Science Foundation of China. Grant Numbers: 41876075, 42130410, 91958214 Central Universities China. Grant Numbers: 201962003, 202072001 U.S. National Science Foundation. Grant Number: OCE-1736277 Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral programme. Grant Number: 2019-BP-00241
- Identifiers
- 991013033084902368
- Copyright
- © 2022. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering; School of Environment, Science and Engineering; Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article