Atmospheric inputs of iron to the open ocean are hypothesized to modulate ocean biogeochemistry. This review presents an integration of available observations of atmospheric iron and iron deposition, and also covers bioavailable iron distributions. Methods for estimating temporal variability in ocean deposition over the recent past are reviewed. Desert dust iron is estimated to represent 95% of the global atmospheric iron cycle, and combustion sources of iron are responsible for the remaining 5%. Humans may be significantly perturbing desert dust (up to 50%). The sources of bioavailable iron are less well understood than those of iron, partly because we do not know what speciation of the iron is bioavailable. Bioavailable iron can derive from atmospheric processing of relatively insoluble desert dust iron or from direct emissions of soluble iron from combustion sources. These results imply that humans could be substantially impacting iron and bioavailable iron deposition to ocean regions, but there are large uncertainties in our understanding.

ABSTRACT-LVe encountered an extensive surface bloom of the N, fixing cyanobactenum Trichodesrniurn erythraeum in the central basin of the Arabian Sea during the spring ~nter-n~onsoon of 1995. The bloom, which occurred dunng a penod of calm winds and relatively high atmospher~c iron content, was metabollcally active. Carbon fixation by the bloom represented about one-quarter of water column primary productivity while input by h:: flxation could account for a major fraction of the estimated 'new' N demand of pnmary production. Isotopic measurements of the N in surface suspended material confirmed a direct contribution of N, fixation to the organic nltrogen pools of the upper water column. Retrospective analysis of NOAA-12 AVHRR imagery indicated that blooms covered up to 2 X 106 km2, or 20% of the Arabian Sea surface, during the period from 22 to 27 May 1995. In addition to their biogeochemical impact, surface blooms of this extent may have secondary effects on sea surface albedo and light penetration as well as heat and gas exchange across the air-sea interface. A preliminary extrapolation based on our observed, non-bloom rates of N, fixation from our limited sampling in the spring intermonsoon, including a conservative estimate of the input by blooms, suggest N2 fixation may account for an input of about 1 Tg N yr-I This is substantial, but relatively minor compared to current estimates of the removal of N through denitrification in the basin. However, N2 fixation may also occur in the central basin through the mild winter monsoon, be considerably greater during the fall intermonsoon than we observed during the spring intermonsoon, and may also occur at higher levels in the chronically oligotrophic southern basin. Ongoing satellite observations will help to determine more accurately the distribution and density of Trichodesmium in this and other tropical oceanic basins, as well as resolving the actual frequency and duration of bloom occurrence.

Mineral aerosol deposition is the dominant source of iron to the open ocean. Soil iron is typically insoluble and understanding the atmospheric processes that convert insoluble iron to the more soluble forms observed over the oceans is crucial. In this paper, we model several proposed processes for the conversion of Fe(III) to Fe(II), and compare with cruise observations. The comparisons show that the model results in similar averaged magnitudes of iron solubility as measured during 8 cruises in 2001–2003. Comparisons show that results of cases including cloud, SO2 and hematite processing are better than the other approaches used using the reaction rates we assume in this paper; unfortunately the reaction rates are not well known, and this hampers our ability to conclusive show one process is more likely than another. The total soluble iron deposited to the global ocean is estimated by the model to range from 0.36 to 1.6 Tg y−1, with 0.88 Tg y−1 being the mean estimate; however there are large uncertainties in these estimates. Comparison shows that the regions with largest differences between the model simulations and observations of iron solubility are in the Southern Atlantic near South America coast and North Atlantic near Spain coast. More observations in these areas or in the South Pacific will help us identify the most important processes. Additionally, laboratory experiments that constrain the reaction rates of different compounds that will result in a net solubilization of iron in aerosols are required to better constrain iron processing in the atmosphere. Additionally, knowing what forms of iron are most bioavailable will assist atmospheric scientists in providing better budgets of iron deposited to the ocean surfaces.

m-, depending on the volume of air sampled). Air mass back trajectories (5 day, three dimensional) showed that air masses sampled during the southwest monsoon had advected over the open Indian Ocean, while air masses sampled during the intermonsoon had advected over northeast Africa, the Saudi Arabian peninsula, and southern Asia. These calculations were consistent with the results of the statistical analysis performed on the data set which showed that the variance due to crustal species during the intermonsoon samples was greater than the variance due to crustal species during the southwest monsoon. The factor scores for the crustal components were also greater when the back trajectories had advected over the nearby continental masses. Principal component analysis was also performed with the intermonsoon samples where aqueous labile Fe(II) was above the detection limit. Aqueous labile Fe(II) did not correlate well with other species indicating possible atmospheric processing of the iron during advection. The source of metals to cloudwater is from "dry" aerosol serving as cloud condensation nuclei or by impaction processes between the dry interstitial aerosol and the cloudwater droplets. Aqueous chemistry occurring in the cloudwater in the presence of light and in a complex matrix alters the speciation 3511

IntroductionThe present study focuses on the chemical characterization of the ambient aerosol over the Atlantic during the month of April 1996. It is part of a multidisciplinary effort to observe a possible link between trace metal abundance, its speciation in the atmosphere, and phytoplankton productivity. Specific focus was directed to the N 2 fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum, which was studied by several groups aboard the ship.The long-range atmospheric transport of weathered crustal material from the continents supplies a major portion of the nonbiogenic sediments that accumulate on the seafloor.