Observation Based Models of Ecosystem Processes Controlling Oceanic Distributions of Nutrients and Carbon

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ABSTRACT A great deal of attention has focussed in recent years on the role of iron as a limiting nutrient in the so-called High- Nutrient Low-Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions of the world ocean. Because of the paucity of the ultramicronutrient iron, nitrate and phosphate build up in the water column at anomalously high levels. The investigators on this project have recently begun to construct quantitative models to account for the chemistry of HNLC waters and the associated dynamics of the pelagic community. In this study, the investigators will continue to explore the critical linkages that must be built into quantitative models that include both ecosystem dynamics and ocean physics and chemistry. These studies should eventually help to link the results of both laboratory studies of iron limitation in primary production and open ocean iron `fertilization experiments' with sophisticated global-scale models of other biogenic elements, especially carbon.