02/27/2026
New paper in Communications Earth and Environment
The biological productivity of the Southern Ocean is limited by the availability of iron, a critical micronutrient for phytoplankton. However, in the ocean waters overlying the Antarctic continental shelf, productivity is much higher. The most productive regions are in the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica, the site of our research, where a rich summertime ecosystem supports penguins, seals, and whales. In the Amundsen Sea, glacial meltwater comes from underneath floating ice shelves (the seaward extensions of grounded glaciers on the continent), because the melting is caused by warm deep water that flows from the Southern Ocean proper, onto the continental shelf, then into the cavities under the fringing ice shelves. It has been widely assumed in recent numerical models that glacial meltwater contributes substantial bioavailable iron to these shelf waters. Our work counters previous thinking in showing that most of the iron flowing out of an Amundsen Sea ice shelf cavity was present already in the warm water flowing into the cavity; very little additional iron comes from meltwater.
https://marine.rutgers.edu/announcements/new-paper-in-communications-earth-and-environment/
