DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Biogeochemical controls of surface ocean phosphate

Journal Article · · Science Advances
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6];  [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [11];  [12]; ORCiD logo [13]; ORCiD logo [14]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  2. Bigelow Lab. for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME (United States)
  3. Univ. of Tasmania (Australia)
  4. National Sun Yat-sen Univ., Kaohsiung (Taiwan)
  5. Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA (United States)
  6. Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia)
  7. Univ. of Tokyo (Japan); Soka Univ., Tokyo (Japan)
  8. Tokyo Univ. of Marine Science and Technology, Tokyo (Japan)
  9. Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI (United States)
  10. Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Niigata (Japan)
  11. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangzhou (China)
  12. Xiamen Univ. (China)
  13. Mediterranean Inst. of Oceanography (MIO), Marseille (France)
  14. Plymouth Marine Lab. (United Kingdom)

Surface ocean phosphate is commonly below the standard analytical detection limits, leading to an incomplete picture of the global variation and biogeochemical role of phosphate. A global compilation of phosphate measured using high-sensitivity methods revealed several previously unrecognized low-phosphate areas and clear regional differences. Both observational climatologies and Earth system models (ESMs) systematically overestimated surface phosphate. Furthermore, ESMs misrepresented the relationships between phosphate, phytoplankton biomass, and primary productivity. Atmospheric iron input and nitrogen fixation are known important controls on surface phosphate, but model simulations showed that differences in the iron-to-macronutrient ratio in the vertical nutrient supply and surface lateral transport are additional drivers of phosphate concentrations. Our study demonstrates the importance of accurately quantifying nutrients for understanding the regulation of ocean ecosystems and biogeochemistry now and under future climate conditions.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016329; SC0016539
OSTI ID:
1612479
Journal Information:
Science Advances, Vol. 5, Issue 8; ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher:
AAASCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 65 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (78)

Nitrification and its influence on biogeochemical cycles from the equatorial Pacific to the Arctic Ocean journal February 2016
The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean journal June 2014
Phosphorus deficiency in the Atlantic: An emerging paradigm in oceanography journal January 2003
Re-examination of the MAGIC method to determine low orthophosphate concentration in seawater journal August 2005
Nutrient availability and the ultimate control of the biological carbon pump in the western tropical South Pacific Ocean journal January 2018
Nutrient gradients in the western North Atlantic Ocean: Relationship to microbial community structure and comparison to patterns in the Pacific Ocean journal November 2001
Convergent estimates of marine nitrogen fixation journal February 2019
Phosphate Depletion in the Western North Atlantic Ocean journal August 2000
Multiple stressors of ocean ecosystems in the 21st century: projections with CMIP5 models journal January 2013
GFDL’s ESM2 Global Coupled Climate–Carbon Earth System Models. Part II: Carbon System Formulation and Baseline Simulation Characteristics journal April 2013
Spatial variability of phosphate and nitrate in the Mediterranean Sea: A modeling approach journal February 2016
Parallel phylogeography of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus journal October 2018
Influence of growth rate on the physiological response of marine Synechococcus to phosphate limitation journal February 2015
Global ocean biogeochemistry model HAMOCC: Model architecture and performance as component of the MPI-Earth system model in different CMIP5 experimental realizations: The Model Hamocc within Mpi-Esm in Cmip5 journal May 2013
Microbially Mediated Transformations of Phosphorus in the Sea: New Views of an Old Cycle journal January 2014
Seasonal ITCZ migration dynamically controls the location of the (sub)tropical Atlantic biogeochemical divide journal December 2013
Globalizing results from ocean in situ iron fertilization studies: GLOBALIZING IRON FERTILIZATION journal June 2006
Insights Into the Biogeochemical Cycling of Iron, Nitrate, and Phosphate Across a 5,300 km South Pacific Zonal Section (153°E-150°W) journal February 2018
Evaluation of the carbon cycle components in the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM) journal January 2013
Influence of atmospheric pollution on nutrient limitation in the ocean journal June 1989
High resolution determination of nanomolar concentrations of dissolved reactive phosphate in ocean surface waters using long path liquid waveguide capillary cells (LWCC) and spectrometric detection: Determination of nanomolar phosphate journal August 2012
A simple nutrient-dependence mechanism for predicting the stoichiometry of marine ecosystems journal June 2015
Nature of Phosphorus Limitation in the Ultraoligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean journal August 2005
Impact of ocean phytoplankton diversity on phosphate uptake journal November 2014
Seasonal variations of unicellular diazotroph groups A and B, and Trichodesmium in the northern South China Sea and neighboring upstream Kuroshio Current journal June 2014
The relative influences of nitrogen and phosphorus on oceanic primary production journal August 1999
Ocean productivity from space: Commentary: Ocean Productivity From Space journal January 2017
Nutrient Ratios as a Tracer and Driver of Ocean Biogeochemistry journal January 2012
Indonesian throughflow nutrient fluxes and their potential impact on Indian Ocean productivity: Ayers et al.: ITF nutrient fluxes journal July 2014
A new model for the role of the oceans in determining atmospheric P CO2 journal April 1984
Differential effects of nitrate, ammonium, and urea as N sources for microbial communities in the North Pacific Ocean: N effects on microbial communities journal June 2017
Phosphorus cycling in the North and South Atlantic Ocean subtropical gyres journal June 2008
MAGIC: A sensitive and precise method for measuring dissolved phosphorus in aquatic environments journal January 1992
Carbon-based primary productivity modeling with vertically resolved photoacclimation: CARBON-BASED PRODUCTION MODEL journal June 2008
Underway analysis of nanomolar dissolved reactive phosphorus in oligotrophic seawater with automated on-line solid phase extraction and spectrophotometric system journal January 2017
Arsenic and phosphorus biogeochemistry in the ocean: Arsenic species as proxies for P-limitation journal March 2013
Phosphate availability and the ultimate control of new nitrogen input by nitrogen fixation in the tropical Pacific Ocean journal January 2008
Occurrence of rain-origin nitrate patches at the nutrient-depleted surface in the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea during summer journal January 2011
Introduction to the Biogeochemistry from the Oligotrophic to the Ultraoligotrophic Mediterranean (BOUM) experiment journal January 2012
Large-scale impact of the island mass effect through nitrogen fixation in the western South Pacific Ocean: SHIOZAKI ET. AL.; ISLAND MASS EFFECT THROUGH N2 FIXATION journal April 2014
Production and export in a global ocean ecosystem model journal May 2001
Relationships between nutrient stocks and inventories and phytoplankton physiological status along an oligotrophic meridional transect in the Tasman Sea journal February 2013
New estimation of N 2 fixation in the western and central Pacific Ocean and its marginal seas: NEW ESTIMATION OF N 2 FIXATION IN THE PACIFIC journal March 2010
Sustained climate warming drives declining marine biological productivity journal March 2018
A new global interior ocean mapped climatology: the 1° ×  1° GLODAP version 2 journal January 2016
Characterization of alkaline phosphatase activity in the North and South Pacific Subtropical Gyres: Implications for phosphorus cycling journal May 2011
Intercomparison and coupling of magnesium-induced co-precipitation and long-path liquid-waveguide capillary cell techniques for trace analysis of phosphate in seawater journal March 2008
Macro-scale exhaustion of surface phosphate by dinitrogen fixation in the western North Pacific: MACRO-SCALE EXHAUSTION OF PHOSPHATE journal February 2009
Interactive analysis and visualization of geoscience data with Ocean Data View journal December 2002
Temporal variability in dissolved phosphorus concentrations in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean journal February 1997
Heterotrophic bacteria as major nitrogen fixers in the euphotic zone of the Indian Ocean: NITROGEN FIXATION IN THE INDIAN OCEAN journal October 2014
The biogeochemical cycle of iron in the ocean journal September 2010
Seasonal dynamics of primary and new production in the northern South China Sea: The significance of river discharge and nutrient advection journal June 2006
Atmospheric global dust cycle and iron inputs to the ocean: ATMOSPHERIC IRON DEPOSITION journal December 2005
Climate change impacts on net primary production (NPP) and export production (EP) regulated by increasing stratification and phytoplankton community structure in the CMIP5 models journal January 2016
Occurrence of phosphate acquisition genes in Prochlorococcus cells from different ocean regions journal June 2009
Does competition for nanomolar phosphate supply explain the predominance of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus ? journal September 2002
Sargasso Sea phosphorus biogeochemistry: an important role for dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) journal January 2010
BIOGEOCHEMICAL dataset collected during the PROSOPE cruise dataset January 2020
Multiple stressors of ocean ecosystems in the 21st century: projections with CMIP5 models journal January 2013
Phosphate availability and the ultimate control of new nitrogen input by nitrogen fixation in the tropical Pacific Ocean text January 2008
Nutrient content and stoichiometry of pelagic Sargassum reflects increasing nitrogen availability in the Atlantic Basin journal May 2021
Evaluation of the carbon cycle components in the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM) journal January 2012
BIOGEOCHEMICAL dataset collected during the PROSOPE cruise dataset January 2020
Underway analysis of nanomolar dissolved reactive phosphorus in oligotrophic seawater with automated on-line solid phase extraction and spectrophotometric system journal January 2017
Nitrification and its influence on biogeochemical cycles from the equatorial Pacific to the Arctic Ocean journal February 2016
Parallel phylogeography of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus journal October 2018
An iron curtain in the Atlantic Ocean forms a biogeochemical divide journal January 2014
Impact of ocean phytoplankton diversity on phosphate uptake journal November 2014
Ocean stoichiometry, global carbon, and climate journal June 2015
Occurrence of phosphate acquisition genes in Prochlorococcus cells from different ocean regions journal June 2009
Comment on "Nature of Phosphorus Limitation in the Ultraoligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean" journal June 2006
The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean journal June 2014
Influence of growth rate on the physiological response of marine Synechococcus to phosphate limitation journal February 2015
Does competition for nanomolar phosphate supply explain the predominance of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus ? journal September 2002
Multiple stressors of ocean ecosystems in the 21st century: projections with CMIP5 models journal January 2013
Phosphate availability and the ultimate control of new nitrogen input by nitrogen fixation in the tropical Pacific Ocean journal January 2008
Evaluation of the carbon cycle components in the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM) journal January 2012

Cited By (2)

Linking regional shifts in microbial genome adaptation with surface ocean biogeochemistry
  • Garcia, Catherine A.; Hagstrom, George I.; Larkin, Alyse A.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 375, Issue 1798 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0254
journal March 2020
Additional file 1 of Holistic view of the seascape dynamics and environment impact on macro-scale genetic connectivity of marine plankton populations dataset January 2023