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Published Online June 21, 2007
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1142834

Research Articles

Submitted on March 21, 2007
Accepted on June 4, 2007

Free-Drifting Icebergs: Hot Spots of Chemical and Biological Enrichment in the Weddell Sea

Kenneth L. Smith Jr. 1*, Bruce H. Robison 1, John J. Helly 2, Ronald S. Kaufmann 3, Henry A. Ruhl 1, Timothy J. Shaw 4, Benjamin S. Twining 4, Maria Vernet 5

1 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA.
2 San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0505, USA.
3 Marine Science & Environmental Studies Department, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcal Park, San Diego, CA 92110, USA.
4 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
5 Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0218, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Kenneth L. Smith Jr. , E-mail: ksmith{at}mbari.org

The proliferation of icebergs from Antarctica over the past decade has raised questions about their potential impact on the surrounding pelagic ecosystem. Two free-drifting icebergs, 0.1 and 30.8 km2 in aerial surface area, and the surrounding water were sampled in the NW Weddell Sea during austral spring 2005. There was substantial enrichment of terrigenous material, chlorophyll, krill and seabirds surrounding each iceberg extending out to a radial distance of ~3.7 km. Extrapolating these results to all icebergs in the same size range, using iceberg population estimates from satellite surveys, indicates that they similarly affect 39% of the surface ocean in this region. These results suggest that free-drifting icebergs can substantially impact the pelagic ecosystem of the Southern Ocean and can serve as areas of enhanced production and sequestration of organic carbon to the deep sea.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)