27 March 2017:
Iron is a limiting nutrient for phytoplankton and is the base of the marine food chain. In the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, icebergs are thought to be the dominant source of glacial iron and provide local fertilization that stimulates phytoplankton blooms.
A recent study by Hodson et al. in Nature Communications however shows that surface runoff from glaciers on 3 small islands export more iron than that from icebergs. As the climate warms, these meltwater streams and their iron export could become even more influential on the productivity of Antarctic marine ecosystems.
Andy Hodson, Aga Nowak, Marie Sabacka, Anne Jungblut, Francisco Navarro, David Pearce, María Luisa Ávila-Jiménez, Peter Convey & Gonçalo Vieira, “Climatically sensitive transfer of iron to maritime Antarctic ecosystems by surface runoff.” Nat. Commun. 8, 14499 (2017). doi: 10.1038/ncomms14499