Air-sea fluxes of biogeochemically active constituents have significant impacts on global biogeochemistry and climate. Increasing atmospheric deposition of anthropogenically-derived nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, iron) to the ocean influences marine productivity and has associated impacts on oceanic CO2 uptake, and emissions to the atmosphere of climate active species (e.g., nitrous-oxide (N2O), dimethyl-sulfide (DMS), marine organic compounds and halogenated species). These oceanic emissions of reactive species and greenhouse gases influence atmospheric chemistry and global climate, and induce potentially important chemistry-climate feedbacks. While advances have been made by laboratory, field, and modelling studies over the past decade, we still lack understanding of many of the physical and biogeochemical processes linking atmospheric deposition, nutrient availability, marine biological productivity, and the biogeochemical cycles governing air-sea fluxes of these climate active species. Atmospheric inputs of other toxic substances, e.g., lead, cadmium, copper, and persistent organic pollutants, into the ocean are also of concern.
This session will address the atmospheric deposition of nutrients and toxic substances to the ocean, their impacts on ocean biogeochemistry, the air-sea fluxes of climate active species and potential feedbacks to climate. We welcome new findings from both measurement programmes and atmospheric and oceanic models.
This session is jointly sponsored by GESAMP Working Group 38 on ‘The Atmospheric Input of Chemicals to the Ocean’, the Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) , and the International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution (ICACGP).