Eyjafjallajökull's iron‐rich ash fertilized North Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

In about a third of the global ocean, the abundance of life is limited by the amount of biologically available iron. When a region is depleted of this important nutrient, algal productivity can be stimulated by added iron, resulting in a temporary boom in biological activity. For much of the surface ocean, the wind‐borne transport of iron‐rich dust and the upwelling of nutrient‐filled water are the major sources of iron. Another potentially important source is the deposition of the iron‐rich ash produced by volcanic eruptions. Though satellite observations and modeling work suggest that volcanic ash could seed life in such a way, there have been only a limited number of direct observations of the effects of ash deposition on surface ocean waters.