Iron mobilization in North African Dust

AbstractIron is an essential nutrient for phytoplankton. Although iron-containing dust mobilized from arid regions supplies the majority of the iron to the oceans, the key flux in terms of the biogeochemical response to atmospheric deposition is the amount of soluble or bioavailable iron. Atmospheric processing of mineral aerosols by anthropogenic pollutants (e.g. sulfuric acid) may transform insoluble iron into soluble forms. Previous studies have suggested higher iron solubility in smaller particles, as they are subject to more thorough atmospheric processing due to a longer residence time than coarse particles. On the other hand, the specific mineralogy of iron in dust may also influence the particulate iron solubility in size. Compared to mineral dust aerosols, iron from combustion sources could be more soluble, and found more frequently in smaller particles. Internal mixing of alkaline dust with iron-containing minerals could significantly reduce iron dissolution in large dust aerosols due to the buffering effect, which may, in contrast, yield higher solubility in smaller particles externally mixed with alkaline dust (Ito and Feng, 2010). Here, we extend the modeling study of Ito and Feng (2010) to investigate atmospheric processing of mineral aerosols from African dust. In contrast to Asian dust, we used a slower dissolution rate for African dust in the fine mode. We compare simulated fractional iron solubility with observations. The inclusion of alkaline compounds in aqueous chemistry substantially limits the iron dissolution during long-range transport to the Atlantic Ocean: only a small fraction of iron (