Behaviors of dissolved and particulate Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb during a mesoscale Fe-enrichment experiment (SEEDS II) in the western North Pacific

During mesoscale Fe enrichment (SEEDS II) in the western North Pacific ocean, we investigated dissolved and particulate Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in seawater from both field observation and shipboard bottle incubation of a natural phytoplankton assemblage with Fe addition. Before the Fe enrichment, strong correlations between dissolved trace metals (Ni, Zn and Cd) and PO43−, and between particulate trace metals (Ni, Zn and Cd) and chlorophyll-a were obtained, suggesting that biogeochemical cycles mainly control the distributions of Ni, Zn and Cd in the study area. Average concentrations of dissolved Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in the surface mixed layer (0–20 m) were 70 pM, 4.9, 2.1, 1.6, 0.48 nM and 52 pM, respectively, and those for the particulate species were 1.7 pM, 0.052, 0.094, 0.46, 0.037 nM and 5.2 pM, respectively. After Fe enrichment, chlorophyll-a increased 3 fold (up to 3 μg L−1) during developing phases of the bloom (<12 days). Mesozooplankton biomass also increased. Particulate Co, Ni, Cu and Cd inside the patch hinted at an increase in the concentrations, but there were no analytically significant differences between concentrations inside and outside the patch. The bottle incubation with Fe addition (1 nM) showed an increase in chlorophyll-a (8.9 μg L−1) and raised the particulate fraction up to 3–45% for all the metals, accompanying changes in Si/P, Zn/P and Cd/P. These results suggest that Fe addition lead to changes in biogeochemical cycling of trace metals. The comparison between the mesoscale Fe enrichment and the bottle incubation experiment suggests that although Fe was a limiting factor for the growth of phytoplankton, the enhanced biomass of mesozooplankton also limited the growth of phytoplankton and the transformation of trace metal speciation during the mesoscale Fe enrichment. Sediment trap data and the elemental ratios taken up by phytoplankton suggest that export loss was another reason that no detectable change in the concentrations of particulate trace metals was observed during the mesoscale Fe enrichment.