Improving the inverse modeling of a trace isotope: how precisely can radium-228 fluxes toward the ocean and submarine groundwater discharge be estimated?

Le Gland, Guillaume; Mémery, Laurent; Aumont, Olivier; Resplandy, Laure

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-3171-2017

Articles | Volume 14, issue 13

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-3171-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-3171-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 13

Research article

|

04 Jul 2017

Research article |

| 04 Jul 2017

Improving the inverse modeling of a trace isotope: how precisely can radium-228 fluxes toward the ocean and submarine groundwater discharge be estimated?

Guillaume Le Gland, Laurent Mémery, Olivier Aumont, and Laure Resplandy

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Final revised paper (published on 04 Jul 2017)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 06 Feb 2017)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

SC1: 'Reviewer comments', Isaac Santos, 22 Feb 2017
RC1: 'Short Comment "Reviewer comments" again as Referee Comment', Isaac Santos, 10 Mar 2017
- AC2: 'Answers to Referee #1', Guillaume LE GLAND, 10 May 2017
RC2: 'Comment on “An updated estimate of radium 228 fluxes toward the ocean: how well does it constrain the submarine groundwater discharge?” by Guillaume Le Gland et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 20 Mar 2017
- AC1: 'Answers to referee #2', Guillaume LE GLAND, 02 May 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (08 May 2017) by Jack Middelburg

AR by Guillaume LE GLAND on behalf of the Authors (26 May 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (02 Jun 2017) by Jack Middelburg

AR by Guillaume LE GLAND on behalf of the Authors (07 Jun 2017) Manuscript

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Short summary

In this study, we computed the fluxes of radium-228 from the continental shelf to the open ocean by fitting a numerical model to observations. After determining appropriate model parameters (cost function and number of source regions), we found a lower and more precise global flux than previous estimates: 8.01–8.49×10²³ atoms yr⁻¹. This result can be used to assess nutrient and trace element fluxes to the open ocean, but we cannot identify specific pathways like submarine groundwater discharge.