Living and nonliving particulate iron in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean

Bates, Eleanor S.; Hawco, Nicholas J.

doi:10.5194/bg-23-3059-2026

Articles | Volume 23, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-3059-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-3059-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 9

Research article

|

08 May 2026

Research article |

| 08 May 2026

Living and nonliving particulate iron in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean

Eleanor S. Bates and Nicholas J. Hawco

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-3059-2026-supplement

Data sets

Iron uptake rates from Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) cruises on R/V Kilo Moana at Station ALOHA in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre from May 2021 to September 2023 N. J. Hawco and E. S. Bates https://doi.org/10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.994200.1

Water column dissolved and total dissolvable metal concentrations from Hawaii Ocean Timeseries (HOT) R/V Kilo Moana cruises at station ALOHA, North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, from December 2020 to November 2023 N. J. Hawco and E. S. Bates https://doi.org/10.26008/1912/BCO-DMO.962986.1

Water column particulate metals from Hawaii Ocean Timeseries (HOT) R/V Kilo Moana cruises at station ALOHA, North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, from December 2020 to November 2023 N. J. Hawco and E. S. Bates https://doi.org/10.26008/1912/BCO-DMO.962966.1

Iron uptake rates from Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) cruises on R/V Kilo Moana at Station ALOHA in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre from May 2021 to September 2023 N. J. Hawco and E. S. Bates https://doi.org/10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.994200.1

The Hawaii Ocean Time-series Data Organization {\&} Graphical System HOT-DOGS https://hahana.soest.hawaii.edu/hot/hot-dogs/

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Short summary

The composition of particulate Fe (pFe) influences the fate of Fe in the upper ocean. Using Fe uptake experiments and living biomass estimates, we show that over half of chemically labile pFe in the surface ocean is stored in living cells. The rest appears to be driven by contributions from dust, detritus, and/or in situ mineral precipitation onto dust particles. The large biotic component here compared to the North Atlantic supports previously reported high biotic Fe recycling at Station ALOHA.