Description: While hydrothermal vents are now thought to be a major source of dissolved iron to the oceans, they have always been considered to be a sink for the dissolved rare-earth elements (DREEs). However, true dissolved REE observations in hydrothermal plumes are still lacking. Here we report for the first time the DREE concentrations and neodymium isotopic compositions (DεNd) of buoyant hydrothermal fluids at Lucky Strike (Mid-Atlantic Ridge). We find that 27 to 62% of total hydrothermal DREEs are rapidly scavenged by anhydrite precipitation at the onset of buoyant plume formation. After this initial loss, all DREEs behave quasi-conservatively within the buoyant plume. Dissolved phase εNd (DεNd) in the evolving plume are identical to black smoker DεNd of +9.0 and contrast radically with DεNd of the local deep water mass at −12.0. Plume DεNd as low as +6.6 may be reconciled by dissolution of newly formed barite in the local environment and carrying seawater DεNd signature. We find, based on the first plume DREE observations, that hydrothermal plumes are in fact a source of DREE to the North Atlantic Deep Water. Precipitation/dissolution processes of hydrothermally-derived minerals, i.e. sulfates in the buoyant plume and Fe oxy-hydroxide in the non-buoyant plume, will likely affect the fate of other trace metals and their isotopic composition.

Description: Land to ocean transfer of material largely controls the chemical composition of seawater and the global element cycles. Oceanic isotopic budgets of chemical species, macro- and micronutrients (e.g. Nd, Sr, Si, Mg, Zn, Mo and Ni) have revealed an imbalance between their sources and sinks. Radiogenic isotope budgets underlined the importance of taking into account continental margins as a source of elements to oceans. They also highlighted that the net land–ocean inputs of chemical species probably result from particle-dissolved exchange processes, named ‘Boundary Exchange’. Yet, locations where ‘Boundary Exchange’ occurs are not clearly identified and reviewed here: discharge of huge amount of freshly weathered particles at the river mouths, submarine weathering of deposited sediments along the margins, submarine groundwater discharges and subterranean estuaries. As a whole, we conclude that all of them might contribute to ‘Boundary Exchange’. Highlighting their specific roles and the processes at play is a key scientific issue for the second half of GEOTRACES.

Description: Radiogenic isotopes of hafnium (Hf) and neodymium (Nd) are powerful tracers for water mass transport and trace metal cycling in the present and past oceans. However, due to the scarcity of available data the processes governing their distribution are not well understood. Here we present the first combined dissolved Hf and Nd isotope and concentration data from surface waters of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The samples were collected along the Zero Meridian, in the Weddell Sea and in the Drake Passage during RV Polarstern expeditions ANTXXIV/3 and ANTXXIII/3 in the frame of the International Polar Year (IPY) and the GEOTRACES program. The general distribution of Hf and Nd concentrations in the region is similar. However, at the northernmost station located 200 km southwest of Cape Town a pronounced increase of the Nd concentration is observed, whereas the Hf concentration is minimal, suggesting much less Hf than Nd is released by the weathering of the South African Archean cratonic rocks. From the southern part of the Subtropical Front (STF) to the Polar Front (PF) Hf and Nd show the lowest concentrations (〈0.12 pmol/kg and 10 pmol/kg, respectively), most probably due to the low terrigenous flux in this area and efficient scavenging of Hf and Nd by biogenic opal. In the vicinity of landmasses the dissolved Hf and Nd isotope compositions are clearly labeled by terrigenous inputs. Near South Africa Nd isotope values as low as εNd = −18.9 indicate unradiogenic inputs supplied via the Agulhas Current. Further south the isotopic data show significant increases to εHf = 6.1 and εNd = −4.0 documenting exchange of seawater Nd and Hf with the Antarctic Peninsula. In the open Southern Ocean the Nd isotope compositions are relatively homogeneous (εNd ∼ −8 to −8.5) towards the STF, within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, in the Weddell Gyre, and the Drake Passage. The Hf isotope compositions in the entire study area only show a small range between εHf = + 6.1 and +2.8 support Hf to be more readily released from young mafic rocks compared to old continental ones. The Nd isotope composition ranges from εNd = −18.9 to −4.0 showing Nd isotopes to be a sensitive tracer for the provenance of weathering inputs into surface waters of the Southern Ocean.

Description: Highlights: • GEOTRACES releases its first integrated and quality controlled Intermediate Data Product 2014 (IDP2014). • The IDP2014 digital data are available at http://www.bodc.ac.uk/geotraces/data/idp2014/ in 4 different formats. • The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas at http://egeotraces.org/ provides 329 section plots and 90 animated 3D tracer scenes. • The new 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context crucial for tracer assessment and interpretation. Abstract: The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2014 (IDP2014) is the first publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2013. It consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 200 trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) as well as classical hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing a strongly inter-linked on-line atlas including more than 300 section plots and 90 animated 3D scenes. The IDP2014 covers the Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian oceans, exhibiting highest data density in the Atlantic. The TEI data in the IDP2014 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results and multi-laboratory data comparisons at cross-over stations. The digital data are provided in several formats, including ASCII spreadsheet, Excel spreadsheet, netCDF, and Ocean Data View collection. In addition to the actual data values the IDP2014 also contains data quality flags and 1-σ data error values where available. Quality flags and error values are useful for data filtering. Metadata about data originators, analytical methods and original publications related to the data are linked to the data in an easily accessible way. The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas is the visual representation of the IDP2014 data providing section plots and a new kind of animated 3D scenes. The basin-wide 3D scenes allow for viewing of data from many cruises at the same time, thereby providing quick overviews of large-scale tracer distributions. In addition, the 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context that is crucial for the interpretation and assessment of observed tracer plumes, as well as for making inferences about controlling processes.

Description: Quantifying fluxes of trace elements and their isotopes (TEIs) at the ocean's sediment–water boundary is a pre-eminent challenge to understand their role in the present, past and future ocean. There are multiple processes that drive the uptake and release of TEIs, and properties that determine their rates are unevenly distributed (e.g. sediment composition, redox conditions and (bio)physical dynamics). These factors complicate our efforts to find, measure and extrapolate TEI fluxes across ocean basins. GEOTRACES observations are unveiling the oceanic distributions of many TEIs for the first time. These data evidence the influence of the sediment–water boundary on many TEI cycles, and underline the fact that our knowledge of the source–sink fluxes that sustain oceanic distributions is largely missing. Present flux measurements provide low spatial coverage and only part of the empirical basis needed to predict TEI flux variations. Many of the advances and present challenges facing TEI flux measurements are linked to process studies that collect sediment cores, pore waters, sinking material or seawater in close contact with sediments. However, such sampling has not routinely been viable on GEOTRACES expeditions. In this article, we recommend approaches to address these issues: firstly, with an interrogation of emergent data using isotopic mass-balance and inverse modelling techniques; and secondly, by innovating pursuits of direct TEI flux measurements. We exemplify the value of GEOTRACES data with a new inverse model estimate of benthic Al flux in the North Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, we review viable flux measurement techniques tailored to the sediment–water boundary. We propose that such activities are aimed at regions that intersect the GEOTRACES Science Plan on the basis of seven criteria that may influence TEI fluxes: sediment provenance, composition, organic carbon supply, redox conditions, sedimentation rate, bathymetry and the benthic nepheloid inventory.

Description: Continental shelves and shelf seas play a central role in the global carbon cycle. However, their importance with respect to trace element and isotope (TEI) inputs to ocean basins is less well understood. Here, we present major findings on shelf TEI biogeochemistry from the GEOTRACES programme as well as a proof of concept for a new method to estimate shelf TEI fluxes. The case studies focus on advances in our understanding of TEI cycling in the Arctic, transformations within a major river estuary (Amazon), shelf sediment micronutrient fluxes and basin-scale estimates of submarine groundwater discharge. The proposed shelf flux tracer is 228-radium (T1/2 = 5.75 yr), which is continuously supplied to the shelf from coastal aquifers, sediment porewater exchange and rivers. Model-derived shelf 228Ra fluxes are combined with TEI/ 228Ra ratios to quantify ocean TEI fluxes from the western North Atlantic margin. The results from this new approach agree well with previous estimates for shelf Co, Fe, Mn and Zn inputs and exceed published estimates of atmospheric deposition by factors of approximately 3–23. Lastly, recommendations are made for additional GEOTRACES process studies and coastal margin-focused section cruises that will help refine the model and provide better insight on the mechanisms driving shelf-derived TEI fluxes to the ocean.

Description: The exchange processes on the Amazon continental shelf in northern Brazil are subject to complex interactions that involve forcings derived from distinct sources. The Amazon shelf is a unique and highly dynamic environment in which considerable discharge of freshwater enters the Atlantic Ocean, producing extensive Amazon Water Lenses (AWL). In addition to the presence of the AWL, the shelf is influenced by the semidiurnal oscillations of the tides and the strong North Brazil Current (NBC), a boundary current of the western Atlantic. The present study was based primarily on the influence of the freshwater input and the NBC on the shelf and the Amazon Shelf Break (ASB) off the mouth of the Pará River. For this purpose, hydrographic and hydrodynamic data were obtained by moorings of the AMANDES Project (April–July 2008), located on the Amazon shelf and the ASB. Spectral analysis and the continuous wavelet transform were applied to define tidal (high frequency/short period) and subtidal (low frequency/long period) signals. The results indicated that on both the shelf and the break, the semidiurnal tides are responsible for the residual landward transport and are predominantly across-shelf. Low-frequency motions in the synoptic bands and the AWL are related to spatial changes in the velocity field, mainly on the ASB in the along-shelf direction. The flow of the NBC can be interpreted as an alongshelf low-frequency oscillation capable of altering the spatial configuration of the velocity field, although its influence is perceived only in the absence of the AWL.

Description: The exchange processes on the Amazon continental shelf in northern Brazil are subject to complex interactions that involve forcings derived from distinct sources. The Amazon shelf is a unique and highly dynamic environment in which considerable discharge of freshwater enters the Atlantic Ocean, producing extensive Amazon Water Lenses (AWL). In addition to the presence of the AWL, the shelf is influenced by the semidiurnal oscillations of the tides and the strong North Brazil Current (NBC), a boundary current of the western Atlantic. The present study was based primarily on the influence of the freshwater input and the NBC on the shelf and the Amazon Shelf Break (ASB) off the mouth of the Pará River. For this purpose, hydrographic and hydrodynamic data were obtained by moorings of the AMANDES Project (April–July 2008), located on the Amazon shelf and the ASB. Spectral analysis and the continuous wavelet transform were applied to define tidal (high frequency/short period) and subtidal (low frequency/long period) signals. The results indicated that on both the shelf and the break, the semidiurnal tides are responsible for the residual landward transport and are predominantly across-shelf. Low-frequency motions in the synoptic bands and the AWL are related to spatial changes in the velocity field, mainly on the ASB in the along-shelf direction. The flow of the NBC can be interpreted as an along-shelf low-frequency oscillation capable of altering the spatial configuration of the velocity field, although its influence is perceived only in the absence of the AWL.