What prevents nitrogen depletion in the oxygen minimum zone of the eastern tropical South Pacific?

Su, B.; Pahlow, M.; Wagner, H.; Oschlies, A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1113-2015

Articles | Volume 12, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1113-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1113-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 4

Research article

|

24 Feb 2015

Research article |

| 24 Feb 2015

What prevents nitrogen depletion in the oxygen minimum zone of the eastern tropical South Pacific?

B. Su, M. Pahlow, H. Wagner, and A. Oschlies

Download

Final revised paper (published on 24 Feb 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 18 Jul 2014)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

RC C4925: 'Review of "What prevents nitrogen depletion in the OMZ of the Eastern Tropical South Pacific?"', Anonymous Referee #1, 04 Sep 2014
- AC C6922: 'Response to Referee #1', Bei Su, 21 Nov 2014
RC C5229: 'Review of "What prevents nitrogen depletion in the OMZ of the Eastern Tropical South Pacific?"', Anonymous Referee #2, 19 Sep 2014
- AC C6923: 'Response to Referee #2', Bei Su, 21 Nov 2014

Peer-review completion

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

AR by Anna Wenzel on behalf of the Authors (22 Dec 2014) Author's response

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (04 Jan 2015) by S. Wajih A. Naqvi

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (18 Jan 2015)

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (27 Jan 2015) by S. Wajih A. Naqvi

AR by Bei Su on behalf of the Authors (03 Feb 2015) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

A box model of the eastern tropical South Pacific oxygen minimum zone suggests that anaerobic water-column remineralization rates have to be slower than aerobic remineralization in order to explain the relatively high values of observed nitrate concentrations. Lateral oxygen supply sufficient to oxidize about one-fifth of the export production is required to prevent an anoxic deep ocean. Under these circumstances, the region can be a net source of fixed nitrogen to the surrounding ocean.