Calendar of Events

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Minnesota

"The Chemistry of Ocean Iron Fertilization"

Official/Unofficial Bio

Several decades ago, scientists first recognized that the addition of iron to surface waters stimulates algal growth in over a third of the ocean. This realization sparked international efforts to understand the role that iron plays in regulating ocean ecosystems and global carbon cycling. How do feedbacks between climate, iron-rich dust deposition, and ocean productivity work? Can humans leverage iron fertilization to offset greenhouse gas emissions or boost fisheries? Addressing these questions has required ocean chemists to develop new approaches to investigate the amount and origin of the small amounts of iron that is distributed throughout the ocean. Through the GEOTRACES program, a coordinated international collaboration to quantify metal concentrations and fluxes across the ocean, scientists are just now starting to understand the global-scale processes that regulate iron distributions and develop predictions of future changes. This talk will highlight recent breakthroughs made possible by GEOTRACES, particularly ongoing efforts to predict changes in the South Pacific and Southern Ocean. This vast, iron-limited ecosystem is a key driver of ocean carbon dioxide sequestration, and predicting future uptake depends on understanding how iron delivery to its surface waters will change over the next few decades.

**This seminar counts towards the chemistry major seminar attendance requirement.