| Natural iron fertilisation from Southern Ocean islands results in high primary production and phytoplankton biomass accumulations readily visible in satellite ocean colour observations. These images reveal great spatial complexity with highly varying concentrations of chlorophyll, presumably reflecting both variations in iron supply and conditions favouring phytoplankton accumulation. To examine the second aspect, in particular the influences of variations in temperature and mixed layer depth, we deployed four autonomous profiling floats in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current near the Kerguelen Plateau in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean. Each "bio-profiler" measured more than 250 profiles of temperature (T), salinity (S), dissolved oxygen,... |
