THE ROLE OF A SILICATE PUMP IN DRIVING NEW PRODUCTION

In the past, the importance of silicate as a limiting nutrient for new production in the ocean, and in determining global productivity and c arbon budgets, has been relegated to the lower ranks compared to the r ole of nitrogen and, more recently, iron. This paper describes a ''sil icate pump'' that acts in diatom-dominated communities to enhance the loss of silicate from the euphotic zone to deep water compared to nitr ogen, which is more readily recycled in the grazing loop, thus leading the system to silicate limitation. The impact of this silicate pump i s described for the HNLC (High Nutrient-Low Chlorophyll) waters offsho re from 15 degrees S, Peru and reproduced in a simulation model of a d iatom-dominated ecosystem. Silicate pumping to deep water results in l ow silicate, high nitrate conditions in the mixed layer, shown here to be a characteristic of many HNLC areas. These areas should more accur ately be termed HNLSLC (High Nitrate-Low Silicate-Low Chlorophyll) are as. Silicate dynamics may control and dominate new production processe s in these areas and consequently control the rate at which newly upwe lled CO2 in the surface regions is reduced by the phytoplankton. In su ch silicate-controlled systems, export production (i.e. production tha t is lost to deep water) of silicon and nitrogen are not equivalent, s ince export production of silicon is controlled by input of silicate, whereas export production of nitrogen is controlled by grazing rate an d regeneration.