Iron and macronutrients in California coastal upwelling regimes: Implications for diatom blooms

The supply of iron, relative to that of the macronutrients nitrate, phospha te, and silicic acid, plays a critical role in allowing extensive diatom bl ooms to develop in coastal upwelling regimes. The presence or absence of a broad continental shelf influences the supply of iron, The iron input to ce ntral California upwelling waters varies spatially and can be characterized by two end-member regimes. One end member, which includes Monterey Bay and extending north to Pt. Reyes, is an iron-replete regime where upwelling oc curs over a relatively broad continental shelf that results in waters with high concentrations of dissolved and particulate iron (>10 nM) entrained to gether with high concentrations of nitrate and silicic acid. In these iron- replete regions, extensive blooms of large diatoms deplete macronutrient co ncentrations, which results in correspondingly high chlorophyll a concentra tions. The other end member, located to the south of Monterey Bay off the B ig Sur coast, is an iron-deplete regime where upwelling is focused offshore of a narrow continental shelf. Upwelled waters in the Big Sur region are c haracterized by low dissolved and particulate iron concentrations (<1 nM), together with high concentrations of nitrate and silicic acid. Extremely lo w iron concentrations, unused nitrate and silicic acid, and a low abundance of large diatoms characterize surface waters in these iron-deplete regions , and thus represent coastal upwelling, high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll syst ems limited by the micronutrient iron.