Dear Marmam community,
On behalf of my co-authors, I am pleased to share with you our not-so recently published paper in Polar Biology Special Issue on Biotically mediated nutrient transfer: Gilbert, L., Spitz, J. & Jeanniard-du-Dot, T. Pack-ice seals contribute to biological transfers of iron in the Southern Ocean. Polar Biol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-023-03198-6 The article was published a year ago but for some reason the original publication notice to Marmam did not go through... The full article is available as a view-only free version here https://rdcu.be/dmZZa. Abstract: The contribution of animals to biological transfers of essential nutrients in ecosystems is increasingly recognised as a sig- nificant component of ecosystem functioning. In the Southern Ocean (SO), primary productivity is primarily limited by the availability of iron in the euphotic zone, which makes animals locally releasing iron-rich faeces potential fertilizers of the SO food web. We quantified the amounts of iron released by four species of Antarctic pack-ice seals using a bioenergetic model set up with best available data on species abundance, energetics, diets and prey composition. We estimated that leopard, crabeater, Weddell and Ross seals together release 208 tonnes of iron per year (95% confidence interval [104–378]). This is equivalent to the current contribution of SO humpback whales and four times that of SO sperm whales. At the popula- tion level, crabeater seals are the major contributors (73%), followed by Weddell (21%), leopard (4%) and Ross seals (1%). Locally, each species shows different daily individual iron release rates, suggesting the patchy and transient impact of these iron releases on primary producers might differ according to species. Beyond quantitative aspects, pack-ice seals’ contribu- tion to horizontal, vertical and trophic transfers of iron depends on their habitat preferences, on their ecology and behaviours at sea and on the ice. Although their role as iron vectors has been mostly overlooked so far, our results place pack-ice seals alongside whales and penguins as significant components of the SO ecosystem biological iron cycling, thus contributing substantially to its productivity and functioning. Please feel free to reach out with any questions. Best, Lola Gilbert lola.gilb...@univ-lr.fr
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