Nutrient limitation in the Eastern Mediterranean

However, in summer the surface waters of the Eastern Mediterranean above the DCM are entirely nutrient depleted with both nitrate and phosphate absent from the surface waters (Krom etal., 1992 Tselepides etal., 2000 Kress Herat, 2001). This would imply that the system had become co-limited by 

However, it is clear that the Eastern Mediterranean is not iron limited. Those areas of the ocean which are iron limited are characterised by high nitrate and phosphate remaining in the surface water when there is sufficient light to allow phytoplankton growth and yet productivity has stopped. Both the East Central Pacific and the Southern Ocean are thousands of kilometres downwind of the nearest source of atmospheric dust and far away from any land source of iron. Recent results of the IRONEX and SOIREE lagrangian 

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