Oceanic Sources of Sulphur and their Contribution to the Atmospheric

Nicholas Hewitt and Brian Davidson Institute of Environmental and Biological Sciences Lancaster University, Lancaster, U.K. 

This paper reviews current knowledge concerning the biogenic emissions of sulphur from the oceans and their contribution to the atmospheric sulphur budget. In particular, the temporal and spatial distributions of such emissions are considered, as are the magnitude of their fluxes. The importance of the reduced sulphur species to the deposition of acidity from the atmosphere, relative to anthropogenic sources, is also discussed. 

All models of the natural sulphur cycle require a volatile or gaseous sulphur compound to allow transfer of sulphur from the sea to air. As hydrogen sulphide (H2S) was originally 

Here we review the measurements made to date of the most important reduced sulphur compounds in the atmosphere and attempt to quantify their contribution to the atmospheric sulphur budget and the deposition of acidity. 

DMS is one of the breakdown products of dimethyl sulphoniopropionate (DMSP), a compound involved in regulating cellular osmotic pressure in algae (Dickson et al,1980). Dacey and Wakeham (1986) observed that ingestion of phytoplankton by zooplankton releases DMS into the water column and this harvesting of phytoplankton during bloom periods releases substantial quantities of DMS into the atmosphere, with values increasing 40 to 60 fold over those during non-bloom periods (Turner and Liss 1985). 

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OCEANIC SOURCES OF SULPHUR AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE ATMOSPHERIC SULPHUR BUDGET A REVIEW... 

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