Paper(s) in press: Putting productivity proxies to the test with GEOTRACES data

Are you interested in productivity, paleoceanography, or proxies, but don’t know where to start? Maybe you have a question about a specific bioactive element and want to find out if it has already been addressed? Or perhaps you just want to look at cartoons summarizing modern marine micronutrient cycling? If any of these apply to you, look no further: Not one, but two review articles published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles summarizing the marine distributions, driving processes, sedimentary archives, and research priorities for a bounty of bioactive elements and their isotopes. The first review, by Farmer, Hertzberg, et al., assesses the isotopes of the major elements—C, N, and Si. The second study, by Horner, Little, Conway, Farmer et al., makes the same assessment, but for nine (nine!) trace elements and their isotopes: Fe, Zn, Cu, Cd, Mo, Ba, Ni, Cr, and Ag. Something for everyone.

These papers were initiated at the joint GEOTRACES–PAGES workshop in Aix-en-Provence (France) in December 2018. The studies were made possible through the efforts of the workshop organizers, the Biological Productivity Working Group members, and the many scientists who contributed isotope data to GEOTRACES. Other synthesis products from this workshop include: Costa et al. (2020), Hayes et al. (2021), and Tachikawa et al. (2020).

Citations: Farmer, J. R., Hertzberg, J. E., Cardinal, D., Fietz, S., Hendry, K., Jaccard, S. L., et al. (2021). Assessment of C, N, and Si isotopes as tracers of past ocean nutrient and carbon cycling. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35(7), e2020GB006775, doi:10.1029/2020GB006775.

Horner, T. J., Little, S. H., Conway, T. M., Farmer, J. R., Hertzberg, J. E., Janssen, D. J., et al. (2021). Bioactive trace metals and their isotopes as paleoproductivity proxies: An assessment using GEOTRACES-era data. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35(11), e2020GB006814, doi:10.1029/2020GB006814.