Our results suggest that, at certain times of the year, the atmosphere is a very important source of nitrogen based nutrients and may allow the algae in the water to grow more or for longer than we previously thought. This work is published in the journal Tellus. The reference is given below. This is funded by the European Commission and involves both atmospheric and marine scientists from Britain, Denmark and Sweden and involves field studies in the Baltic Sea and atmospheric and water column modelling. To produce a model which assists coastal managers to address the impacts of atmospheric nitrogen deposition.
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In addition to my work on the atmospheric input of nitrogen to the oceans, I am also interested in the processes which control how soluble metals such as iron are in atmospheric dust. Phytoplankton need iron as a micronutrient to allow them to grow but can only take the iron up when it is soluble. In the northern hemisphere, most of the iron which enters the oceans comes from deserts such as the Sahara. It is eroded by wind and then transported across the oceans. Using satellites we now have the most amazing images of these plumes of dust and other atmospheric aerosols.