Marine microgels as a source of cloud condensation nuclei in the high Arctic
Open Access
- 8 August 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 108 (33), 13612-13617
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1102457108
Abstract
Marine microgels play an important role in regulating ocean basin-scale biogeochemical dynamics. In this paper, we demonstrate that, in the high Arctic, marine gels with unique physicochemical characteristics originate in the organic material produced by ice algae and/or phytoplankton in the surface water. The polymers in this dissolved organic pool assembled faster and with higher microgel yields than at other latitudes. The reversible phase transitions shown by these Arctic marine gels, as a function of pH, dimethylsulfide, and dimethylsulfoniopropionate concentrations, stimulate the gels to attain sizes below 1 μm in diameter. These marine gels were identified with an antibody probe specific toward material from the surface waters, sized, and quantified in airborne aerosol, fog, and cloud water, strongly suggesting that they dominate the available cloud condensation nuclei number population in the high Arctic (north of 80°N) during the summer season. Knowledge about emergent properties of marine gels provides important new insights into the processes controlling cloud formation and radiative forcing, and links the biology at the ocean surface with cloud properties and climate over the central Arctic Ocean and, probably, all oceans.Keywords
This publication has 53 references indexed in Scilit:
- Ocean Acidification: Present Conditions and Future Changes in a High-CO2 WorldOceanography, 2009
- Comparison of sources and nature of the tropical aerosol with the summer high Arctic aerosolTellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 2008
- Source and evolution of the marine aerosol—A new perspectiveGeophysical Research Letters, 2005
- Fractal and statistical properties of large compact polymers: a computational studyPolymer, 2004
- An annual cycle of Arctic surface cloud forcing at SHEBAJournal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 2002
- Atmospheric program on the Arctic Ocean Expedition 1996 (AOE‐96): An overview of scientific goals, experimental approach, and instrumentsJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2001
- Cloud‐active particles over the central Arctic OceanJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2001
- Properties of the aerosol over the central Arctic OceanJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2001
- Aerosol production over remote marine areas‐A new routeGeophysical Research Letters, 1999
- Synthesis of particulate and extracellular carbon by phytoplankton at the marginal ice zone in the Barents SeaJournal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 1998