Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
  • BCO-DMO Processing Description
• Data Files
• Related Publications
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

Sample collection and preparation:
Each water sample was filtered directly from the trace metal clean GTC rosette/Go-Flo bottle sampler through a 0.45 micrometer (µm) Supor membrane filter (25 millimeters (mm)) or 0.2 µm Pall Acropak-200 Supor cartridge into a trace metal grade acid-cleaned 4-liter (L) polycarbonate bottles. Samples for solid phase extracted trace element ligands (TELs) were pumped at 20 milliliters per minute (mL/min) through Bond-Elut ENV solid phase extraction (SPE) columns (1 gram (g), 6 mL, P/N 12255012, Agilent Technologies) that had been previously activated by passing 6 mL each of distilled methanol (MeOH, Optima LCMS grade, Fisher Scientific), 0.1% HCl (VWR chemical, Aristar Ultra grade), and ultrapure water (qH₂O, 18.2 MΩ) through the column. SPE columns were frozen (-20 degrees Celsius (°C)) immediately after sample collection and returned to the laboratory for processing.

Siderophore Processing:
SPE columns were thawed and concentrated TELs were then eluted with 10 mL distilled MeOH into 15 mL trace metal clean polypropylene tubes. Process blanks were prepared in parallel by eluting activated SPE columns with 10 mL MeOH. The methanol fraction was collected as the process blank. The eluted sample was concentrated down to ~1000 microliters (µL) by vacuum centrifugal concentrator (CentrIVap Evaporating System, LABCONCO).

A 10 µL stock solution of 100 micromolar (µM) cyanocobalamin was added to each sample as an internal standard.

Quantitative analyses of siderophores:
Chromatographic analyses were performed on a bioinert Dionex Ultimate 3000 liquid chromatograph (LC) system fitted with a loading pump, a low flow pump, and a 10-port switching valve. Full loop (50 µL) samples were injected using the 50 µL sample loop, then separated using a BEH C18 column (ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18, 130A^o, 1.7 µm, 2.1 mm X 50 mm, P/N 186002350, Waters) connected with a 5 mm guard column (ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 VanGuard, 130A^o, 1.7 µm, 2.1 mm X 5 mm, P/N 186003975, Waters) by the low flow pump at 50 μL/min. 5 millimolar (mM) ammonium formate in Milli-Q water and LC-MS-grade methanol were used as solvents A and B, respectively. Samples were separated using a 40 minute gradient flow (95% A/ 5% B to 5% A/ 95% B) followed by 9 minute washout at 95% B. Meanwhile, the loading pump was used to supply an internal standard (4 parts per billion (ppb) Indium in 1% HNO3 as solvent C) at a constant rate and maintain 26% of total organic (LC-MS grade MeoH) flow by mixing loading pump flow (150 µL/min) and low flow (50 µL) post-column before infusing into the ICPMS.

The combined flow from the LC (200 μL/min) was analyzed using a Thermo Scientific iCAP Q ICPMS fitted with a perfluoroalkoxy micronebulizer (PFA-ST, Elemental Scientific), and a cyclonic spray chamber cooled to 0 °C. Measurements were made in kinetic energy discrimination (KED) mode, with a helium collision gas flow of 4-4.5 mL/min to minimize isobaric interferences. Oxygen was introduced into the sample carrier gas at 25 mL/min to prevent the formation of reduced organic deposits onto the ICPMS skimmer and sampling cones.

The metal detector response was calibrated using standards, 10 ppb, 20 ppb, 50 ppb, 100 ppb, and 200 ppb, prepared from a commercial stock solution (InorganicVentures). These standards were analyzed using a method similar to other samples, but no column was connected and eluted with 5% of solvent B and 95% of solvent A for five minutes. A plot of the metal peak areas against concentration yielded a linear relationship (r² ~0.99) for the response of the ICPMS detector as calibration curve. Calibrations and process blanks were made for every 10-20 samples analyzed, with only small changes (RSD ~30%) were observed in the slope of the calibration relationship over the course of the two years of sample analysis. Concentrations of TELs in each sample were calculated by integrating the metal peak area (detector response) of interested time range and using appropriate calibration curve for the peak area.

Raw intensity ICPMS data over time were exported in '.csv' format. We used a custom Python script (v3.10.9) to integrate peak areas and calculate concentrations based on an external calibration curve (link: https://github.com/tanil07/LC-ICPMS-integration-and-combining-with-metadata; DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18486409).

- Loaded data from "GP17 ANT DSPEMETAL Concentration 02122026.xlsx" (sheet "combined_odvdata_all_with_meta") into the BCO-DMO processing system.
- Renamed column "GEOTRACES ID" to "GEOTRACES_ID".
- Combined Date (format "%Y/%m/%d") and Time (format "%H:%M:%S") fields in UTC to create new datetime column "ISO_DateTime_UTC" (format "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ").
- Saved the final file as "1001113_v1_gp17_dspe_metal.csv".

U.S. GEOTRACES extended its meridional transect, initiated on the 2018 GP15 Alaska-Tahiti expedition, south to the Antarctic ice edge and then east to Chile with GP17-OCE (December 2022 - January 2023). Because of the potentially important trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) inputs and transformations occurring in Antarctic waters and shelves, GP17 also had a second leg, GP17-ANT (November 29, 2023 - January 30, 2024) into coastal and shelf waters of Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea. Further information is available on the US GEOTRACES website.

NSF Project Title: Collaborative Research: Management and Implementation of US GEOTRACES GP17 Section: Amundsen Sea Sector of the Antarctic Continental Margin (GP17-ANT)

NSF Award Abstract:
This project will support the management and implementation of a 60-day research cruise to the Amundsen Sea sector of the Antarctic continental margin to collect samples for measurements of a broad suite of trace elements and isotopes ('TEIs'), as part of the U.S. GEOTRACES program. GEOTRACES is a global effort in the field of Chemical Oceanography, the goal of which is to understand the distributions of trace elements and their isotopes in the ocean. Determining the distributions of these elements and isotopes will increase the understanding of processes that shape their distributions and also the processes that depend on these elements. Key TEIs include essential micronutrients such as iron and zinc; 'tracers' such as aluminum, manganese, and isotopes of nitrogen, thorium and neodymium that can be used to investigate modern and ancient ocean processes; and elements such as lead that are indicative of human activities. In the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic continental margins are important as sources of micronutrient trace elements such as iron, which is required to support biological production and carbon export over the Antarctic shelf and in offshore waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Moreover, these regions are experiencing rapid environmental changes that are expected to impact oceanic circulation and biogeochemical cycles, for which TEIs provide crucial data needed to test and refine numerical models of the Earth system. The Amundsen Sea sector holds particular interest because of the pronounced, decadal-scale increases in the melting rates of glacial ice shelves that border the region, driven by intrusions of warm Circumpolar Deep Water onto the continental shelf. This melting has potentially major impacts on global sea level, on the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water in the Ross Sea, and on the regional ecosystem.

The cruise will comprise essential sampling operations (collection and shipboard processing) and ancillary measurements (hydrography, nutrients, algal pigments) in support of multiple, individual science projects, following the successful model of previous U.S. GEOTRACES cruises in the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic ocean basins. The cruise will sample the ocean region between 100°W and 135°W, with stations ranging from 67°S in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current southward to the Amundsen Sea continental shelf, including stations adjacent to several rapidly melting ice shelves and in highly-productive shelf polynyas. Water column samples will be collected using conventional and trace-metal clean CTD-rosette systems, in-situ high-volume pumps, and a towed fish sampler or small boat, using established methods. Sampling time will also be provided for collection of sea ice, floating glacial ice, and seafloor sediments. To facilitate coordination with a complementary open-ocean cruise and ensure access to the study region to document the impact of biological processes, the cruise is planned for late austral summer (late January-late March). Beyond the disciplinary contributions, the proposed research will contribute knowledge concerning the cryosphere and its impacts on global sea level and ocean circulation, regional ecosystems and biological processes, ocean-atmosphere interactions, and past and future environmental change. The project will contribute to STEM education and outreach through the participation of an NSF-funded PolarTREC education professional, and a K-12 STEM program for students from underserved and underrepresented schools run by Rutgers University education specialists. To foster public engagement, the investigators will partner with the UCSC Science Communication Program to engage freelance science journalists to profile research in this spectacular and harsh Antarctic environment.

NSF Award Abstract:
The supply of iron and other biologically essential trace elements to surface waters is a critical regulator of biological growth in the Southern Ocean. Sea ice volume and the physical dynamics of the Southern Ocean are currently experiencing rapid changes. An understanding of the corresponding changes in metal cycling is needed as these elements are essential for the growth of phytoplankton which plays an important role in modulating atmospheric CO2. One of the major knowledge gaps is understanding how soluble forms of these metals are generated and transported to the surface ocean. Many trace elements are insoluble in seawater and precipitate close to their sources unless they are bound to a dissolved organic molecule, or ligand, that keeps the metal in solution. Little is currently known about what these ligands are, where they come from, or how they affect the reactivity and fate of metals in the Southern Ocean. The study proposed here is designed to identify the organic ligands that bind to metals and determine the ligand sources and reactivity along the Antarctic continental margin.

The proposed project will survey the molecular speciation of six biologically important trace elements (Fe, Cu, Zn. Ni, Co, Mn) along the US GEOTRACES cruise track along the Antarctic shelf in the Amundsen Sea in order to better understand trace element cycling across the region. The goal of the GEOTRACES expedition is to identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of trace elements and their isotopes to the Southern Ocean. As part of this effort, the investigators will assess biological ligand production as the ecosystem shifts from low productivity iron-starved conditions in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to higher productivity along the upwelling continental margin, with a particular focus on assessing production within the Amundsen Sea polynya blooms and sinking organic matter remineralization zones. Second, changes in the accumulation, saturation, and composition of ligands in Circumpolar Deep Water will be measured as the water passes across the Antarctic shelf and receives inputs from sediments and glacial meltwaters. Finally, the role of sea ice on metal-ligand dynamics will be investigated. Metal ligands are a central parameter of numerical ocean models that predict and estimate metal distributions, and results from this project will provide those models with knowledge of the processes that supply ligands and affect ligand concentrations. Two graduate students and undergraduate interns will be supported and trained as part of this project.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

GEOTRACES is a SCOR sponsored program; and funding for program infrastructure development is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

GEOTRACES gained momentum following a special symposium, S02: Biogeochemical cycling of trace elements and isotopes in the ocean and applications to constrain contemporary marine processes (GEOSECS II), at a 2003 Goldschmidt meeting convened in Japan. The GEOSECS II acronym referred to the Geochemical Ocean Section Studies To determine full water column distributions of selected trace elements and isotopes, including their concentration, chemical speciation, and physical form, along a sufficient number of sections in each ocean basin to establish the principal relationships between these distributions and with more traditional hydrographic parameters;

* To evaluate the sources, sinks, and internal cycling of these species and thereby characterize more completely the physical, chemical and biological processes regulating their distributions, and the sensitivity of these processes to global change; and

* To understand the processes that control the concentrations of geochemical species used for proxies of the past environment, both in the water column and in the substrates that reflect the water column.

GEOTRACES will be global in scope, consisting of ocean sections complemented by regional process studies. Sections and process studies will combine fieldwork, laboratory experiments and modelling. Beyond realizing the scientific objectives identified above, a natural outcome of this work will be to build a community of marine scientists who understand the processes regulating trace element cycles sufficiently well to exploit this knowledge reliably in future interdisciplinary studies.

Expand "Projects" below for information about and data resulting from individual US GEOTRACES research projects.