Meltwater Pathways and Iron Delivery to the Antarctic Coastal Ocean

Freshwater inputs to the Antarctic coastal ocean can occur through multiple pathways including calving, streams, and groundwater discharge. The impacts of submarine groundwater discharge on polar ecosystems are generally poorly understood and, until recently, had not been considered as an important physical process along the coast of the Antarctic continent. Here, we present a study utilizing multiple tracers (radium, radon, and stable water isotopes) to quantify freshwater inputs and chemical constituent fluxes associated with multiple discharge pathways, including submarine groundwater discharge, along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Previous research has shown that primary production in iron-limited waters offshore of the Antarctic Peninsula is fueled in part by continentally-derived sediments, and our work demonstrates that subglacial/submarine groundwater discharge (SSGD) to continental shelf waters in the region is also an important source of dissolved iron (6.4 Gg yr^-1; dFe). For reference, this flux equates to approximately 25 times the iron flux from calving in the study area. SSGD also contributed a significantly higher macronutrient flux than calving, although calving contributed more than twice as much freshwater. Thus, SSGD is likely a much more important source of macronutrients and dFe to the nearshore coastal ocean along the Western Antarctic Peninsula, and potentially to the continental shelf and offshore waters of the entire continent than previously recognized. If we assume similar discharge rates along the entire Antarctic coastline (~45,000 km), the delivery of dFe via SSGD (~216 Gg yr^-1) is comparable to the other fluxes of Fe to the Southern Ocean via dust, icebergs, and glacial runoff from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and should be considered in future geochemical budgets.