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The Populations and Total Mass of Many Types of Organisms Increase Even When Iron is the Only Nutrient to be Increased

Sometimes in the ocean, iron is the only nutrient that limits the growth and productivity of marine organisms1. This limitation can significantly affect the ecological balance, as the availability of iron directly influences both primary producers like phytoplankton and higher trophic levels, which depend on these foundational organisms for sustenance, particularly in regions characterized by high nutrient, low chlorophyll conditions2. Furthermore, the introduction of iron in these low-nutrient environments has been shown to enhance the productivity of phytoplankton, consequently supporting the entire marine food web, which includes important fish populations that rely on these primary producers for food, thereby indicating the crucial role iron availability plays in the overall biological production of the oceans.

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Footnotes​

  1. Galbraith, E. D., Le Mézo, P., Solanes Hernandez, G., Bianchi, D., & Kroodsma, D. A. (2019). Growth limitation of marine fish by low iron availability in the open ocean. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00509 ↩

  2. Takeda, S. (2002). Towards the enhancement of biological production in the oceans. Fisheries Science, 68(Suppl. 1), 20-24. https://doi.org/10.2331/fishsci.68.sup1_20 ↩