Exchange of Pb from Indian to Atlantic Ocean is driven by Agulhas current and atmospheric Pb input from South Africa
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Cloete, Ryan
Dey, Subhra Prakash
Barraqueta, Jan-Lukas Menzel
Loock, Jean C
Meynecke, Jan-Olaf
de Bie, Jasper
Vichi, Marcello
Roychoudhury, Alakendra N
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Using a spatiotemporal dataset of dissolved lead (dPb) from the subtropical oceans surrounding South Africa, this study quantifies the exchange of dPb between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Despite the absence of a major Pb source within the South Atlantic sector and the complete phase-out of leaded petroleum in Southern Africa, the ecologically important southeast Cape Basin shows an elevated surface dPb concentration (21–30 pmol kg−1). We estimated up to 90% of the measured dPb in surface waters of the Cape Basin was delivered from the Indian Ocean via the Agulhas Current (AC). Eddy dynamics and leakage at Agulhas retroflection result in an increased Pb flux from winter to summer, while a long-term (2008–2019) temporal change in dPb in the AC-derived water of Cape Basin was contemporaneous to a change in atmospheric Pb emissions from South Africa. The South African-origin atmospheric Pb, however, contributes first to the Agulhas waters in the West Indian Ocean, which is then transported to the South Atlantic, thereby regulating the dPb inventory of the Cape Basin. This indirect mechanism of Pb transfer emphasizes the importance of regulating Pb emissions from Southern Africa to protect rich fishing grounds associated with the Benguela marine ecosystem.
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Scientific Reports
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13
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© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Chemical oceanography
Oceanography
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
TRACE-METALS
ANTHROPOGENIC LEAD
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Samanta, S; Cloete, R; Dey, SP; Barraqueta, J-LM; Loock, JC; Meynecke, J-O; de Bie, J; Vichi, M; Roychoudhury, AN, Exchange of Pb from Indian to Atlantic Ocean is driven by Agulhas current and atmospheric Pb input from South Africa, Scientific Reports, 2023, 13, pp. 5465