Models of Regional Nutrient Flux and Limitation
87
correlation between regional production in all biogeochemical provinces and a “dust
factor” (obtained from the interaction between contours in the Ginoux model and
province boundaries) does not suggest a global relationship (y = 29x −00003 R = 004)
between deposition and productivity. Obviously, although many assume that such a
relationship must exist, it cannot yet be demonstrated: isolated studies of only deposition
processes and phytoplankton nutrient dynamics are insufficient for such a demonstration,
because integration of holistic regional ecology and ocean physics is required.
Preoccupation with surface flux of a micronutrient was one part of our response to
the possibility that the global CO 2 flux budget might be manipulated by artificial inputs
of particulate Fe, repeating what may have occurred naturally during glacial epochs. Of
course, this possibility aroused intense interest and major funding, so it is not surprising
that studies tended to place more emphasis on atmospheric flux than on more classical
problems of nutrient flux into the photic zone from below. Nor would it be very surprising
that results tending to demonstrate Fe limitation should have been emphasized, as has
perhaps happened in recent years (e.g., Behrenfeld and Kolber, 1999).
So, if myths in science are “selective conjectures thereafter given privileged status”
lacking an “alternative suggestion” (Dickinson, 2003), then I suggest that when we think
about nutrient limitation in high-S regions, we should remember the “alternative suggestion” of complex vertical flux of several nutrients across the nutricline. We should
not think only about fluxes of iron across the sea surface, just because this happens to
have been the fashionable topic of the recent past. However, in complex fields of natural
science like geology and biological oceanography, where neither observations nor models
can capture the true complexity of the dynamic system, it is true that myths—in the
sense of geologist Dickinson—do have a role to play in arriving at scientific truth.
87
correlation between regional production in all biogeochemical provinces and a “dust
factor” (obtained from the interaction between contours in the Ginoux model and
province boundaries) does not suggest a global relationship (y = 29x −00003 R = 004)
between deposition and productivity. Obviously, although many assume that such a
relationship must exist, it cannot yet be demonstrated: isolated studies of only deposition
processes and phytoplankton nutrient dynamics are insufficient for such a demonstration,
because integration of holistic regional ecology and ocean physics is required.
Preoccupation with surface flux of a micronutrient was one part of our response to
the possibility that the global CO 2 flux budget might be manipulated by artificial inputs
of particulate Fe, repeating what may have occurred naturally during glacial epochs. Of
course, this possibility aroused intense interest and major funding, so it is not surprising
that studies tended to place more emphasis on atmospheric flux than on more classical
problems of nutrient flux into the photic zone from below. Nor would it be very surprising
that results tending to demonstrate Fe limitation should have been emphasized, as has
perhaps happened in recent years (e.g., Behrenfeld and Kolber, 1999).
So, if myths in science are “selective conjectures thereafter given privileged status”
lacking an “alternative suggestion” (Dickinson, 2003), then I suggest that when we think
about nutrient limitation in high-S regions, we should remember the “alternative suggestion” of complex vertical flux of several nutrients across the nutricline. We should
not think only about fluxes of iron across the sea surface, just because this happens to
have been the fashionable topic of the recent past. However, in complex fields of natural
science like geology and biological oceanography, where neither observations nor models
can capture the true complexity of the dynamic system, it is true that myths—in the
sense of geologist Dickinson—do have a role to play in arriving at scientific truth.