Outflow from World's Largest River – The Amazon – Powers
Atlantic Ocean Carbon “Sink” News story originally written on
July 21, 2008 Nutrients from the Amazon River's outflow spread
well beyond the continental shelf and drive carbon cycling in
the tropical ocean, say scientists who conducted a multi-year
study. They will publish their results this week online in the
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) .
The researchers discovered a significant and surprising drawdown
of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the tropical ocean by
microorganisms living in the Amazon River's outflow. The finding
reveals the surprisingly large role of tropical oceans and major
rivers in the oceans' total carbon uptake. "This work has led to
an important discovery about the source of nitrogen that fuels
the productivity of tropical ocean waters, especially those into
which large rivers flow," said David Garrison, director of the
National Science Foundation (NSF)'s biological oceanography
program. NSF's