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Creators/Authors contains: "Carroll, Dustin"

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  1. Abstract Seasonal phytoplankton blooms in Greenland’s coastal waters form the base of marine food webs and contribute to oceanic carbon uptake. In Qeqertarsuup Tunua, West Greenland, a secondary summertime bloom follows the Arctic spring bloom, enhancing annual primary productivity. Emerging evidence links this summer bloom to subglacial discharge from Sermeq Kujalleq, the most active glacier on the Greenland Ice Sheet. This discharge drives localized upwelling that may alleviate nutrient limitation in surface waters, yet this mechanism remains poorly quantified. Here, we employ a high-resolution biogeochemical model nested within a global state estimate to assess how discharge-driven upwelling influences primary productivity and carbon fluxes. We find that upwelling increases summer productivity by 15–40% in Qeqertarsuup Tunua, yet annual carbon dioxide uptake rises by only  ~3% due to reduced solubility in plume-upwelled waters. These findings suggest that intensifying ice sheet melt may alter Greenland’s coastal productivity and carbon cycling under future climate scenarios. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available December 1, 2026
  2. Free, publicly-accessible full text available August 1, 2026
  3. Abstract In climate studies, it is crucial to distinguish between changes caused by natural variability and those resulting from external forcing. Here we use a suite of numerical experiments based on the ECCO‐Darwin ocean biogeochemistry model to separate the impact of the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) growth rate and climate on the ocean carbon sink — with a goal of disentangling the space‐time variability of the dominant drivers. When globally integrated, the variable atmospheric growth rate and climate exhibit similar magnitude impacts on ocean carbon uptake. At local scales, interannual variability in air‐sea CO2flux is dominated by climate. The implications of our study for real‐world ocean observing systems are clear: in order to detect future changes in the ocean sink due to slowing atmospheric CO2growth rates, better observing systems and constraints on climate‐driven ocean variability are required. 
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  4. Abstract. Ice calved from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets or tidewater glaciers ultimately melts in the ocean, contributing to sea-level rise and potentially affecting marine biogeochemistry. Icebergs have been described as ocean micronutrient fertilizing agents and biological hotspots due to their potential roles as platforms for marine mammals and birds. Icebergs may be especially important fertilizing agents in the Southern Ocean, where low availability of the micronutrients iron and manganese extensively limits marine primary production. Whilst icebergs have long been described as a source of iron to the ocean, their nutrient load is poorly constrained and it is unclear if there are regional differences. Here we show that 589 ice fragments collected from calved ice in contrasting regions spanning the Antarctic Peninsula; Greenland; and smaller tidewater systems in Svalbard, Patagonia, and Iceland have similar (micro)nutrient concentrations with limited or no significant differences between regions. Icebergs are a minor or negligible source of macronutrients to the ocean with low concentrations of NOx- (NO3-+NO2-; median of 0.51 µM), PO43- (median of 0.04 µM), and dissolved Si (dSi; median of 0.02 µM). In contrast, icebergs deliver elevated concentrations of dissolved Fe (dFe; median of 12 nM) and Mn (dMn; median of 2.6 nM). The sediment load for Antarctic ice (median of 9 mg L−1, n=144) was low compared to prior reported values for the Arctic (up to 200 g L−1). Total dissolvable Fe and Mn retained a strong relationship with the sediment load (both R2=0.43, p<0.001), whereas weaker relationships were observed for dFe (R2=0.30, p<0.001), dMn (R2=0.20, p<0.001), and dSi (R2=0.29, p<0.001). A strong correlation between total dissolvable Fe and Mn (R2=0.95, p<0.001) and a total dissolvable Mn:Fe ratio of 0.024 suggested a lithogenic origin for the majority of sediment present in ice. Dissolved Mn was present at higher dMn:dFe ratios, with fluxes from melting ice roughly equivalent to 30 % of the corresponding dFe flux. Our results suggest that NOx- and PO43- concentrations measured in calved icebergs originate from the ice matrix. Conversely, high Fe and Mn, as well as occasionally high dSi concentrations, are associated with englacial sediment, which experiences limited biogeochemical processing prior to release into the ocean. 
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  5. Abstract Subglacial discharge emerging from the base of Greenland's marine‐terminating glaciers drives upwelling of nutrient‐rich bottom waters to the euphotic zone, which can fuel nitrate‐limited phytoplankton growth. Here, we use buoyant plume theory to quantify this subglacial discharge‐driven nutrient supply on a pan‐Greenland scale. The modeled nitrate fluxes were concentrated in a few critical systems, with half of the total modeled nitrate flux anomaly occurring at just 14% of marine‐terminating glaciers. Increasing subglacial discharge fluxes results in elevated nitrate fluxes, with the largest flux occurring at Jakobshavn Isbræ in Disko Bay, where subglacial discharge is largest. Subglacial discharge and nitrate flux anomaly also account for significant temporal variability in summer satellite chlorophyll a (Chl) within 50 km of Greenland's coast, particularly in some regions in central west and northwest Greenland. 
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  6. Abstract. We introduce a time-dependent, one-dimensional model ofearly diagenesis that we term RADI, an acronym accounting for the mainprocesses included in the model: chemical reactions, advection, molecularand bio-diffusion, and bio-irrigation. RADI is targeted for study ofdeep-sea sediments, in particular those containing calcium carbonates(CaCO3). RADI combines CaCO3 dissolution driven by organic matterdegradation with a diffusive boundary layer and integrates state-of-the-artparameterizations of CaCO3 dissolution kinetics in seawater, thusserving as a link between mechanistic surface reaction modeling andglobal-scale biogeochemical models. RADI also includes CaCO3precipitation, providing a continuum between CaCO3 dissolution andprecipitation. RADI integrates components rather than individual chemicalspecies for accessibility and is straightforward to compare againstmeasurements. RADI is the first diagenetic model implemented in Julia, ahigh-performance programming language that is free and open source, and itis also available in MATLAB/GNU Octave. Here, we first describe thescientific background behind RADI and its implementations. Following this, we evaluateits performance in three selected locations and explore other potentialapplications, such as the influence of tides and seasonality on earlydiagenesis in the deep ocean. RADI is a powerful tool to study thetime-transient and steady-state response of the sedimentary system toenvironmental perturbation, such as deep-sea mining, deoxygenation, oracidification events. 
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  7. Abstract. As the largest active carbon reservoir on Earth, the ocean is a cornerstone of the global carbon cycle, playing a pivotal role in modulating ocean health and regulating climate. Understanding these crucial roles requires access to a broad array of data products documenting the changing chemistry of the global ocean as a vast and interconnected system. This review article provides a comprehensive overview of 60 existing ocean carbonate chemistry data products, encompassing compilations of cruise datasets, derived gap-filled data products, model simulations, and compilations thereof. It is intended to help researchers identify and access data products that best align with their research objectives, thereby advancing our understanding of the ocean's evolving carbonate chemistry. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 15, 2026