CROZet Natural Iron Bloom and EXport Experiment (CROZEX)

Summary of the project

CROZEX was a complex, multidisciplinary project to examine, from surface to sediment, the causes and consequences of the naturally iron-fertilized annual bloom that forms north of the Crozet Plateau in the southwest Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean. The field phase consisted of a pair of cruises, D285 and D286, funded by SOC Core ship time for the George Deacon Divisions’s (GDD) Core Strategic Project BICEP (Biophysical Interactions and Controls on Export Production).

Area of study

The Polar Frontal Zone of the Southern Ocean in the vicinity of the Crozet Islands, 46°S, 52°E

Publication

Deep-Sea Research II, vol 54, numbers 18-20, 2007

Pollard et al. (2009) Southern Ocean deep-water carbon export enhanced by natural iron fertilization, Nature, 457 577-580.

TimeTable for activities

Cruise dates Nov 2004 – Jan 2005