Distribution of Pa in the Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean: Tracking Scavenging During Water Mass Mixing along Neutral Density Surfaces

Dissolved and particulate Protactinium-231 (231Pa) was analyzed for samples from the BONUS GoodHope (BGH) IPY-GEOTRACES cruise in the SE Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean (36°S-13°E to 57°S-0°, Feb.–Mar. 2008). The inflowing waters from the Atlantic Ocean fuel the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in dissolved 231Pa which is mostly removed from seawater by the biogenic silica produced by diatoms in the Southern Ocean. This scavenging flux of the 231Pa induces a meridional gradient of the 231Pa concentration and of the Th–Pa fractionation factor (FTh/Pa).