Marie Tharp Lecture Series for Ocean Research | No.48
Dr. Hélène Planquette, LEMAR Laboratory, Institut Universitaire Europeen de la Mer, Technopole Brest-Iroise, France “The Role of Particles in Oceanic Trace Metal Biogeochemistry”
When? Friday, 05 June 2026, 13:00 h
Where? GEOMAR Conference Room Atlantic, Building 5, Wischhofstr. 1-3, Kiel
and online via Meeting link: https://geomar.webex.com/geomar-en/j.php?MTID=m7fcc713a66f7a1946f4480a1244daeb2)
To registration: https://events.geomar.de/event/1088/registrations/459/
Abstract:
Despite their extremely low concentrations in the open ocean, trace metals such as iron and manganese exert a strong influence on phytoplankton growth, ecosystem structure, and the efficiency of the biological carbon pump across vast regions of the ocean and over glacial interglacial timescales.
Yet, their global distribution, and especially their particulate forms, remain poorly constrained as research has long focused on dissolved species, leaving the role of particles comparatively underexplored.
By combining ultra-clean analytical approaches, oceanographic expeditions, and laboratory experiments, this research provides new insights into the processes governing trace metal cycling across spatial scales, highlighting the importance of particles as active components of ocean biogeochemistry.
Together, these findings contribute can help to better constrain the mechanisms that regulate trace metal distributions in the ocean.
Following the lecture, the WEB invites to stay for some discussion with coffee and biscuits!
Organizer:
Women‘s Executive Board (WEB)
womensexecutiveboard(at)geomar.de
www.geomar.de/en/web
