Evidence of nitrate-based nighttime atmospheric nucleation driven by marine microorganisms in the South Pacific.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023;
120:e2308696120. [PMID:
37991941 PMCID:
PMC10691324 DOI:
10.1073/pnas.2308696120]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 11/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Our understanding of ocean-cloud interactions and their effect on climate lacks insight into a key pathway: do biogenic marine emissions form new particles in the open ocean atmosphere? Using measurements collected in ship-borne air-sea interface tanks deployed in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean, we identified new particle formation (NPF) during nighttime that was related to plankton community composition. We show that nitrate ions are the only species for which abundance could support NPF rates in our semicontrolled experiments. Nitrate ions also prevailed in the natural pristine marine atmosphere and were elevated under higher sub-10 nm particle concentrations. We hypothesize that these nucleation events were fueled by complex, short-term biogeochemical cycling involving the microbial loop. These findings suggest a new perspective with a previously unidentified role of nitrate of marine biogeochemical origin in aerosol nucleation.
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