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Windsock behavior: climatic control on iron biogeochemistry in tropical mangroves

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Abstract

Iron is one of the most abundant elements on the planet and a micronutrient for most organisms. In many coastal regions worldwide, mangrove forests affect the dynamics and mobility of different elements to the oceans especially through their soils. The biogeochemistry of mangrove soils responds to numerous factors that vary within different spatial and time scales. In this sense, seasonality can be crucial in determining the role of these ecosystems towards the iron biogeochemical cycle. Thus, the main goal of the present study was to assess the effects of contrasting climatic conditions on iron biogeochemistry in different mangrove forests along the Brazilian coast. We studied the soils (n = 435) of 14 different mangrove forests distributed along two contrasting climate regions: the semi-arid Northeast and the humid Southeast coasts of Brazil. In the SE region, water surplus and lower temperatures in both seasons did not cause significant changes in iron concentrations (wet season: 216 µmol g−1; dry season: 230 µmol g−1) where oxyhydroxides and pyrite immobilize iron in the mangrove soils. In contrast, in the semi-arid mangroves, a marked water deficit during the dry season caused both pyrite oxidation and iron reprecipitation as oxyhydroxides. Contrarily, in the rainy season, the establishment of a suboxic environment (Eh ~  + 100 mV) favored significant iron losses via iron reduction. We conclude that seasonality can affect the maintenance and cycling of iron in mangrove soils, which may function as important sources of this element for adjacent ecosystems.

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adapted from Brookins (1988) showing the mineral stability fields of the Fe-S–O-H system, which differ between the seasons in both the Northeast (A) and Southeast (B) regions. Number of samples in parenthesis for each region (n = 81 for NE; n = 113 for SE)

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work received financial support provided by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior CAPES (Finance Code 001), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Grants Number 430010/2018-4 and 305996/2018-5 to TOF), São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, Grants Number 2018/04259-2, 2019/14800-5, 2019/02855-0, and 2019/19987-6), Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (GNN, Grant E-26/202.757/2019), and Xunta de Galicia-Consellería de Educación e Ordeanción Universitaria de Galicia (Consolidation of competitive groups of investigation; Ambiosol GRC GI 1245).

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TOF: First author, Writing—Reviewing and Editing, conceptualization of ideas and formulation and evolution of research goals acquisition of the financial support. Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, and instrumentation. Project administration. GNN: Conceptualization, Writing—Reviewing and Editing, Data Curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Field work, and Validation. HMQ: Writing—Reviewing and Editing, conceptualization of ideas, Validation, Formal analysis, Field work and Data Curation. VSSJ: Writing—Reviewing and Editing, conceptualization of ideas, Data curation, Formal analysis, Field work, and Resources. DB: Writing—Reviewing and Editing, Data Curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, and Validation. ADF: Writing—Reviewing and Editing, Data Curation, and Formal analysis. XLO: acquisition of the financial support, conceptualization of ideas, field work. Provision of materials, reagents, and instrumentation. Writing and critical reviews.

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Correspondence to Tiago Osório Ferreira.

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Ferreira, T.O., Nóbrega, G.N., Queiroz, H.M. et al. Windsock behavior: climatic control on iron biogeochemistry in tropical mangroves. Biogeochemistry 156, 437–452 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00858-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00858-9

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