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Phosphate removal through adsorption on suspended matter in the Bay of Bengal: Possible implications to primary production

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Abstract

Low primary production in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) could not be explained as this region receives nutrients from atmospheric deposition, rivers, eddies, and mixing due to depression/cyclones. In addition to nutrients, BoB also receives significant amount of suspended particulate matter (SPM) from the major rivers and their concentrations are in an order of magnitude higher than elsewhere in the open ocean region. Here we show that the removal of phosphorus (P) through adsorption on SPM may be a potential mechanism to decrease in primary production in the northern BoB. Significant fraction of P removal (5–50% of total dissolved inorganic phosphate) in association with SPM was observed in the BoB. The magnitude of removal of P through SPM is linearly related with dissolved inorganic phosphate (DIP), particulate organic carbon (POC) in the water column suggesting that P is removed in association with organic matter. The fraction of P removed from that of DIP showed inverse relation with salinity, and linear relation with SPM concentration suggesting that SPM brought by river discharge removed P from the water column. The P removed by SPM in the mixed layer showed inverse relation with mixed layer integrated primary production in the open sea region but its impact is negligible in the coastal waters. The laboratory experiment by measuring primary production in the presence of different quantities of SPM concentrations confirmed decrease in primary production due to removal of phosphate in the BoB.

Research highlights

  • Significant fraction of phosphate adsorbs on to the suspended particles and it is bio-non-available.

  • Phosphate severely controls primary production in the northern Bay of Bengal.

  • The removal of phosphate is more in the coastal waters, it does not control primary production due to higher input than removal.

  • High N/P ratios is caused by phosphate removed on association with suspended matter.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Director, CSIR-NIO for his support and allotment of ship time onboard Sindhu Sankalp (SSK 118) to conduct these experiments. We would like to thank Director, INCOIS for granting the project under O-MASCOT on ‘Influence of eddies on oxygen minimum zone and carbon sequestration in the Bay of Bengal’. We would like to thank Ministry of Earth Science for allotting ship time onboard ORV Sagar Nidhi (SN142). We would like to thank Ship Cell and ship’s staff for their support during cruises. We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions to improve the presentation of the manuscript. This has NIO contribution number 6608.

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  1. CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Regional Centre, 176 Lawsons Bay Colony, Visakhapatnam, India

    D N Rao, V R D Ghosh, P Sam, K Yadav & V V S S Sarma

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  1. D N Rao
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  2. V R D Ghosh
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  3. P Sam
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  4. K Yadav
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Contributions

Mr D N Rao made measurements of PO4 extraction from the suspended matter during March 2018 and analysed the nutrients concentration. He also analysed coastal nutrient samples for the entire year. Mr V R D Ghosh analysed nutrients data during June 2019 and conducted experiment on phosphate adsorption on sediments from different locations, Mr P Sam has analysed PO4 extraction from suspended matter during June 2019 and conducted primary production experiment with and without suspended matter, Ms K Yadav collected atmospheric dust samples in the coastal and offshore region and analysed the elemental composition, and Dr V V S S Sarma conceptualized the idea, receiving funding, preparation of first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed in finalizing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to V V S S Sarma.

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Communicated by Joydip Mukhopadhyay

Supplementary material pertaining to this article is available on the Journal of Earth System Science website (http://www.ias.ac.in/Journals/Journal_of_Earth_System_Science).

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Rao, D.N., Ghosh, V.R.D., Sam, P. et al. Phosphate removal through adsorption on suspended matter in the Bay of Bengal: Possible implications to primary production. J Earth Syst Sci 130, 22 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-020-01524-8

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