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Microalgae are capable of acclimating to dynamic light environments, as they have developed mechanisms to optimize light harvesting and photosynthetic electron transport. When absorption of light exceeds photosynthetic capacity, various physiological protective mechanisms prevent damage of the photosynthetic apparatus. Xanthophyll pigments provide one of the most important photoprotective mechanisms to dissipate the excess light energy and prevent photoinhibition. In this study, we coupled a mechanistic model for phytoplankton photoinhibition with the global biogeochemical model Regulated Ecosystem Model version 2. The assumption that photoinhibition is small in phytoplankton communities acclimated to ambient light allowed us to predict the photoprotective needs of phytoplankton. When comparing the predicted photoprotective needs to observations of pigment content determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography, our results showed that photoprotective response seems to be mediated in most parts of the ocean by a variable ratio of xanthophyll pigments to chlorophyll. The variability in the ratio appeared to be mainly driven by changes in phytoplankton community composition. Exceptions appeared at high latitudes where other energy dissipating mechanisms seem to play a role in photoprotection and both taxonomic changes and physiological acclimation determine community pigment signature. Understanding the variability of community pigment signature is crucial for modeling the coupling of light absorption to carbon fixation in the ocean. Insights about how much of this variability is attributable to changes in community composition may allow us to improve the match between remotely sensed optical data and the underlying phytoplankton community.

Lithogenic material deposited as dust is one of the major sources of trace metals to the ocean, particularly in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic. On the other hand, it can also act as a scavenging surface for iron. Here we studied this double role of lithogenic material in the marine iron cycle by adding a new scheme for describing particle dynamics into a global biogeochemistry and ecosystem model including particle aggregation and disaggregation of two particle size classes and scavenging on both organic and lithogenic particles. Considering the additional scavenging of iron on lithogenic particles, the modeled dissolved iron concentration is reduced significantly in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic, bringing the model much closer to observations. This underlines the necessity to consider the double role of dust particles as iron source and sink in studies on the marine iron cycle in high dust regions and with changing dust fluxes.

In the vast Low Nutrient Low-Chlorophyll (LNLC) Ocean, the vertical nutrient supply from the subsurface to the sunlit surface waters is low, and atmospheric contribution of nutrients may be one order of magnitude greater over short timescales. The short turnover time of atmospheric Fe and N supply (<1 month for nitrate) further supports deposition being an important source of nutrients in LNLC regions. Yet, the extent to which atmospheric inputs are impacting biological activity and modifying the carbon balance in oligotrophic environments has not been constrained. Here, we quantify and compare the biogeochemical impacts of atmospheric deposition in LNLC regions using both a compilation of experimental data and model outputs. A metadata-analysis of recently conducted field and laboratory bioassay experiments reveals complex responses, and the overall impact is not a simple “fertilization effect of increasing phytoplankton biomass” as observed in HNLC regions. Although phytoplankton growth may be enhanced, increases in bacterial activity and respiration result in weakening of biological carbon sequestration. The application of models using climatological or time-averaged non-synoptic deposition rates produced responses that were generally much lower than observed in the bioassay experiments. We demonstrate that experimental data and model outputs show better agreement on short timescale (days to weeks) when strong synoptic pulse of aerosols deposition, similar in magnitude to those observed in the field and introduced in bioassay experiments, is superimposed over the mean atmospheric deposition fields. These results suggest that atmospheric impacts in LNLC regions have been underestimated by models, at least at daily to weekly timescales, as they typically overlook large synoptic variations in atmospheric deposition and associated nutrient and particle inputs. Inclusion of the large synoptic variability of atmospheric input, and improved representation and parameteri