Available evidence points to four major sources of iron to surface waters of the Ross Sea during summer: CDW from the shelf edge, shallow bank sediments and nearshore sediments along the western periphery of the basin, melting sea ice, and glacial ice-shelf meltwater.
The PRISM cruise of December 2011-February, 2012 is organized around assessing these sources, with particular emphasis on the role of mesoscale processes in transporting iron from these sources to surface waters of the Ross Sea polynya during austral summer
