Recent studies suggest that transport and water mass mixing may play a dominant role in controlling the distribution of dissolved rare earth element concentrations ([REE]) at least in parts of the North and South Atlantic and the Pacific Southern Ocean. Here we report vertically and spatially high-resolution profiles of dissolved REE concentrations ([REE]) along a NW-SE transect in the West Pacific and examine the processes affecting the [REE] distributions in this area. Surface water REE patterns reveal sources of trace element (TE) input near South Korea and in the tropical equatorial West Pacific. Positive europium anomalies and middle REE enrichments in surface and subsurface waters are indicative of TE input from volcanic islands and fingerprint in detail small-scale equatorial zonal eastward transport of TEs to the iron-limited tropical East Pacific. The low [REE] of North and South Pacific Tropical Waters and Antarctic Intermediate Water are a long-range (i.e., preformed) laterally advected signal, whereas increasing [REE] with depth within North Pacific Intermediate Water result from release from particles. Optimum multiparameter analysis of deep to bottom waters indicates a dominant control of lateral transport and mixing on [REE] at the depth of Lower Circumpolar Deep Water (?3000 m water depth; ~75-100% explained by water mass mixing), allowing the northward tracing of LCDW to ~28°N in the Northwest Pacific. In contrast, scavenging in the hydrothermal plumes of the Lau Basin and Tonga-Fiji area at 1500-2000 m water depth leads to [REE] deficits (~40-60% removal) and marked REE fractionation in the tropical West Pacific. Overall, our data provide evidence for active trace element input both near South Korea and Papua New Guinea, and for a strong lateral transport component in the distribution of dissolved REEs in large parts of the West Pacific.

MLD: mixed layer depth related to 0.125 kg/m3 density offset from surface (Miller, 1976).a: external error is derived from independently processed GEOTRACES seawater standard SAFe 3000 m (n = 16), if the internal error of a sample was higher than the external error, the internal error is reported.b: Eu anomaly calculated as (Eu/Eu)N = 3×EuN/(2×SmN+TbN) (e.g., Zhang et al., 2008).c: (HREE/LREE)N calculated as (TmN+YbN+LuN)/(LaN+PrN+NdN).d: total procedural replicate.e: re-processed and re-analyzed.: questionable data.For references see Behrens et al., 2018.

Supplement to: Behrens, Melanie K; Pahnke, Katharina; Paffrath, Ronja; Schnetger, Bernhard; Brumsack, Hans-Jürgen (2018): Rare earth element distributions in the West Pacific: Trace element sources and conservative vs. non-conservative behavior. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 486, 166-177