| 1. |
- Akhoudas, Camille Hayatte, 1992-, et al.
(författare)
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Isotopic evidence for an intensified hydrological cycle in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - 2041-1723. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The hydrological cycle is expected to intensify in a warming climate. However, observational evidence of such changes in the Southern Ocean is difficult to obtain due to sparse measurements and a complex superposition of changes in precipitation, sea ice, and glacial meltwater. Here we disentangle these signals using a dataset of salinity and seawater oxygen isotope observations collected in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean. Our results show that the atmospheric water cycle has intensified in this region between 1993 and 2021, increasing the salinity in subtropical surface waters by 0.06 ± 0.07 g kg−1 per decade, and decreasing the salinity in subpolar surface waters by -0.02 ± 0.01 g kg−1 per decade. The oxygen isotope data allow to discriminate the different freshwater processes showing that in the subpolar region, the freshening is largely driven by the increase in net precipitation (by a factor two) while the decrease in sea ice melt is largely balanced by the contribution of glacial meltwater at these latitudes. These changes extend the growing evidence for an acceleration of the hydrological cycle and a melting cryosphere that can be expected from global warming.
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| 2. |
- Bradshaw, Clare, et al.
(författare)
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Physical Disturbance by Bottom Trawling Suspends Particulate Matter and Alters Biogeochemical Processes on and Near the Seafloor
- 2021
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Marine Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-7745. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bottom trawling is known to affect benthic faunal communities but its effects on sediment suspension and seabed biogeochemistry are less well described. In addition, few studies have been carried out in the Baltic Sea, despite decades of trawling in this unique brackish environment and the frequent occurrence of trawling in areas where hypoxia and low and variable salinity already act as ecosystem stressors. We measured the physical and biogeochemical impacts of an otter trawl on a muddy Baltic seabed. Multibeam bathymetry revealed a 36 m-wide trawl track, comprising parallel furrows and sediment piles caused by the trawl doors and shallower grooves from the groundgear, that displaced 1,000 m3 (500 t) sediment and suspended 9.5 t sediment per km of track. The trawl doors had less effect than the rest of the gear in terms of total sediment mass but per m2 the doors had 5× the displacement and 2× the suspension effect, due to their greater penetration and hydrodynamic drag. The suspended sediment spread >1 km away over the following 3–4 days, creating a 5–10 m thick layer of turbid bottom water. Turbidity reached 4.3 NTU (7 mgDW L–1), 550 m from the track, 20 h post-trawling. Particulate Al, Ti, Fe, P, and Mn were correlated with the spatio-temporal pattern of suspension. There was a pulse of dissolved N, P, and Mn to a height of 10 m above the seabed within a few hundred meters of the track, 2 h post-trawling. Dissolved methane concentrations were elevated in the water for at least 20 h. Sediment biogeochemistry in the door track was still perturbed after 48 h, with a decreased oxygen penetration depth and nutrient and oxygen fluxes across the sediment-water interface. These results clearly show the physical effects of bottom trawling, both on seabed topography (on the scale of km and years) and on sediment and particle suspension (on the scale of km and days-weeks). Alterations to biogeochemical processes suggest that, where bottom trawling is frequent, sediment biogeochemistry may not have time to recover between disturbance events and elevated turbidity may persist, even outside the trawled area.
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| 3. |
- Broman, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Low Abundance of Methanotrophs in Sediments of Shallow Boreal Coastal Zones With High Water Methane Concentrations
- 2020
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Microbiology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-302X. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coastal zones are transitional areas between land and sea where large amounts of organic and inorganic carbon compounds are recycled by microbes. Especially shallow zones near land have been shown to be the main source for oceanic methane (CH4) emissions. Water depth has been predicted as the best explanatory variable, which is related to CH4 ebullition, but exactly how sediment methanotrophs mediates these emissions along water depth is unknown. Here, we investigated the relative abundance and RNA transcripts attributed to methane oxidation proteins of aerobic methanotrophs in the sediment of shallow coastal zones with high CH4 concentrations within a depth gradient from 10–45 m. Field sampling consisted of collecting sediment (top 0–2 cm layer) from eight stations along this depth gradient in the coastal Baltic Sea. The relative abundance and RNA transcripts attributed to the CH4 oxidizing protein (pMMO; particulate methane monooxygenase) of the dominant methanotroph Methylococcales was significantly higher in deeper costal offshore areas (36–45 m water depth) compared to adjacent shallow zones (10–28 m). This was in accordance with the shallow zones having higher CH4 concentrations in the surface water, as well as more CH4 seeps from the sediment. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the low prevalence of Methylococcales and RNA transcripts attributed to pMMO was restrained to the euphotic zone (indicated by Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) data, photosynthesis proteins, and 18S rRNA data of benthic diatoms). This was also indicated by a positive relationship between water depth and the relative abundance of Methylococcales and pMMO. How these processes are affected by light availability requires further studies. CH4 ebullition potentially bypasses aerobic methanotrophs in shallow coastal areas, reducing CH4 availability and limiting their growth. Such mechanism could help explain their reduced relative abundance and related RNA transcripts for pMMO. These findings can partly explain the difference in CH4 concentrations between shallow and deep coastal areas, and the relationship between CH4 concentrations and water depth.
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| 4. |
- Detlef, Henrieka, et al.
(författare)
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Seasonal sea-ice in the Arctic's last ice area during the Early Holocene
- 2023
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Ingår i: Communications Earth & Environment. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2662-4435. ; 4:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- According to climate models, the Lincoln Sea, bordering northern Greenland and Canada, will be the final stronghold of perennial Arctic sea-ice in a warming climate. However, recent observations of prolonged periods of open water raise concerns regarding its long-term stability. Modelling studies suggest a transition from perennial to seasonal sea-ice during the Early Holocene, a period of elevated global temperatures around 10,000 years ago. Here we show marine proxy evidence for the disappearance of perennial sea-ice in the southern Lincoln Sea during the Early Holocene, which suggests a widespread transition to seasonal sea-ice in the Arctic Ocean. Seasonal sea-ice conditions were tightly coupled to regional atmospheric temperatures. In light of anthropogenic warming and Arctic amplification our results suggest an imminent transition to seasonal sea-ice in the southern Lincoln Sea, even if the global temperature rise is kept below a threshold of 2 °C compared to pre-industrial (1850–1900).
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| 5. |
- Geoffroy, Gaspard, 1991-
(författare)
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Spiritum sidus : The star of our life – On internal tides in the ocean
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Tidal currents flowing over rough bathymetry generate internal tides. These internal waves with tidal frequency can be decomposed into vertical modes. Low modes generally travel thousands of kilometers, until they break due to shear flow instabilities, while high modes are believed to break close to the generation site. The power released by breaking internal tides is thought not only to shape the overturning circulation, but also to mix the upper ocean. Both processes have a large influence on the climate system, most notably for their key role in regulating the heat and carbon uptake by the ocean.The generation of internal tides, or tidal conversion, can be calculated from the bottom topography, the ocean stratification and the tidal currents. Global computations of the tidal conversion have been based on linear wave theory. However, such linear calculations are only valid if the seafloor slope is subcritical, and it is not known how to treat supercritical slopes. This is especially true for the conversion decomposed into vertical modes, which, taken individually, behaves very differently from the total conversion (the sum of the contributions from all modes).In the first paper of this thesis, we looked into the validity of linear theory in the supercritical limit. Specifically, we translated the critical slope condition, a notion defined for the superposition of all modes, into a mode-wise condition on the topographic height. The findings were applied to estimates of the global M2-tide conversion into the first 10 vertical modes (in the open ocean, excluding the continental shelves and slopes). The results unveil the rapid increase with mode number of the oceanic area where linear theory fails. In terms of conversion, this shows that linear theory is unadapted to quantify the role played by high modes in closing the internal wave energy budget.Typically, continental slopes are supercritical, and hence locations where the linear theory fails. Because of their characteristic shape, they are also an important source of low-mode internal tides. In the second paper of this thesis, we constructed a computationally inexpensive method to compute the tidal conversion by continental slopes and applied it at the global scale. It uses the usual observational data as inputs but relies on a reduced-physics numerical model rather than on linear theory to estimate the tidal conversion.Unveiling the global pattern of the dissipation of internal tides (i.e. where they break) has been a challenging objective for a few decades. This can be explained by the lack of suitable observations to compare theory with. Until recently, the only observational data of internal tides with global coverage were based on satellite altimetry. However, only the part of the wave field that is exactly phase-locked to the astronomical forcing can be identified from altimetry data.In the third paper of this thesis we created a new observational data set of internal tides, with global coverage, based on Argo park-phase data. These data are recorded while the floats are adrift at 1000 m depth, between two vertical profiling sequences. Thanks to the high sampling rate of Argo floats, the records capture the full amplitude of the waves, including the non-phase-locked part. This component turned out to be several times larger than previously thought. In the fourth paper of this thesis, we validated the internal tides in a realistic global ocean simulation with Argo data. Incidentally, this also worked to validate the Argo observations.
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| 6. |
- Hogan, Kelly A., et al.
(författare)
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Glacial sedimentation, fluxes and erosion rates associated with ice retreat in Petermann Fjord and Nares Strait, north-west Greenland
- 2020
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0416 .- 1994-0424. ; 14:1, s. 261-286
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Petermann Fjord is a deep ( > 1000 m) fjord that incises the coastline of north-west Greenland and was carved by an expanded Petermann Glacier, one of the six largest outlet glaciers draining the modern Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). Between 5 and 70 m of unconsolidated glacigenic material infills in the fjord and adjacent Nares Strait, deposited as the Petermann and Nares Strait ice streams retreated through the area after the Last Glacial Maximum. We have investigated the deglacial deposits using seismic stratigraphic techniques and have correlated our results with high-resolution bathymetric data and core lithofacies. We identify six seismoacoustic facies in more than 3500 line kilometres of subbottom and seismic-reflection profiles throughout the fjord, Hall Basin and Kennedy Channel. Seismo-acoustic facies relate to bedrock or till surfaces (Facies I), subglacial deposition (Facies II), deposition from meltwater plumes and icebergs in quiescent glacimarine conditions (Facies III, IV), deposition at grounded ice margins during stillstands in retreat (grounding-zone wedges; Facies V) and the redeposition of material downslope (Facies IV). These sediment units represent the total volume of glacial sediment delivered to the mapped marine environment during retreat. We calculate a glacial sediment flux for the former Petermann ice stream as 1080-1420 m(3) a(-1) per metre of ice stream width and an average deglacial erosion rate for the basin of 0.29-0.34 mm a(-1). Our deglacial erosion rates are consistent with results from Antarctic Peninsula fjord systems but are several times lower than values for other modern GrIS catchments. This difference is attributed to fact that large volumes of surface water do not access the bed in the Petermann system, and we conclude that glacial erosion is limited to areas overridden by streaming ice in this large outlet glacier setting. Erosion rates are also presented for two phases of ice retreat and confirm that there is significant variation in rates over a glacial-deglacial transition. Our new glacial sediment fluxes and erosion rates show that the Petermann ice stream was approximately as efficient as the palaeo-Jakobshavn Isbra at eroding, transporting and delivering sediment to its margin during early deglaciation.
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| 7. |
- Holmes, Felicity A., et al.
(författare)
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Calving at Ryder Glacier, Northern Greenland
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface. - 2169-9003 .- 2169-9011. ; 126:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent evidence has shown increasing mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet, with a general trend of accelerated mass losses extending northwards. However, different glaciers have been shown to respond differently to similar external forcings, constituting a problem for extrapolating and upscaling data. Specifically, whilst some outlet glaciers have accelerated, thinned, and retreated in response to atmospheric and oceanic warming, the behavior of other marine terminating glaciers appears to be less sensitive to climate forcing. Ryder glacier, for which only a few studies have been conducted, is located in North Greenland and terminates with a floating ice tongue in Sherard Osborn Fjord. The persistence or disintegration of floating ice tongues has impacts on glacier dynamics and stability, with ramifications beyond, including sea level rise. This study focuses on understanding the controls on calving and frontal ablation of the Ryder glacier through the use of time-lapse imagery and satellite data. The results suggest that Ryder glacier has behaved independently of climate forcing during recent decades, with fjord geometry exerting a first order control on its calving.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Jakobsson, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Potential links between Baltic Sea submarine terraces and groundwater seeping
- 2020
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Ingår i: Earth Surface Dynamics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 2196-6311 .- 2196-632X. ; 8:1, s. 1-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) influences ocean chemistry, circulation, and the spreading of nutrients and pollutants; it also shapes sea floor morphology. In the Baltic Sea, SGD was linked to the development of terraces and semicircular depressions mapped in an area of the southern Stockholm archipelago, Sweden, in the 1990s. We mapped additional parts of the Stockholm archipelago, areas in Blekinge, southern Sweden, and southern Finland using high-resolution multibeam sonars and sub-bottom profilers to investigate if the sea floor morphological features discovered in the 1990s are widespread and to further address the hypothesis linking their formation to SGD. Sediment coring and sea floor photography conducted with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and divers add additional information to the geophysical mapping results. We find that terraces, with general bathymetric expressions of about 1 m and lateral extents of sometimes > 100 m, are widespread in the surveyed areas of the Baltic Sea and are consistently formed in glacial clay. Semicircular depressions, however, are only found in a limited part of a surveyed area east of the island of Asko, southern Stockholm archipelago. While submarine terraces can be produced by several processes, we interpret our results to be in support of the basic hypothesis of terrace formation initially proposed in the 1990s; i.e. groundwater flows through siltier, more permeable layers in glacial clay to discharge at the sea floor, leading to the formation of a sharp terrace when the clay layers above seepage zones are undermined enough to collapse. By linking the terraces to a specific geologic setting, our study further refines the formation hypothesis and thereby forms the foundation for a future assessment of SGD in the Baltic Sea that may use marine geological mapping as a starting point. We propose that SGD through the submarine sea floor terraces is plausible and could be intermittent and linked to periods of higher groundwater levels, implying that to quantify the contribution of freshwater to the Baltic Sea through this potential mechanism, more complex hydrogeological studies are required.
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| 10. |
- Jakobsson, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Ryder Glacier in northwest Greenland is shielded from warm Atlantic water by a bathymetric sill
- 2020
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Ingår i: Communications Earth & Environment. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2662-4435. ; 1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The processes controlling advance and retreat of outlet glaciers in fjords draining the Greenland Ice Sheet remain poorly known, undermining assessments of their dynamics and associated sea-level rise in a warming climate. Mass loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet has increased six-fold over the last four decades, with discharge and melt from outlet glaciers comprising key components of this loss. Here we acquired oceanographic data and multibeam bathymetry in the previously uncharted Sherard Osborn Fjord in northwest Greenland where Ryder Glacier drains into the Arctic Ocean. Our data show that warmer subsurface water of Atlantic origin enters the fjord, but Ryder Glacier’s floating tongue at its present location is partly protected from the inflow by a bathymetric sill located in the innermost fjord. This reduces under-ice melting of the glacier, providing insight into Ryder Glacier’s dynamics and its vulnerability to inflow of Atlantic warmer water.
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