| 1. |
- Baltar, Federico, et al.
(författare)
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Mesoscale variability modulates seasonal changes in the trophic structure of nano- and picoplankton communities across the NW Africa-Canary Islands transition zone
- 2009
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Ingår i: Progress in Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611 .- 1873-4472. ; 83:1-4, s. 180-188
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The variability of picoplankton and nanoplankton autotrophic (A) and heterotrophic (H) communities was studied along a zonal gradient extending from the NW African shelf to 500 km offshore in two contrasting seasons of the year: early spring (spring) and summer (summer). Plankton abundance was significantly higher in summer than in spring. In particular, heterotrophic prokaryotes (HP) and Prochlorococcus (Proc) were an order of magnitude more abundant in summer, presumably due to a higher loading of dissolved organic matter and higher temperatures. The average ratio of A to H biomass was lower during the summer. Over the African shelf, picoplankton was lowest during summer, while both the autotrophic and heterotrophic nanoflagellates (ANF and HNF) showed the highest abundances. In contrast, in spring, the highest abundance of Picoeukaryotes (PE) and Synechococcus (Syn) was found over or close to the shelf. The offshore sampling sections intersected a complex area of strong mesoscale variability, which affected the plankton distribution. In summer, the entrainment of an upwelling filament around a cyclonic eddy provoked the increase of HP and Syn abundances by about one order of magnitude over the surrounding waters, while PE were more abundant over the core of the eddy (probably due to nutrient pumping). In spring, HP and Syn were more abundant at the boundaries of an anticyclonic eddy and in the filament (where PE also increased). Proc abundance increased up to one order of magnitude in the core of the eddy and in the eddy-oceanic waters front. ANF and HNF showed the highest abundances in the filament and the eddy. in summary, although seasonality affects the background variability in microplankton communities, the mesoscale variability found in the Canary Islands transition zone strongly modulates the patterns of distribution, abundances and changes in community structure, altering the A to H ratio and concomitantly playing a key role modifying the carbon pathways within the food web in the region.
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| 2. |
- Brüchert, Volker, et al.
(författare)
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Hydrogen sulphide and methane emissions on the central Namibian shelf
- 2009
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Ingår i: Progress in Oceanography. - : Elsevier. - 0079-6611 .- 1873-4472. ; 83:1-4, s. 169-179
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hydrogen sulphide occurs frequently in the waters of the inner shelf coastal upwelling area off central Namibia. The area affected coincides with hatching grounds of commercially important pelagic fish, whose recruitment may be severely affected by recurring toxic sulphidic episodes. Both episodic biogenic methane gas-driven advective and molecular diffusive flux of hydrogen sulphide have been implicated as transport mechanisms from the underlying organic-matter-rich diatomaceous mud. To test hypotheses on the controls of hydrogen sulphide transport from the sediments on the inner Namibian shelf, water column and sediment data were acquired from four stations between 27 and 72 m water depth over a 3 year long period. On 14 cruises, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, methane, and total dissolved sulphide were determined from water column samples, and pore water dissolved methane, total dissolved sulphide, biomass of benthic sulphide-oxidising bacteria Beggiatoa and Thiomargarita, and bacterial sulphate reduction rates were determined from sediment cores. Superimposed on a trend of synchronous changes in water column oxygen and nutrient concentrations controlled by regional hydrographic conditions were asynchronous small-scale variations at the in-shore stations that attest to localized controls on water column chemistry. Small temporal variations in sulphate reduction rates determined with 35S-labeled sulphate do not support the interpretation that variable emissions of sulphide and methane from sediments are driven by temporal changes in the degradation rates of freshly deposited organic matter. The large temporal changes in the concentrations of hydrogen sulphide and the co-occurrence of pore water sulphate and methane support an interpretation of episodic advection of methane and hydrogen sulphide from deeper sediment depths – possibly due to gas bubble transport. Effective fluxes of hydrogen sulphide and methane to the water column, and methane and sulphide concentrations in the bottom waters were decoupled, likely due to the activity of sulphide-oxidising bacteria. While the causal mechanism for the episodic fluctuations in methane and dissolved sulphide concentrations remains unclear, this data set points to the importance of alternating advective and diffusive transport of methane and hydrogen sulphide to the water column.
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| 3. |
- Gasol, Josep M., et al.
(författare)
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Mesopelagic prokaryotic bulk and single-cell heterotrophic activity and community composition in the NW Africa-Canary Islands coastal-transition zone
- 2009
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Ingår i: Progress in Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611 .- 1873-4472. ; 83, s. 189-196
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mesopelagic prokaryotic communities have often been assumed to be relatively inactive in comparison to those from epipelagic waters, and therefore unresponsive to the presence of nearby upwelled waters. We have studied the zonal (shelf-ocean), latitudinal, and depth (epipelagic-mesopelagic) variability of microbial assemblages in the NW Africa-Canary Islands coastal-transition zone (CTZ). Vertical profiles of bacterial bulk and single-cell activity through the epi- and mesopelagic waters were combined with point measurements of bacterial respiration, leucine-to-carbon conversion factors and leucine-to-thymidine incorporation ratios. The overall picture that emerges from our study is that prokaryotes in the mesopelagic zone of this area are less abundant than in the epipelagic but have comparable levels of activity. The relationship between prokaryotes and heterotrophic nanoflagellates, their main predators, remains constant throughout the water column, further contradicting the assumption that deep ocean bacterial communities are mostly inactive. Both bulk and single-cell activity showed clear differences between stations, with higher mesopelagic activities closer to the shelf or affected by upwelling features. We also tested whether differences in microbial function between stations could be related to differences in bacterial community structure, and conclude that bacterial communities are very similar at similar depths in the deep ocean, even if the stations present order-of-magnitude differences in bacterial function.
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| 4. |
- Jeansson, Emil, 1972, et al.
(författare)
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Sources to the East Greenland Current and its contribution to the Denmark Strait Overflow
- 2008
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Ingår i: Progress in Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611. ; 78:1, s. 12-28
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Data from the East Greenland Current in 2002 are evaluated using optimum multiparameter analysis. The current is followed from north of Fram Strait to the Denmark Strait Sill and the contributions of different source waters, in mass fractions, are deduced. From the results it can be concluded that, at least in spring 2002, the East Greenland Current was the main source for the waters found at the Denmark Strait Sill, contributing to the overflow into the North Atlantic. The East Greenland Current carried water masses from different source regions in the Arctic Ocean, the West Spitsbergen Current and the Greenland Sea. The results agree well with the known circulation of the western Nordic Seas but also add knowledge both to the quantification and to the mixing processes, showing the importance of the locally formed Greenland Sea Arctic Intermediate Water for the East Greenland Current and the Denmark Strait.
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| 5. |
- Jones, E.P., et al.
(författare)
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Sources and distribution of fresh water in the East Greenland Current
- 2008
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Ingår i: Progress in Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611. ; 78:1, s. 37-44
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fresh water flowing from the Arctic Ocean via the East Greenland Current influences deep water formation in the Nordic Seas as well as the salinity of the surface and deep waters flowing from there. This fresh water has three sources: Pacific water (relatively fresh cf. Atlantic water), river runoff, and sea ice meltwater. To determine the relative amounts of the three sources of fresh water, in May 2002 we collected water samples across the East Greenland Current in sections from 81.5°N to the Irminger Sea south of Denmark Strait. We used nitrate–phosphate relationships to distinguish Pacific waters from Atlantic waters, salinity to obtain the sum of sea ice melt water and river runoff water, and total alkalinity to distinguish the latter. River runoff contributed the largest part of the total fresh water component, in some regions with some inventories exceeding 12 m. Pacific fresh water (Pacific source water S 32 cf. Atlantic source water S 34.9) typically provided about 1/3 of the river runoff contribution. Sea ice meltwater was very nearly non-existent in the surface waters of all sections, likely at least in part as a result of the samples being collected before the onset of the melt season. The fresh water from the Arctic Ocean was strongly confined to near the Greenland coast. We thus conjecture that the main source of fresh water from the Arctic Ocean most strongly impacting deep convection in the Nordic Seas would be sea ice as opposed to fresh water in the liquid phase, i.e., river runoff, Pacific fresh water, and sea ice meltwater.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Jutterström, Sara, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of anthropogenic carbon in the Nordic Seas using observed relationships of N, P and C versus CFCs
- 2008
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Ingår i: Progress in Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611. ; 78:1, s. 78-84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Several methods to compute the anthropogenic component of total dissolved inorganic carbon () in the ocean have been reported, all in some way deducing (a) the effect by the natural processes, and (b) the background concentration in the pre-industrial scenario. In this work we present a method of calculating using nutrient and CFC data, which takes advantage of the linear relationships found between nitrate (N), phosphate (P) and CFC-11 in the Nordic Seas sub-surface waters. The basis of the method is that older water has lower CFC-11 concentration and also has been exposed to more sinking organic matter that has decayed, resulting in the slopes of P versus CFC-11 and N versus CFC-11 being close to the classic Redfield ratio of 1:16. Combining this with the slope in total alkalinity (AT) versus CFC-11 to correct for the dissolution of metal carbonates gives us the possibility to deduce the concentration of anthropogenic CT in the Nordic Seas. This further allowed us to compute the inventory of anthropogenic CT below 250 m in the Nordic Seas in spring 2002, to 1.2 Gt C.
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| 8. |
- Marnela, M, et al.
(författare)
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Transports of Nordic Seas water masses and excess SF6 through Fram Strait to the Arctic Ocean
- 2008
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Ingår i: Progress in Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611. ; 78:1, s. 1-11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To determine the exchanges between the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait is one of the most important aspects, and one of the major challenges, in describing the circulation in the Arctic Mediterranean Sea. Especially the northward transport of Arctic Intermediate Water (AIW) from the Nordic Seas into the Arctic Ocean is little known. In the two-ship study of the circulation in the Nordic Seas, Arctic Ocean – 2002, the Swedish icebreaker Oden operated in the ice-covered areas in and north of Fram Strait and in the western margins of Greenland and Iceland seas, while RV Knorr of Woods Hole worked in the ice free part of the Nordic Seas. Here two hydrographic sections obtained by Oden, augmented by tracer and velocity measurements with Lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (LADCP), are examined. The first section, reaching from the Svalbard shelf across the Yermak Plateau, covers the region north of Svalbard where inflow to the Arctic Ocean takes place. The second, western, section spans the outflow area extending from west of the Yermak Plateau onto the Greenland shelf. Geostrophic and LADCP derived velocities are both used to estimate the exchanges of water masses between the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean. The geostrophic computations indicate a total flow of 3.6 Sv entering the Arctic on the eastern section. The southward flow on the western section is found to be 5.1 Sv. The total inflow to the Arctic Ocean obtained using the LADCP derived velocities is much larger, 13.6 Sv, and the southward transport on the western section is 13.7 Sv, equal to the northward transport north of Svalbard. Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) originating from a tracer release experiment in the Greenland Sea in 1996 has become a marker for the circulation of AIW. From the geostrophic velocities we obtain 0.5 Sv and from the LADCP derived velocities 2.8 Sv of AIW flowing into the Arctic. The annual transport of SF6 into the Arctic Ocean derived from geostrophy is 5 kg/year, which is of the same magnitude as the observed total annual transport into the North Atlantic, while the LADCP measurements (19 kg/year) imply that it is substantially larger. Little SF6 was found on the western section, confirming the dominance of the Arctic Ocean water masses and indicating that the major recirculation in Fram Strait takes place farther to the south.
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| 9. |
- Messias, M. J, et al.
(författare)
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The Greenland Sea tracer experiment 1996–2002: Horizontal mixing and transport of Greenland Sea Intermediate Water
- 2008
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Ingår i: Progress In Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611. ; 78:1, s. 85-105
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In summer 1996, a tracer release experiment using sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) was launched in the intermediate-depth waters of the central Greenland Sea (GS), to study the mixing and ventilation processes in the region and its role in the northern limb of the Atlantic overturning circulation. Here we describe the hydrographic context of the experiment, the methods adopted and the results from the monitoring of the horizontal tracer spread for the 1996–2002 period documented by 10 shipboard surveys. The tracer marked “Greenland Sea Arctic Intermediate Water” (GSAIW). This was redistributed in the gyre by variable winter convection penetrating only to mid-depths, reaching at most 1800 m depth during the strongest event observed in 2002. For the first 18 months, the tracer remained mainly in the Greenland Sea. Vigorous horizontal mixing within the Greenland Sea gyre and a tight circulation of the gyre interacting slowly with the other basins under strong topographic influences were identified. We use the tracer distributions to derive the horizontal shear at the scale of the Greenland Sea gyre, and rates of horizontal mixing at 10 and 300 km scales. Mixing rates at small scale are high, several times those observed at comparable depths at lower latitudes. Horizontal stirring at the sub-gyre scale is mediated by numerous and vigorous eddies. Evidence obtained during the tracer release suggests that these play an important role in mixing water masses to form the intermediate waters of the central Greenland Sea. By year two, the tracer had entered the surrounding current systems at intermediate depths and small concentrations were in proximity to the overflows into the North Atlantic. After 3 years, the tracer had spread over the Nordic Seas basins. Finally by year six, an intensive large survey provided an overall synoptic documentation of the spreading of the tagged GSAIW in the Nordic Seas. A circulation scheme of the tagged water originating from the centre of the GS is deduced from the horizontal spread of the tracer. We present this circulation and evaluate the transport budgets of the tracer between the GS and the surroundings basins. The overall residence time for the tagged GSAIW in the Greenland Sea was about 2.5 years. We infer an export of intermediate water of GSAIW from the GS of 1 to 1.85 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3 s−1) for the period from September 1998 to June 2002 based on the evolution of the amount of tracer leaving the GS gyre. There is strong exchange between the Greenland Sea and Arctic Ocean via Fram Strait, but the contribution of the Greenland Sea to the Denmark Strait and Iceland Scotland overflows is modest, probably not exceeding 6% during the period under study.
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| 10. |
- Nilsson, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Liquid freshwater transport and Polar Surface Water characteristics in the East Greenland Current during the AO-02 Oden expedition
- 2008
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Ingår i: Progress In Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611. ; 78:1, s. 45-57
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dynamical features of the East Greenland Current (EGC) are synthesized from a survey conducted by the Swedish icebreaker Oden during the International Arctic Ocean – 02 expedition (AO-02) in May 2002 with emphasis on the liquid freshwater transport and Polar Surface Water. The data include hydrography and lowered acoustic doppler current profiler (LADCP) velocities in eight transects along the EGC, from the Fram Strait in the north to the Denmark Strait in the south. The survey reveals a strong confinement of the low-salinity polar water in the EGC to the continental slope/shelf—a feature of relevance for the stability of the thermohaline circulation in the Arctic Mediterranean. The southward transport of liquid freshwater in the EGC was found to vary considerably between the sections, ranging between 0.01 and 0.1 Sverdrup. Computations based on geostrophic as well as LADCP velocities give a section-averaged southward freshwater transport of 0.06 Sverdrup in the EGC during May 2002. Furthermore, Oden data suggest that the liquid freshwater transport was as large north of the Fram Strait as it was south of the Denmark Strait.
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| 11. |
- Olli, Kalle, et al.
(författare)
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The fate of production in the central Arctic ocean - top-down regulation by zooplankton expatriates?
- 2007
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Ingår i: Progress in Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611 .- 1873-4472. ; 72:1, s. 84-113
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- We estimated primary and bacterial production, mineral nutrients, suspended chlorophyll a (Chl), particulate organic carbon (POC) and nitrogen (PON), abundance of planktonic organisms, mesozooplankton fecal pellet production, and the vertical flux of organic particles of the central Arctic Ocean (Amundsen basin, 89 88° N) during a 3 week quasi-Lagrangian ice drift experiment at the peak of the productive season (August 2001). A visual estimate of ≈15% ice-free surface, plus numerous melt ponds on ice sheets, supported a planktonic particulate primary production of 50 150 mg C m‑2 d‑1 (mean 93 mg C m‑2 d‑1, n = 7), mostly confined to the upper 10 m of the nutrient replete water column. The surface mixed layer was separated from the rest of the water column by a strong halocline at 20 m depth. Phototrophic biomass was low, generally 0.03 0.3 mg Chl m‑3 in the upper 20 m and <0.02 mg Chl m‑3 below, dominated by various flagellates, dinoflagellates and diatoms. Bacterial abundance (typically 3.7 5.3 × 105, mean 4.1 × 105 cells ml‑1 in the upper 20 m and 1.3 3.7 × 105, mean 1.9 × 105 cells ml‑1 below) and Chl concentrations were closely correlated (r = 0.75). Mineral nutrients (3 μmol NO3 l‑1, 0.45 μmol PO4 l‑1, 4 5 μmol SiO4 l‑1) were probably not limiting the primary production in the upper layer. Suspended POC concentration was ˜30 105 (mean 53) mg C m‑3 and PON ˜5.4 14.9 (mean 8.2) mg N m‑3 with no clear vertical trend. The vertical flux of POC in the upper 30 100 m water column was ˜37 92 (mean 55) mg C m‑2 d‑1 without clear decrease with depth, and was quite similar at the six investigated stations. The mesozooplankton biomass (≈2 g DW m‑2, mostly in the upper 50 m water column) was dominated by adult females of the large calanoid copepods Calanus hyperboreus and Calanus glacialis (≈1.6 g DW m‑2). The grazing of these copepods (estimated via fecal pellet production rates) was ≈15 mg C m‑2 d‑1, being on the order of 3% and 20% of the expected food-saturated ingestion rates of C. hyperboreus and C. glacialis, respectively. The stage structure of these copepods, dominated by adult females, and their unsatisfied grazing capacity during peak productive period suggest allochthonous origin of these species from productive shelf areas, supported by their long life span and the prevailing surface currents in the Arctic Ocean. We propose that the grazing capacity of the expatriated mesozooplankton population would match the potential seasonal increase of primary production in the future decreased ice perspective, diminishing the likelihood of algal blooms.
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| 12. |
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