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Sample records for sargasso sea

  1. Mimivirus relatives in the Sargasso sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claverie Jean-Michel

    2005-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The discovery and genome analysis of Acanthamoeba polyphaga Mimivirus, the largest known DNA virus, challenged much of the accepted dogma regarding viruses. Its particle size (>400 nm, genome length (1.2 million bp and huge gene repertoire (911 protein coding genes all contribute to blur the established boundaries between viruses and the smallest parasitic cellular organisms. Phylogenetic analyses also suggested that the Mimivirus lineage could have emerged prior to the individualization of cellular organisms from the three established domains, triggering a debate that can only be resolved by generating and analyzing more data. The next step is then to seek some evidence that Mimivirus is not the only representative of its kind and determine where to look for new Mimiviridae. An exhaustive similarity search of all Mimivirus predicted proteins against all publicly available sequences identified many of their closest homologues among the Sargasso Sea environmental sequences. Subsequent phylogenetic analyses suggested that unknown large viruses evolutionarily closer to Mimivirus than to any presently characterized species exist in abundance in the Sargasso Sea. Their isolation and genome sequencing could prove invaluable in understanding the origin and diversity of large DNA viruses, and shed some light on the role they eventually played in the emergence of eukaryotes.

  2. Marine Spatial Planning Applied to the High Seas - Process and Results of an Exercise Focused on the Sargasso Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siuda, A. N.; Smythe, T. C.

    2016-12-01

    The Sargasso Sea, at the center of the North Atlantic gyre, is recognized by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity as a globally unique ecosystem threatened by anthropogenic activity. In its stewardship capacity, the Sargasso Sea Commission works within the current system of international organizations and treaties to secure protection for particular species or areas. Without a single governing authority to implement and enforce protective measures across the region, a coordinated management plan for the region is lacking. A research team comprised of 20 advanced undergraduate scientists participating in the spring 2015 SEA Semester: Marine Biodiversity and Conservation program of Sea Education Association (Woods Hole, MA) engaged in a groundbreaking simulated high seas marine spatial planning process resulting in A Marine Management Proposal for the Sargasso Sea. Based on natural and social science research, the interdisciplinary Proposal outlines goals, objectives and realistic strategies that encompass ecological, economic, human use, and future use considerations. Notably, the Proposal is the product of a classroom-based simulation intended to improve emerging scientists' understanding of how research is integrated into the policy process and how organizations work across disciplinary boundaries to address complex ocean management problems. Student researchers identified several discrete management areas and associated policy recommendations for those areas, as well as strategies for coordinated management across the entire Sargasso Sea region. The latter include establishment of a United Nations Regional Ocean Management Organization as well as provisions for monitoring and managing high seas traffic. To make progress toward these strategies, significant attention to the importance of high seas regions for global-scale conservation will be necessary.

  3. Direct observations of American eels migrating across the continental shelf to the Sargasso Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Béguer-Pon, Mélanie; Castonguay, Martin; Shan, Shiliang; Benchetrit, José; Dodson, Julian J

    2015-10-27

    Since inferring spawning areas from larval distributions in the Sargasso Sea a century ago, the oceanic migration of adult American eels has remained a mystery. No adult eel has ever been observed migrating in the open ocean or in the spawning area. Here, we track movements of maturing eels equipped with pop-up satellite archival tags from the Scotian Shelf (Canada) into the open ocean, with one individual migrating 2,400 km to the northern limit of the spawning site in the Sargasso Sea. The reconstructed routes suggest a migration in two phases: one over the continental shelf and along its edge in shallow waters; the second in deeper waters straight south towards the spawning area. This study is the first direct evidence of adult Anguilla migrating to the Sargasso Sea and represents an important step forward in the understanding of routes and migratory cues.

  4. Qualitative assessment of the diet of European eel larvae in the Sargasso Sea resolved by DNA barcoding

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Riemann, L.; Alfredsson, H.; Hansen, Michael Møller

    2010-01-01

    , the Sargasso Sea is oligotrophic, with generally low plankton biomass, and the feeding biology of eel larvae has so far remained a mystery, hampering understanding of this peculiar life history. DNA barcoding of gut contents of 61 genetically identified A. anguilla larvae caught in the Sargasso Sea showed...

  5. Oceanic fronts in the Sargasso Sea control the early life and drift of Atlantic eels

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Munk, Peter; Hansen, Michael Møller; Maas, Gregory E.

    2010-01-01

    Anguillid freshwater eels show remarkable life histories. In the Atlantic, the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and American eel (Anguilla rostrata) undertake extensive migrations to spawn in the oceanic Sargasso Sea, and subsequently the offspring drift to foraging areas in Europe and North......, during a field expedition to the eel spawning sites in the Sargasso Sea, we carried out a wide range of dedicated bio-physical studies across areas of eel larval distribution. Our findings suggest a key role of oceanic frontal processes, retaining eel larvae within a zone of enhanced feeding conditions...

  6. Net community production from autonomous oxygen observations in the Sargasso Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feen, M.; Estapa, M. L.

    2016-02-01

    Optical sensors on autonomous floats provide high-resolution profiles of oxygen concentration over time. Improved spatiotemporal resolution in our measurements of oxygen will allow for better estimates of net community production and a greater understanding of the biological pump. Two autonomous profiling floats (NAVIS BGCi, Sea-Bird) equipped with SBE-63 optodes to measure dissolved oxygen were deployed in the Sargasso Sea on a series of five Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) cruises from July 2013 to April 2014. In situ calibration of the oxygen sensors to Winkler titration bottle samples at BATS did not show systematic drift in the oxygen sensors over time. Calibrations were applied to determine oxygen concentrations in profiles collected in the Sargasso Sea at 1.5 to 2.5 day intervals over a year. Oxygen concentrations were used to quantify sub-mixed layer net community production. Changes in production rates from this study were compared with upper water column biology and particle flux measurements obtained independently from optical sensors on the profiling floats, allowing us to examine processes controlling carbon export into the deep ocean.

  7. Gender, identity and power: a reflection on Wide sargasso sea, by Jean Rhys

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shirley de Souza Gomes Carreira

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available This work aims to analyze Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea in order to display the author’s strategy to deconstruct Charlotte Brontë’s eurocentric discourse in Jane Eyre, granting voice to the colonized subject, besides allowing a “dive” into the web woven by patriarchy, getting men and women stuck in predetermined social roles.

  8. Ground-truthing the Foraminifera-bound Nitrogen Isotope Paleo-proxy in the Modern Sargasso Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smart, S.; Ren, H. A.; Fawcett, S. E.; Conte, M. H.; Rafter, P. A.; Ellis, K. K.; Weigand, M. A.; Sigman, D. M.

    2016-02-01

    We present the nitrogen isotope ratios (δ15N) of planktonic foraminifera, a type of calcifying zooplankton, collected from surface ocean net tows, moored sediment traps and core-top sediments at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site in the Sargasso Sea between 2009 and 2013. Consistent with previous measurements from low-latitude core-top sediments, the annually averaged δ15N of organic matter bound within the shells of euphotic zone-dwelling foraminifera approximates that of thermocline nitrate, the dominant source of new nitrogen to Sargasso Sea surface waters. Based on net tow collections in the upper 200 m of the water column, we observe no systematic difference between the biomass δ15N and shell-bound δ15N of a given foraminifera species. For multiple species, the δ15N of net tow-collected upper ocean shells is lower than shells from sediment traps (by 0.5-2.1‰) and lower than shells from seafloor sediments (by 0.5-1.4‰). We are currently investigating whether these differences reflect actual processes affecting shell-bound δ15N or instead relate to the different time periods over which the three sample types integrate. The foraminiferal biomass δ15N time-series from the surface Sargasso Sea exhibits significant seasonal variations, with the lowest values in fall and the highest values in spring. The roles of hydrography, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem dynamics in driving these seasonal variations will be discussed. These data from the modern subtropical ocean form part of a greater effort to ground-truth the use of foram-bound δ15N to reconstruct past nutrient conditions, not only as a recorder of the isotopic composition of nitrogen supply in oligotrophic environments but also as a recorder of the degree of nitrate consumption in high-latitude regions such as the Southern Ocean.

  9. Gelatinous plankton is central to the diet of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) larvae in the Sargasso Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ayala, Daniel Jiro; Munk, Peter; Lundgreen, Regitze B. C.

    2018-01-01

    endangered species. Next-generation 18S rRNA gene sequencing data of Sargasso Sea eel larvae gut contents and marine snow aggregates was compared with a reference plankton database to assess the trophic relations of eel larvae. Gut contents of A. anguilla larvae were not well explained by the eukaryotic...

  10. Distribution and production of plankton communities in the subtropical convergence zone of the Sargasso Sea. II. Protozooplankton and copepods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Nikolaj G.; Nielsen, Torkel Gissel; Jakobsen, Hans Henrik

    2011-01-01

    the potential reasons why Atlantic eels Anguilla spp. use this area for spawning, we investigated the distribution and productivity of the zooplankton community across the Subtropical Convergence Zone (STCZ) in the Sargasso Sea in March and April 2007. The vertical and horizontal distributions of protozoans...

  11. L’image du père et du jardin : Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë  et WideSargasso Sea de Jean Rhys Of Father Figures and Gardens: Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anne-Marie Baranowski

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Though no father actually appears as a character either in Jane Eyre or in Wide Sargasso Sea, the father figure looms large in both novels, as a complex, protean and paradoxical entity, playing a crucial part in the fate of the protagonists. Jane Eyre and Antoinette Cosway are orphaned at an early age, Rochester’s father is depicted as remote and insensitive; the surrogate fathers —Antoinette’s stepfather, Jane’s uncles— mostly fail when they try to replace the missing one. Rochester himself is an ambiguous character who appears in both novels as a son, lover and husband on the one side, as a father figure on the other. In Wide Sargasso Sea he acquires through his marriage to the heiress Antoinette Cosway a legal authority which he eventually uses to destroy his wife; in Jane Eyre he first appears as the wealthier, more knowledgeable, stronger character before he discovers a female counterpart who does more than merely hold her ground.These different aspects of the father figure are closely linked to the motif of the garden which mirrors the inner development of the —mostly— female characters. It is not entirely similar to nature itself, though it is part of it; the latter means in both novels lethal dangers and elemental violence, whereas the garden is a sheltered place. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the debased garden of Coulibri simultaneously conveys a distorted, though by no means untrue reflection of the father figure and a sanctuary from the harshness of the outside world. It also means a place of peace and of simple joys for Jane Eyre, making up for the deprived life at the Lowood boarding school; but contrasting with Coulibri it does not preclude the contact with the outside world which she actually longs for. Hence the garden mirrors the crucial moments and experiences in the lives of both heroines, including love, married life and loss.

  12. Horizontal and vertical distribution of Chaetognatha in the upper 1000 m of the western Sargasso Sea and the Central and South-east Atlantic.

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Pierrot-Bultsa, A.C.; Nair, V.R.

    The chaetognath abundance, species richness and bathymetric distribution in the upper 1000 m in two regions of the Atlantic Ocean is discussed based on samples collected on two cruises, one to the Sargasso Sea (Northwest Atlantic) on board the R/V R...

  13. Carbon dioxide seasonal cycle in the sea euphotic zone - a study in the Sargasso Sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marchal, O.

    1996-01-01

    Between 1750 and 1990, the human activities (mainly fossil carbon combustion and deforestation) have lead to an increase of the CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, the carbon dioxide actively takes part to the greenhouse effect and then to the energetic balance of the climatic system. The study which is carried out consists of the forecasting of the CO 2 future concentrations in the atmosphere (from 10, 100 years). The chosen site (BATS: Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study) is located in the Sargasso Sea. The factors leading to seasonal variations have been determined. Several bio-geochemical models have been developed in order to on the one hand simulate the seasonal dynamics of the mixture layer observed in the Bats site and on the other hand explain the main characteristics of the observed phytoplankton seasonal cycle, of its nutriments and of the dissolved oxygen. (O.M.)

  14. Gelatinous plankton is central to the diet of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) larvae in the Sargasso Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ayala, Daniel Jiro; Munk, Peter; Lundgreen, Regitze B. C.

    2018-01-01

    endangered species. Next-generation 18S rRNA gene sequencing data of Sargasso Sea eel larvae gut contents and marine snow aggregates was compared with a reference plankton database to assess the trophic relations of eel larvae. Gut contents of A. anguilla larvae were not well explained by the eukaryotic...... composition of marine snow aggregates; gut contents being dominated by gene sequences of Hydrozoa taxa (phylum Cnidaria), while snow aggregates were dominated by Crustacea taxa. Pronounced differences between gut contents and marine snow aggregates were also seen in the prokaryotic 16S rRNA gene composition...

  15. Distribution and production of plankton communities in the subtropical convergence zone of the Sargasso Sea. I. Phytoplankton and bacterioplankton

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Riemann, Lasse; Nielsen, Torkel Gissel; Kragh, Theis

    2011-01-01

    Elevated levels of biomass and productivity are often associated with ocean frontal systems. The Subtropical Convergence Zone (STCZ) in the southern Sargasso Sea shows pronounced and stable thermal fronts, but little is known about the ecological consequences of these hydrographic features....... With the aim of improving the understanding of physical and lower trophic level processes in the area, we carried out field studies of physical, chemical and biological characteristics along 3 transects crossing thermal fronts associated with the STCZ in March to April 2007. Thermal and chemical stratification...

  16. Seasonal dynamics of SAR11 populations in the euphotic and mesopelagic zones of the northwestern Sargasso Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Carlson, Craig A; Morris, Robert; Parsons, Rachel

    2009-01-01

    , resolving their temporal dynamics can provide important insights to the cycling of organic and inorganic nutrients. This quantitative time-series data revealed distinct annual distribution patterns of SAR11 abundance in the euphotic (0-120) and upper mesopelagic (160-300 m) zones that were reproducibly...... correlated with seasonal mixing and stratification of the water column. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) data generated from a decade of samples collected at BATS were combined with the FISH data to model the annual dynamics of SAR11 subclade populations. 16S rRNA gene clone...... the Sargasso Sea surface layer, and revealed new details of their population dynamics....

  17. An otolith microchemistry study of possible relationships between the origins of leptocephali of European eels in the Sargasso Sea and the continental destinations and relative migration success of glass eels

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Martin, J.; Daverat, F.; Pécheyran, C.

    2010-01-01

    's core region of Anguilla anguilla leptocephali caught in the Sargasso Sea in 2007 with those of glass eels and elvers sampled in European estuaries during 2006, 2008 and 2009. Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, the same annular ablation trajectory along the first feeding...

  18. Preparation and certification of Sargasso seaweed reference material

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Okamoto, Kensaku

    1988-01-01

    Sargasso seaweed reference material was prepared from Sargassum felvellum obtained from an unpolluted area in Japan. The sargasso samples were washed, freeze-dried, pulverized, sieved to pass a 80-mesh screen and finally homogenized. Collaborative studies on the elemental analysis of the sargasso reference material were performed using various analytical techniques. Certified values are provided for Ag, As, Ca, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Pb, Rb, Sr, V and Zn, based on results of determinations by at least three independent analytical techniques. Reference values are reported for Al, Br, Cl, Cr, Cs, Hg, I, P, S, Sb, Sc, Se, Ti and U. The sargasso certified reference material contains high levels of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, I, Br, As and U, while the concentration of trace elements may be considered to be at the lower end of the range of reported values for marine brown algae. The sargasso sample will be of practical use in marine and environmental sciences as a certified reference material having an elemental composition close to background levels.

  19. Physical, nutrient, chlorophyll a and plankton abundance data collected from CTD and bottle casts aboard the R/Vs OCEANUS and ENDEAVOR in the Western Sargasso Sea and Northeast U.S. Shelf from 2004 to 2005 (NODC Accession 0053611)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Physical, chemical and biologic parameters were measured in the Western Sargasso Sea and Northeast U.S. shelf aboard the R/V Endeavor from 13 May to 31 May, 2004 and...

  20. Modeling Biogeochemical-Physical Interactions and Carbon Flux in the Sargasso Sea (Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Signorini, Sergio R.; McClain, Charles R.; Christian, James R.

    2001-01-01

    An ecosystem-carbon cycle model is used to analyze the biogeochemical-physical interactions and carbon fluxes in the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site for the period of 1992-1998. The model results compare well with observations (most variables are within 8% of observed values). The sea-air flux ranges from -0.32 to -0.50 mol C/sq m/yr, depending upon the gas transfer algorithm used. This estimate is within the range (-0.22 to -0.83 mol C/sq m/yr) of previously reported values which indicates that the BATS region is a weak sink of atmospheric CO2. The overall carbon balance consists of atmospheric CO2 uptake of 0.3 Mol C/sq m/yr, upward dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) bottom flux of 1.1 Mol C/sq m/yr, and carbon export of 1.4 mol C/sq m/yr via sedimentation. Upper ocean DIC levels increased between 1992 and 1996 at a rate of approximately 1.2 (micro)mol/kg/yr, consistent with observations. However, this trend was reversed during 1997-1998 to -2.7 (micro)mol/kg/yr in response to hydrographic changes imposed by the El Nino-La Nina transition, which were manifested in the Sargasso Sea by the warmest SST and lowest surface salinity of the period (1992-1998).

  1. Environmental, biochemical and genetic drivers of DMSP degradation and DMS production in the Sargasso Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levine, Naomi Marcil; Varaljay, Vanessa A; Toole, Dierdre A; Dacey, John W H; Doney, Scott C; Moran, Mary Ann

    2012-05-01

    Dimethylsulfide (DMS) is a climatically relevant trace gas produced and cycled by the surface ocean food web. Mechanisms driving intraannual variability in DMS production and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) degradation in open-ocean, oligotrophic regions were investigated during a 10-month time-series at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site in the Sargasso Sea. Abundance and transcription of bacterial DMSP degradation genes, DMSP lyase enzyme activity, and DMS and DMSP concentrations, consumption rates and production rates were quantified over time and depth. This interdisciplinary data set was used to test current hypotheses of the role of light and carbon supply in regulating upper-ocean sulfur cycling. Findings supported UV-A-dependent phytoplankton DMS production. Bacterial DMSP degraders may also contribute significantly to DMS production when temperatures are elevated and UV-A dose is moderate, but may favour DMSP demethylation under low UV-A doses. Three groups of bacterial DMSP degraders with distinct intraannual variability were identified and niche differentiation was indicated. The combination of genetic and biochemical data suggest a modified 'bacterial switch' hypothesis where the prevalence of different bacterial DMSP degradation pathways is regulated by a complex set of factors including carbon supply, temperature and UV-A dose. © 2012 Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  2. “Madwoman in the Post-Colonial Era” A Study of the Female Voice in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nushrat Azam

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper seeks to analyze the mediums and effects of voice and silence in the life of a female character of the re-written post-colonial text Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. The analysis shows how a re-written text can give a new meaning to a character and story of a novel, where the character of Antoinette tells the untold story of Bertha in Jane Eyre. The method of investigation for this research is analytical and descriptive; the research was completed by analyzing the events, actions and the interactions of the female character, Antoinette with the other major characters in the novel in order to identify how the character of Antoinette was portrayed throughout the novel. It is understood through the study of the text, that the post-colonial novel gave the female voice much more importance than its previous counterpart. This represents the early post-colonial times during which women were starting to gain liberation but had still not completely moved on from the notions of patriarchal societies that they had grown up in.

  3. Photosynthetic oxygen production in a warmer ocean: the Sargasso Sea as a case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richardson, Katherine; Bendtsen, Jørgen

    2017-09-13

    Photosynthetic O 2 production can be an important source of oxygen in sub-surface ocean waters especially in permanently stratified oligotrophic regions of the ocean where O 2 produced in deep chlorophyll maxima (DCM) is not likely to be outgassed. Today, permanently stratified regions extend across approximately 40% of the global ocean and their extent is expected to increase in a warmer ocean. Thus, predicting future ocean oxygen conditions requires a better understanding of the potential response of photosynthetic oxygen production to a warmer ocean. Based on our own and published observations of water column processes in oligotrophic regions, we develop a one-dimensional water column model describing photosynthetic oxygen production in the Sargasso Sea to quantify the importance of photosynthesis for the downward flux of O 2 and examine how it may be influenced in a warmer ocean. Photosynthesis is driven in the model by vertical mixing of nutrients (including eddy-induced mixing) and diazotrophy and is found to substantially increase the downward O 2 flux relative to physical-chemical processes alone. Warming (2°C) surface waters does not significantly change oxygen production at the DCM. Nor does a 15% increase in re-mineralization rate (assuming Q 10  = 2; 2°C warming) have significant effect on net sub-surface oxygen accumulation. However, changes in the relative production of particulate (POM) and dissolved organic material (DOM) generate relatively large changes in net sub-surface oxygen production. As POM/DOM production is a function of plankton community composition, this implies plankton biodiversity and food web structure may be important factors influencing O 2 production in a warmer ocean.This article is part of the themed issue 'Ocean ventilation and deoxygenation in a warming world'. © 2017 The Author(s).

  4. Carbon dioxide seasonal cycle in the sea euphotic zone - a study in the Sargasso Sea; Cycle saisonnier du CO{sub 2} dans la zone euphotique marine - une etude dans la mer des sargasses

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Marchal, O

    1996-05-28

    Between 1750 and 1990, the human activities (mainly fossil carbon combustion and deforestation) have lead to an increase of the CO{sub 2} concentration in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, the carbon dioxide actively takes part to the greenhouse effect and then to the energetic balance of the climatic system. The study which is carried out consists of the forecasting of the CO{sub 2} future concentrations in the atmosphere (from 10, 100 years). The chosen site (BATS: Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study) is located in the Sargasso Sea. The factors leading to seasonal variations have been determined. Several bio-geochemical models have been developed in order to on the one hand simulate the seasonal dynamics of the mixture layer observed in the Bats site and on the other hand explain the main characteristics of the observed phytoplankton seasonal cycle, of its nutriments and of the dissolved oxygen. (O.M.). 375 refs.

  5. Ocean time-series reveals recurring seasonal patterns of virioplankton dynamics in the northwestern Sargasso Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parsons, Rachel J; Breitbart, Mya; Lomas, Michael W; Carlson, Craig A

    2012-02-01

    There are an estimated 10(30) virioplankton in the world oceans, the majority of which are phages (viruses that infect bacteria). Marine phages encompass enormous genetic diversity, affect biogeochemical cycling of elements, and partially control aspects of prokaryotic production and diversity. Despite their importance, there is a paucity of data describing virioplankton distributions over time and depth in oceanic systems. A decade of high-resolution time-series data collected from the upper 300 m in the northwestern Sargasso Sea revealed recurring temporal and vertical patterns of virioplankton abundance in unprecedented detail. An annual virioplankton maximum developed between 60 and 100 m during periods of summer stratification and eroded during winter convective mixing. The timing and vertical positioning of this seasonal pattern was related to variability in water column stability and the dynamics of specific picophytoplankton and heterotrophic bacterioplankton lineages. Between 60 and 100 m, virioplankton abundance was negatively correlated to the dominant heterotrophic bacterioplankton lineage SAR11, as well as the less abundant picophytoplankton, Synechococcus. In contrast, virioplankton abundance was positively correlated to the dominant picophytoplankton lineage Prochlorococcus, and the less abundant alpha-proteobacteria, Rhodobacteraceae. Seasonally, virioplankton abundances were highly synchronous with Prochlorococcus distributions and the virioplankton to Prochlorococcus ratio remained remarkably constant during periods of water column stratification. The data suggest that a significant fraction of viruses in the mid-euphotic zone of the subtropical gyres may be cyanophages and patterns in their abundance are largely determined by Prochlorococcus dynamics in response to water column stability. This high-resolution, decadal survey of virioplankton abundance provides insight into the possible controls of virioplankton dynamics in the open ocean.

  6. The Oceanic Flux Program: A three decade time-series of particle flux in the deep Sargasso Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weber, J. C.; Conte, M. H.

    2010-12-01

    The Oceanic Flux Program (OFP), 75 km SE of Bermuda, is the longest running time-series of its kind. Initiated in 1978, the OFP has produced an unsurpassed, nearly continuous record of temporal variability in deep ocean fluxes, with a >90% temporal coverage at 3200m depth. The OFP, in conjunction with the co-located Bermuda-Atlantic Time Series (BATS) and the Bermuda Testbed Mooring (BTM) time-series, has provided key observations enabling detailed assessment of how seasonal and non-seasonal variability in the deep ocean is linked with the overlying physical and biogeochemical environment. This talk will focus on the short-term flux variability that overlies the seasonal flux pattern in the Sargasso Sea, emphasizing episodic extreme flux events. Extreme flux events are responsible for much of the year-to-year variability in mean annual flux and are most often observed during early winter and late spring when surface stratification is weak or transient. In addition to biological phenomena (e.g. salp blooms), passage of productive meso-scale features such as eddies, which alter surface water mixing characteristics and surface export fluxes, may initiate some extreme flux events. Yet other productive eddies show a minimal influence on the deep flux, underscoring the importance of upper ocean ecosystem structure and midwater processes on the coupling between the surface ocean environment and deep fluxes. Using key organic and inorganic tracers, causative processes that influence deep flux generation and the strength of the coupling with the surface ocean environment can be identified.

  7. Patterns of ecological specialization among microbial populations in the Red Sea and diverse oligotrophic marine environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Luke R; Field, Chris; Romanuk, Tamara; Ngugi, David; Siam, Rania; El Dorry, Hamza; Stingl, Ulrich

    2013-06-01

    Large swaths of the nutrient-poor surface ocean are dominated numerically by cyanobacteria (Prochlorococcus), cyanobacterial viruses (cyanophage), and alphaproteobacteria (SAR11). How these groups thrive in the diverse physicochemical environments of different oceanic regions remains poorly understood. Comparative metagenomics can reveal adaptive responses linked to ecosystem-specific selective pressures. The Red Sea is well-suited for studying adaptation of pelagic-microbes, with salinities, temperatures, and light levels at the extreme end for the surface ocean, and low nutrient concentrations, yet no metagenomic studies have been done there. The Red Sea (high salinity, high light, low N and P) compares favorably with the Mediterranean Sea (high salinity, low P), Sargasso Sea (low P), and North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (high light, low N). We quantified the relative abundance of genetic functions among Prochlorococcus, cyanophage, and SAR11 from these four regions. Gene frequencies indicate selection for phosphorus acquisition (Mediterranean/Sargasso), DNA repair and high-light responses (Red Sea/Pacific Prochlorococcus), and osmolyte C1 oxidation (Red Sea/Mediterranean SAR11). The unexpected connection between salinity-dependent osmolyte production and SAR11 C1 metabolism represents a potentially major coevolutionary adaptation and biogeochemical flux. Among Prochlorococcus and cyanophage, genes enriched in specific environments had ecotype distributions similar to nonenriched genes, suggesting that inter-ecotype gene transfer is not a major source of environment-specific adaptation. Clustering of metagenomes using gene frequencies shows similarities in populations (Red Sea with Pacific, Mediterranean with Sargasso) that belie their geographic distances. Taken together, the genetic functions enriched in specific environments indicate competitive strategies for maintaining carrying capacity in the face of physical stressors and low nutrient availability.

  8. Patterns of ecological specialization among microbial populations in the Red Sea and diverse oligotrophic marine environments

    KAUST Repository

    Thompson, Luke R

    2013-05-11

    Large swaths of the nutrient-poor surface ocean are dominated numerically by cyanobacteria (Prochlorococcus), cyanobacterial viruses (cyanophage), and alphaproteobacteria (SAR11). How these groups thrive in the diverse physicochemical environments of different oceanic regions remains poorly understood. Comparative metagenomics can reveal adaptive responses linked to ecosystem-specific selective pressures. The Red Sea is well-suited for studying adaptation of pelagic-microbes, with salinities, temperatures, and light levels at the extreme end for the surface ocean, and low nutrient concentrations, yet no metagenomic studies have been done there. The Red Sea (high salinity, high light, low N and P) compares favorably with the Mediterranean Sea (high salinity, low P), Sargasso Sea (low P), and North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (high light, low N). We quantified the relative abundance of genetic functions among Prochlorococcus, cyanophage, and SAR11 from these four regions. Gene frequencies indicate selection for phosphorus acquisition (Mediterranean/Sargasso), DNA repair and high-light responses (Red Sea/Pacific Prochlorococcus), and osmolyte C1 oxidation (Red Sea/Mediterranean SAR11). The unexpected connection between salinity-dependent osmolyte production and SAR11 C1 metabolism represents a potentially major coevolutionary adaptation and biogeochemical flux. Among Prochlorococcus and cyanophage, genes enriched in specific environments had ecotype distributions similar to nonenriched genes, suggesting that inter-ecotype gene transfer is not a major source of environment-specific adaptation. Clustering of metagenomes using gene frequencies shows similarities in populations (Red Sea with Pacific, Mediterranean with Sargasso) that belie their geographic distances. Taken together, the genetic functions enriched in specific environments indicate competitive strategies for maintaining carrying capacity in the face of physical stressors and low nutrient availability. 2013 The

  9. Heading south or north: novel insights on European silver eel Anguilla anguilla migration in the North Sea

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Jeroen; Verhelst, Pieterjan; Verhelst, Pieterjan; Deneudt, K.; Goethals, Peter; Moens, Tom; Nagelkerke, Leopold A.J.; Nolting, Carsten; Reubens, Jan; Schollema, Peter Paul; Winter, Hendrik V.; Mouton, Ans

    2016-01-01

    The European eel Anguilla anguilla L. is a critically endangered fish species that migrates from coastal and freshwater habitats to the Sargasso Sea to spawn. However, the exact migration routes and destination of European eel are still unknown. We are the first to observe southward migrating

  10. Counterintuitive effect of fall mixed layer deepening on eukaryotic new production in the Sargasso Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fawcett, S. E.; Lomas, M. W.; Ward, B. B.; Sigman, D. M.

    2012-12-01

    The Sargasso Sea is characterized by a short period of deep vertical mixing in the late winter and early spring, followed by strong thermal stratification during the summer. Stratification persists into the fall, impeding the upward flux of nitrate from depth so that recycled forms of nitrogen (N) such as ammonium are thought to support most primary production. We collected particles from surface waters during March, July, October, and December, used flow cytometry to separate the prokaryotic and eukaryotic phytoplankton, and analyzed their respective 15N/14N. In all months, the 15N/14N of the prokaryotic genera, Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus, was low, indicative of reliance on recycled N throughout the year. In July, the 15N/14N of eukaryotic phytoplankton was variable but consistently higher than that of the prokaryotes, reflecting eukaryotic consumption of subsurface nitrate. Two eukaryotic profiles from October and December were similar to those from July. In three other fall profiles, the eukaryotes had a 15N/14N similar to that of the prokaryotes, suggesting a switch toward greater reliance on recycled N. This change in the dominant N source supporting eukaryotic production appears to be driven by the density structure of the upper water column. The very shallow low-density surface "mixed layer" (≤20 m) that develops in early-to-mid summer does not contribute to stratification at the base of the euphotic zone, and subsurface nitrate can mix up into the lower euphotic zone, facilitating continued production. The deepening of the mixed layer into the fall, typically taken as an indication of weaker overall stratification, actually strengthens the isolation of the euphotic zone as a whole, reducing the upward supply of nitrate to the photosynthetically active layer. The same counterintuitive dynamic explains the latitudinal patterns in a set of three October depth profiles. Two northern stations (32°N and 27°N) were characterized by a thick, low

  11. A “Rosetta Stone” for metazoan zooplankton: DNA barcode analysis of species diversity of the Sargasso Sea (Northwest Atlantic Ocean)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bucklin, Ann; Ortman, Brian D.; Jennings, Robert M.; Nigro, Lisa M.; Sweetman, Christopher J.; Copley, Nancy J.; Sutton, Tracey; Wiebe, Peter H.

    2010-12-01

    Species diversity of the metazoan holozooplankton assemblage of the Sargasso Sea, Northwest Atlantic Ocean, was examined through coordinated morphological taxonomic identification of species and DNA sequencing of a ˜650 base-pair region of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) as a DNA barcode (i.e., short sequence for species recognition and discrimination). Zooplankton collections were made from the surface to 5,000 meters during April, 2006 on the R/V R.H. Brown. Samples were examined by a ship-board team of morphological taxonomists; DNA barcoding was carried out in both ship-board and land-based DNA sequencing laboratories. DNA barcodes were determined for a total of 297 individuals of 175 holozooplankton species in four phyla, including: Cnidaria (Hydromedusae, 4 species; Siphonophora, 47); Arthropoda (Amphipoda, 10; Copepoda, 34; Decapoda, 9; Euphausiacea, 10; Mysidacea, 1; Ostracoda, 27); and Mollusca (Cephalopoda, 8; Heteropoda, 6; Pteropoda, 15); and Chaetognatha (4). Thirty species of fish (Teleostei) were also barcoded. For all seven zooplankton groups for which sufficient data were available, Kimura-2-Parameter genetic distances were significantly lower between individuals of the same species (mean=0.0114; S.D. 0.0117) than between individuals of different species within the same group (mean=0.3166; S.D. 0.0378). This difference, known as the barcode gap, ensures that mtCOI sequences are reliable characters for species identification for the oceanic holozooplankton assemblage. In addition, DNA barcodes allow recognition of new or undescribed species, reveal cryptic species within known taxa, and inform phylogeographic and population genetic studies of geographic variation. The growing database of "gold standard" DNA barcodes serves as a Rosetta Stone for marine zooplankton, providing the key for decoding species diversity by linking species names, morphology, and DNA sequence variation. In light of the pivotal position of zooplankton in ocean

  12. Geochemistry of Slow-Growing Corals: Reconstructing Sea Surface Temperature, Salinity and the North Atlantic Oscillation

    Science.gov (United States)

    2007-06-01

    Number 8, October 1989) The island of Bermuda (64°W, 32°N) (Fig. 1.3) located in the western sub- tropical Atlantic is an excellent location for examining...lobata at Clipperton Atoll, Coral Reefv, 18, 13-27, 1999. Lough, J. M., A strategy to improve the contribution of coral data to high-resolution...to evaluate winter Sr/Ca. The island of Bermuda (64°W, 32°N) is located in the Sargasso Sea in the sub-tropical North Atlantic. This site is

  13. Source/process apportionment of major and trace elements in sinking particles in the Sargasso sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, S.; Conte, M. H.

    2009-01-01

    Elemental composition of the particle flux at the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP) time-series site off Bermuda was measured from January 2002 to March 2005. Eighteen elements (Mg, Al, Si, P, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sr, Cd, Ba and Pb) in sediment trap material from 500, 1500 and 3200 m depths were quantified using fusion-HR-ICPMS. Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) was used to elucidate sources, elemental associations and processes that affect geochemical behavior in the water column. Results provide evidence for intense elemental cycling between the sinking flux material and the dissolved and suspended pools within mesopelagic and bathypelagic waters. Biological processing and remineralization rapidly deplete the sinking flux material in organic matter and associated elements (N, P, Cd, Zn) between 500 and 1500 m depth. Suspended particle aggregation, authigenic mineral precipitation, and chemical scavenging enriches the flux material in lithogenic minerals, barite and redox sensitive elements (Mn, Co, V, Fe). A large increase in the flux of lithogenic elements is observed with depth and confirms that the northeast Sargasso is a significant sink for advected continental materials, likely supplied via Gulf Stream circulation. PMF resolved major sources that contribute to sinking flux at all depths (carbonate, high-Mg carbonate, opal, organic matter, lithogenic material, and barite) as well as additional depth-specific elemental associations that contribute about half of the compositional variability in the flux. PMF solutions indicate close geochemical associations of barite-opal, Cd-P, Zn-Co, Zn-Pb and redox sensitive elements in the sinking flux material at 500 m depth. Major reorganizations of element associations occur as labile carrier phases break down and elements redistribute among new carrier phases deeper in the water column. Factor scores show strong covariation and similar temporal phasing among the three trap depths and indicate a tight

  14. Global Marine Science and Carlsberg - The Golden Connections of Johannes Schmidt (1877-1933) (Med dansksproget resume)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poulsen, Bo

    for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the Danish state and several private companies. Launching 26 oceangoing expeditions Schmidt made landmark discoveries such as the breeding ground for the Atlantic eel in the Sargasso Sea. The scientific frontier was pushed literally kilometres into the deep sea and across...

  15. Global Marine Science and Carlsberg

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poulsen, Bo

    for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the Danish state and several private companies. Launching 26 oceangoing expeditions Schmidt made landmark discoveries such as the breeding ground for the Atlantic eel in the Sargasso Sea. The scientific frontier was pushed literally kilometres into the deep sea and across...

  16. Biogeochemical responses to late-winter storms in the Sargasso Sea, III—Estimates of export production using 234Th: 238U disequilibria and sediment traps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maiti, Kanchan; Benitez-Nelson, Claudia R.; Lomas, Michael W.; Krause, Jeffrey W.

    2009-06-01

    between our observations and geochemical-based estimates of particle export. Comparison of PON export rates with simultaneous measurements of NO 3- uptake derived new production rates suggest that only a fraction, rates were more than a factor of two higher ( prates of bSiO 2 relative to POC and PON, this transport may, over time, slowly decrease water column silicate inventories, and further drive the Sargasso Sea towards increasing silica limitation. These storm events may further affect the quality of the POC and PON exported, given the large association of this material with diatoms during these periods.

  17. Chemical Contaminants Found in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Loggerhead Sea Turtles (Caretta caretta)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Athey, S. N.; Seaton, P. J.; Mead, R. N.

    2016-02-01

    Plastic is becoming increasingly more abundant in the marine environment. Plastic ingestion has been shown to be a source of exposure to a variety of harmful compounds, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), bisphenol A (BPA), and phthalates, which are known for their negative physiological effects on the endocrine system as well as their ability to adsorb and leach from plastic into the bodies of marine organisms. The physiological effects of these compounds on loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) still remain unknown. This study investigated the presence of toxicants on marine plastic samples collected from Bermuda, the Sargasso Sea, and the North Atlantic Ocean. Gas chromatography/triple quadruple mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis showed PAHs were present on many plastic debris samples. Plastic additives such as phthalates and (BPA) were also found. ΣPAH concentrations for anthracene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, and benzo[k]fluoranthene for 2013 environmental plastic samples averaged 26.7ng/g of plastic. This study also examined the presence of these compounds in fluids from the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine from two adult loggerhead turtles. GC/MS analysis also showed the presence of BPA and phthalates on plastic samples, as well as in two out of the six gastrointestinal fluids samples. Average ΣPAH concentration for GI fluids for the loggerheads in the study was 58.7 ng/mL. This study showed plastic could be a significant source of PAHs in sea turtles and the first to detect PAHs in sea turtle GI fluid. Loggerhead sea turtles are a long living species and could accumulate high concentrations of these endocrine-disrupting chemicals throughout their lifetime.

  18. Temperature, salinity, microplankton abundance and other data from three cruises of the R/V Cape Hatteras in the NW Atlantic to study bacterial activity, August 2001 - March 2002 (NODC Accession 0001675)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data is from three cruises on the R/V Cape Hatteras taken in Aug and October 2001, and March 2002 from Boothbay Harbor Maine to the Sargasso Sea. The purpose of...

  19. Temporal variations in dimethylsulphoniopropionate and dimethyl sulphide in the Zuari estuary, Goa (India)

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Shenoy, D.M.; Patil, J.S.

    . F., & Wakeham, S. G. (1998). Temporal variability of dimethyl sulfide and dimethylsulfoniopropionate in the Sargasso Sea. DeepSeaRes.PartI, 45, 2085– 2104. DeSouza, M. P., & Yoch, D. C. (1996). Differential metabolism of dimethyl...) measurements and a procedure to predict sea surface DMS as a function of latitude, longitude, and month.GlobalBiogeochemicalCycles,13, 399–444. Kiene, R. P. (1990). Dimethyl sulfide production from dimethyl-sulfoniopropionate in coastal seawater samples...

  20. Seasonal and interannual variability in deep ocean particle fluxes at the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP)/Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS) site in the western Sargasso Sea near Bermuda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conte, Maureen H.; Ralph, Nate; Ross, Edith H.

    Since 1978, the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP) time-series sediment traps have measured particle fluxes in the deep Sargasso Sea near Bermuda. There is currently a 20+yr flux record at 3200-m depth, a 12+yr flux at 1500-m depth, and a 9+yr record at 500-m depth. Strong seasonality is observed in mass flux at all depths, with a flux maximum in February-March and a smaller maximum in December-January. There is also significant interannual variability in the flux, especially with respect to the presence/absence of the December-January flux maximum and in the duration of the high flux period in the spring. The flux records at the three depths are surprisingly coherent, with no statistically significant temporal lag between 500 and 3200-m fluxes at our biweekly sample resolution. Bulk compositional data indicate an extremely rapid decrease in the flux of organic constituents with depth between 500 and 1500-m, and a smaller decrease with depth between 1500 and 3200-m depth. In contrast, carbonate flux is uniform or increases slightly between 500 and 1500-m, possibly reflecting deep secondary calcification by foraminifera. The lithogenic flux increases by over 50% between 500 and 3200-m depth, indicating strong deep water scavenging/repackaging of suspended lithogenic material. Concurrent with the rapid changes in flux composition, there is a marked reduction in the heterogeneity of the sinking particle pool with depth, especially within the mesopelagic zone. By 3200-m depth, the bulk composition of the sinking particle pool is strikingly uniform, both seasonally and over variations in mass flux of more than an order of magnitude. These OFP results provide strong indirect evidence for the intensity of reprocessing of the particle pool by resident zooplankton within mesopelagic and bathypelagic waters. The rapid loss of organic components, the marked reduction in the heterogeneity of the bulk composition of the flux, and the increase in terrigenous fluxes with depth are most

  1. Speciation and demographic history of Atlantic eels (Anguilla anguilla and A. rostrata) revealed by mitogenome sequencing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jacobsen, M.W.; Pujolar, J.M.; Gilbert, M.T.P.

    2014-01-01

    Processes leading to speciation in oceanic environments without obvious physical barriers remain poorly known. European and American eel (Anguilla anguilla and A. rostrata) spawn in partial sympatry in the Sargasso Sea. Larvae are advected by the Gulf Stream and other currents towards the Europea...

  2. Pacific Missile Range Facility Intercept Test Support. Environmental Assessment/Overseas Environmental Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    will cut in half the amount of petroleum used in Government vehicles through phased adoption of hybrid , electric, and flex fuel vehicles; and (4...some consolidated limestones (cemented beach rock or raised coral reefs). Common plants found in rocky intertidal habitats include sea lettuce ...Common plants found in Niihau’s rocky intertidal habitats include sea lettuce , Sargasso or kala, coralline red algae, red fleshy algae, brown algae, and

  3. Studies on food organisms of pelagic fishes as revealed by the 1979 North Atlantic Eel Expedition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Appelbaum, S.

    1982-09-01

    The extent to which pelagic fishes occurring in the Sargasso Sea and adjacent parts of the Atlantic prey on leptocephali (Anguilliformes) was investigated. Most of the fishes examined (c. 95%) were collected using a commercial pelagical trawl. The stomach contents of about 1000 fishes (25 species of 10 families), mostly belonging to the suborders Myctophoidei, Stomiatoidei and the order Anguilliformes, were examined. The remains of invertebrates, mainly crustaceans, molluscs, tunicates, chaetognaths, and siphonophores were found in 28.8 % of the stomachs. Fishes, mostly myctophids or fish remains, were observed in 11.2 % of the stomachs; 18.7 % contained unidentified items and 40.6 % were empty. Leptocephali ( Ariosoma spp. and Gnathophis sp.) were found in the alimentary tract of 0.5 % of the fishes examined, exclusively represented by the myctophid, Ceratoscopelus warmingii. This report indicates that the Sargasso Sea population of Anguilla leptocephali, economically the most important eel, is not seriously affected by predation of oceanic fish species considered in this study.

  4. Silicate:nitrate ratios of upwelled waters control the phytoplankton community sustained by mesoscale eddies in sub-tropical North Atlantic and Pacific

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. S. Bibby

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Mesoscale eddies in sub-tropical gyres physically perturb the water column and can introduce macronutrients to the euphotic zone, stimulating a biological response in which phytoplankton communities can become dominated by large phytoplankton. Mesoscale eddies may therefore be important in driving export in oligotrophic regions of the modern ocean. However, the character and magnitude of the biological response sustained by eddies is variable. Here we present data from mesoscale eddies in the Sargasso Sea (Atlantic and the waters off Hawai'i (Pacific, alongside mesoscale events that affected the Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study (BATS over the past decade. From this analysis, we suggest that the phytoplankton community structure sustained by mesoscale eddies is predetermined by the relative abundance of silicate over nitrate (Si* in the upwelled waters. We present data that demonstrate that mode-water eddies (MWE in the Sargasso Sea upwell locally formed waters with relatively high Si* to the euphotic zone, and that cyclonic eddies in the Sargasso Sea introduce waters with relatively low Si*, a signature that originated in the iron-limited Southern Ocean. We propose that this phenomenon can explain the observed dominance of the phytoplankton community by large-diatom species in MWE and by small prokaryotic phytoplankton in cyclonic features. In contrast to the Atlantic, North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW with high Si* may influence the cyclonic eddies in waters off Hawai'i, which also appear capable of sustaining diatom populations. These observations suggest that the structure of phytoplankton communities sustained by eddies may be related to the chemical composition of the upwelled waters in addition to the physical nature of the eddy.

  5. Simulated migration of European eel (Anguilla anguilla, Linnaeus 1758)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ginneken, van V.J.T.

    2006-01-01

    The European eel ( Anguillaanguilla L.) is a catadromic fish species with its spawning grounds thousands of kilometers away in the ocean, possibly theSargasso Sea. The objective of this study was to elucidate this oceanic phase of migration

  6. 228Ra and 228Th concentrations in GEOSECS Atlantic surface waters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Y.H.; Toggweiler, J.R.; Feely, H.W.

    1980-01-01

    An average 228 Ra flux of 0.6 +- 0.1 dpm cm -2 yr -1 from continental shelf sediments can maintain the estimated total 228 Ra inventory of about 5x10 17 dpm in Atlantic surface waters. By fitting 228 Ra and potential temperature data to Munk's vertical advection-diffusion model, upwelling rates of 17 +- 10 m yr -1 and vertical eddy diffusion coefficients of 0.4 +- 0.2 cm 2 s -1 were obtained in the upper water column of the equatorial Atlantic. The downward fluxes of particulate 228 Th across the 350-m water depth are about 0.01 to 0.04 dpm cm -2 yr -1 in the Sargasso Sea and in the regions south of 12 0 N and about 0.06 to 0.11 dpm cm -2 yr -1 in the northern temperate region (excluding the Sargasso Sea). The shorter half-removal time of 228 Th in the equatorial (10 0 S to 20 0 N) and the northern region (35 0 to 65 0 N) are related to higher biological productivity there. (author)

  7. Intertextual Realms: Towards a Chronotopic Model of Intertextuality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Birgit Spengler

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Since the 1966 publication of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, it has become a literary fashion to re-imagine well-known, and often canonical, fictional texts from the perspective of 'the minor,' a character whose marginalized existence within the literary classic tends to reflect relations of power and privilege in the extra-fictional realm.

  8. Metabolism of DMSP, DMS and DMSO by the cultivable bacterial community associated with the DMSP-producing dinoflagellate Scrippsiella trochoidea

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Hatton, A.D.; Shenoy, D.M.; Hart, M.C.; Mogg, A.; Green, D.H.

    populations in the Sargasso Sea (del Valle et al. 2007), North Sea (Zubkov et al. 2002) and Gulf of Mexico (Vila-Costa et al. 2006). Instead, there is now a body of evidence, which supports the hypothesis that DMS oxidation to DMSO may be the major pathway... of Mexico. Limnol Oceanogr 45(4):849–861 Kiene RP, Linn LJ (2000b) The fate of dissolved dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) in seawater: tracer studies using 35S-DMSP. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 64(16):2797–2810 Kiene RP, Linn LJ, Bruton JA (2000) New...

  9. A century of research on the larval distributions of the Atlantic eels: a re-examination of the data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Miller, Michael J.; Bonhommeau, Sylvain; Munk, Peter

    2015-01-01

    The spawning areas of the Atlantic freshwater eels were discovered about a century ago by the Danish scientist Johannes Schmidt who after years of searching found newly hatched larvae of the European eel, Anguilla anguilla, and the American eel, Anguilla rostrata, in the southern Sargasso Sea...... comprehensive database that includes 22612 A. anguilla and 9634 A. rostrata leptocephali, which provides a detailed view of the spatial and temporal distributions and size of the larvae across the Atlantic basin and in the Mediterranean Sea. The differences in distributions, maximum sizes, and growth rates...

  10. Evaluation of the Precision of Satellite-Derived Sea Surface Temperature Fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, F.; Cornillon, P. C.; Guan, L.

    2016-02-01

    A great deal of attention has been focused on the temporal accuracy of satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) fields with little attention being given to their spatial precision. Specifically, the primary measure of the quality of SST fields has been the bias and variance of selected values minus co-located (in space and time) in situ values. Contributing values, determined by the location of the in situ values and the necessity that the satellite-derived values be cloud free, are generally widely separated in space and time hence provide little information related to the pixel-to-pixel uncertainty in the retrievals. But the main contribution to the uncertainty in satellite-derived SST retrievals relates to atmospheric contamination and because the spatial scales of atmospheric features are, in general, large compared with the pixel separation of modern infra-red sensors, the pixel-to-pixel uncertainty is often smaller than the accuracy determined from in situ match-ups. This makes selection of satellite-derived datasets for the study of submesoscale processes, for which the spatial structure of the upper ocean is significant, problematic. In this presentation we present a methodology to characterize the spatial precision of satellite-derived SST fields. The method is based on an examination of the high wavenumber tail of the 2-D spectrum of SST fields in the Sargasso Sea, a low energy region of the ocean close to the track of the MV Oleander, a container ship making weekly roundtrips between New York and Bermuda, with engine intake temperatures sampled every 75 m along track. Important spectral characteristics are the point at which the satellite-derived spectra separate from the Oleander spectra and the spectral slope following separation. In this presentation a number of high resolution 375 m to 10 km SST datasets are evaluated based on this approach.

  11. Lead precipitation fluxes at tropical oceanic sites determined from 210Pb measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Settle, D.M.; Patterson, C.C.; Turekian, K.K.; Cochran, J.K.

    1982-01-01

    Concentrations of lead, 210 Pb, and 210 Po were measured in rain selected for least influence by local sources of contamination at several tropical and subtropical islands (Enewetak; Pigeon Key, Florida; and American Samoa) and shipboard stations (near Bermuda and Tahiti). Ratios expressed as ng Pb/dpm 210 Pb in rain were 250--900 for Pigeon Key (assuming 12% adsorption for 210 Pb and no adsorption for lead), depending on whether the air masses containing the analyzed rain came from the Caribbean or from the continent, respectively; about 390 for the northern Sargasso Sea downwind from emissions of industrial lead in North America; 65 for Enewetak, remote from continental emissions of industrial lead in the northern hemisphere; and 14 near Tahiti, a remote location in the southern hemisphere where industrial lead emissions to the atmosphere are much less than in the northern hemisphere. (The American Samoa sample yielded a higher ratio than Tahiti; the reason for this is not clear but may be due to local Pb sources). The corresponding fluxes of lead to the oceans, based on measured or modeled 210 Pb precipitation fluxes, are about 4 ng Pb/cm 2 y for Tahiti, 10 for Enewetak, and 270 for the Sargasso Sea site, and between 110 to 390 at Pigeon Key

  12. Magnetic Compass Orientation in the European Eel

    OpenAIRE

    Durif, Caroline M. F.; Browman, Howard I.; Phillips, John B.; Skiftesvik, Anne Berit; V?llestad, L. Asbj?rn; Stockhausen, Hans H.

    2013-01-01

    European eel migrate from freshwater or coastal habitats throughout Europe to their spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea. However, their route (~ 6000 km) and orientation mechanisms are unknown. Several attempts have been made to prove the existence of magnetoreception in Anguilla sp., but none of these studies have demonstrated magnetic compass orientation in earth-strength magnetic field intensities. We tested eels in four altered magnetic field conditions where magnetic North was set at ge...

  13. Sources of Conflict in the Middle East - The Haves and Have Nots

    Science.gov (United States)

    1993-04-01

    aircraft passed over the pyramids of Giza . From the air they were awe inspiring symbols of a great civilization. Landing at Cairo’s international...airport, we passed through a sargasso sea of bureaucracy and boarded a bus for a trip to those same pyramids . On the way we passed through the city of...time next to absolute poverty stood magnificent palaces, luxurious hotels and imposing government edifices. Arriving at the pyramids , we were

  14. Salp contributions to vertical carbon flux in the Sargasso Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stone, Joshua P.; Steinberg, Deborah K.

    2016-07-01

    We developed a one-dimensional model to estimate salp contributions to vertical carbon flux at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre for a 17-yr period (April 1994 to December 2011). We based the model parameters on published rates of salp physiology and experimentally determined sinking and decomposition rates of salp carcasses. Salp grazing was low during non-bloom conditions, but routinely exceeded 100% of chlorophyll standing stock and primary production during blooms. Fecal pellet production was the largest source of salp carbon flux (78% of total), followed by respiration below 200 m (19%), sinking of carcasses (3%), and DOC excretion below 200 m (salp-mediated carbon flux. Seasonally, salp flux was higher during spring-summer than fall-winter, due to seasonal changes in species composition and abundance. Salp carbon export to 200 m was on average 2.3 mg C m-2 d-1 across the entire time series. This is equivalent to 11% of the mean 200 m POC flux measured by sediment traps in the region. During years with significant salp blooms, however, annually-averaged salp carbon export was the equivalent of up to 60% of trap POC flux at 200 m. Salp carbon flux attenuated slowly, and at 3200 m the average modeled carbon from salps was 109% of the POC flux measured in sediment traps at that depth. Migratory and carcass carbon export pathways should also be considered (alongside fecal pellet flux) as facilitating carbon export to sequestration depths in future studies.

  15. Proceedings of the Gulf Stream Workshop Held at West Greenwich, Rhode Island on 23-26 April 1985,

    Science.gov (United States)

    1985-04-01

    from the cooler (blue-to- green ) slope water to the warmer (yellow-to-red) waters of the Gulf Stream and Sargasso Sea. Further use. of satellite...baroclinic instability. In fact, Hogg (1985) has shown that these motions closely resemble those predicted by the Gill, Green and Simmons (1974...experiment in which observations in .., e form of 4x instead of Ay were provtied c"velocity" instea of "svrearmfunctaon"). The behavor of the error

  16. Bioinformatics for whole-genome shotgun sequencing of microbial communities.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kevin Chen

    2005-07-01

    Full Text Available The application of whole-genome shotgun sequencing to microbial communities represents a major development in metagenomics, the study of uncultured microbes via the tools of modern genomic analysis. In the past year, whole-genome shotgun sequencing projects of prokaryotic communities from an acid mine biofilm, the Sargasso Sea, Minnesota farm soil, three deep-sea whale falls, and deep-sea sediments have been reported, adding to previously published work on viral communities from marine and fecal samples. The interpretation of this new kind of data poses a wide variety of exciting and difficult bioinformatics problems. The aim of this review is to introduce the bioinformatics community to this emerging field by surveying existing techniques and promising new approaches for several of the most interesting of these computational problems.

  17. Nonlinear Relationships Between Particulate Absorption and Chlorophyll: Detritus or Pigment Packaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    1993-06-15

    for another polar area. For samples from Antartic waters, the mean a*pan(4 3 5 ), normalized to chl a + pheo, was 0.0 18 m2 (mg chl a)-I (Mitchell and...specific absorption coefficients, was suggested as the cause of relatively low mean specific absorption coefficients in the Antartic . The values of c1...moored optical sensors in the Sargasso Sea. J. Geophys. Res. 97, 7399-7412. Mitchell, B.G., and 0. Holm-Hansen 1991. Bio-optical properties of Antartic

  18. Coupling of dimethylsulfide oxidation to biomass production by a marine flavobacterium

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Green, D.H.; Shenoy, D.M.; Hart, M.C.; Hatton, A.D.

    . Stirling, and J. R. Quayle. 1982. Co-metabolism [and discussion]. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 297:481-496. 7. del Valle, D. A., D. J. Kieber, and R. P. Kiene. 2007. Depth-dependent fate of biologically- consumed dimethylsulfide in the Sargasso Sea. Mar Chem.... Klenk. 1985. Measurement of protein using bicinchoninic acid. Anal Biochem 150:76-85. 27. Vila-Costa, M., D. A. del Valle, J. M. Gonzalez, D. Slezak, R. P. Kiene, O. Sanchez, and R. Simo. 2006. Phylogenetic identification and metabolism of marine...

  19. The spatial distribution of silicoflagellates in the region of the Gulf Stream warm-core ring 82B: application to water mass tracer studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takahashi, Kozo; Blackwelder, Patricia L.

    1992-03-01

    To delineate potential water mass affinities, we investigated silicoflagellates from the region of Gulf Stream warm-core ring (WCR) 82B in the northwestern Atlantic. Silicoflagellates from 202 samples from N-S and an E-W transects across WCR 82B during late April were analysed. Shelf to Sargasso Sea transects, one completed in early May and the other in June 1982 were also examined. Eight to 11 vertical profiles to 200 m comprised each of the transects. Six taxa of silicoflagellates were found in the samples studied and a total of more than 8000 specimens were encountered. Three major taxa dominated standing stocks: Distephanus speculum, Dictyocha messanensis (intermediate-sized form) and D. mandrai. D. speculum, considered a cold-water taxon in the literature, showed a higher standing stock in the cooler high-velocity region (HVR) of the warm-core ring, continental shelf (SH) and slope (SL) waters. Fewer were present in the wanner ring center (RC), Gulf Stream (GS) and Sargasso Sea (SS). D. mandrai showed a similar distribution to that of D. speculum, but its preference for slightly warmer waters (>~10°C) was noted. In contrast, Dictyocha messanensis (intermediate-sized) and Distephanus pulchra, known to be warm-water taxa, were relatively abundant in the warm ring center. In contrast to standing stock data, ratios between cold- and warm-water taxa correlate well with temperature and salinity in the warm-core ring. Since these ratios are not effected by convective loss, they are excellent water mass tracers in this system. Distribution of the silicoflagellate taxa suggests that WCR82B April had a higher affinity with the Gulf Stream than the Sargasso Sea. Scores derived from factor analysis indicate that silicoflagellate species distributions are highly correlative with water masses. This was evident from correlations with temperature, salinity and with distance from ring center. Nutrients were generally not correlated with species data. This may be due to deep

  20. « Et ils ne vécurent pas heureux » : la fin de Jane Eyre réécrite dans Charlotte de D.M. Thomas “And they didn’t live happily ever after”: D.M. Thomas’s Rewriting of the Ending of Jane Eyre in Charlotte

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Armelle Parey

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available D.M. Thomas’s rewriting of Jane Eyre in Charlotte (2000 takes the shape of a transformation of the ending which enables the second Mrs Rochester’s story to be continued in the West Indies, thus also acknowledging Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea as another intertext. In order to challenge the narrative and ideological hierarchy of the source text by rewriting its ending, the pastiche defamiliarises it while some chapters set in 1999 move the limits of rewriting and take the reader into a narrative spiral.

  1. Temperature effects on gene expression and morphological development of European eel, Anguilla anguilla larvae

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Politis, Sebastian Nikitas; Mazurais, David; Servili, Arianna

    2017-01-01

    °C as the optimal temperature for offspring of European eel. Furthermore, our results suggest that the still enigmatic early life history stages of European eel may inhabit the deeper layer of the Sargasso Sea and indicate vulnerability of this critically endangered species to increasing ocean......Temperature is important for optimization of rearing conditions in aquaculture, especially during the critical early life history stages of fish. Here, we experimentally investigated the impact of temperature (16, 18, 20, 22 and 24°C) on thermally induced phenotypic variability, from larval hatch...

  2. Sea level trends in South East Asian Seas (SEAS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strassburg, M. W.; Hamlington, B. D.; Leben, R. R.; Manurung, P.; Lumban Gaol, J.; Nababan, B.; Vignudelli, S.; Kim, K.-Y.

    2014-10-01

    Southeast Asian Seas (SEAS) span the largest archipelago in the global ocean and provide a complex oceanic pathway connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The SEAS regional sea level trends are some of the highest observed in the modern satellite altimeter record that now spans almost two decades. Initial comparisons of global sea level reconstructions find that 17 year sea level trends over the past 60 years exhibit good agreement in areas and at times of strong signal to noise associated decadal variability forced by low frequency variations in Pacific trade winds. The SEAS region exhibits sea level trends that vary dramatically over the studied time period. This historical variation suggests that the strong regional sea level trends observed during the modern satellite altimeter record will abate as trade winds fluctuate on decadal and longer time scales. Furthermore, after removing the contribution of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) to sea level trends in the past twenty years, the rate of sea level rise is greatly reduced in the SEAS region. As a result of the influence of the PDO, the SEAS regional sea level trends during 2010s and 2020s are likely to be less than the global mean sea level (GMSL) trend if the observed oscillations in wind forcing and sea level persist. Nevertheless, long-term sea level trends in the SEAS will continue to be affected by GMSL rise occurring now and in the future.

  3. Seasonal variation of 228Ra/226Ra ratio in seaweed: implications for water circulation patterns in coastal areas of the Noto Peninsula, Japan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Inoue, M.; Kofuji, H.; Yamamoto, M.; Komura, K.

    2005-01-01

    To examine water circulation patterns of coastal water, 72 seaweed (Sargasso) samples and 27 coastal water samples were collected from coastal areas of the Noto Peninsula, Japan, during the period from December 1998 to June 2002. The 228 Ra and 226 Ra activities of those samples were measured by low-background γ-ray spectrometry. There was a wide range of activities of 228 Ra (0.5-2 Bq/kg-fresh) and 226 Ra (0.5-1.2 Bq/kg-fresh) in the Sargasso samples. The 228 Ra/ 226 Ra activity ratio of Sargasso samples exhibited seasonal variation with minimum values in June ( 228 Ra/ 226 Ra = ∼1) and maximum values in December (1.5-2.5), which was mainly governed by changes in 228 Ra activity. It is also notable that the seasonal variation of the 228 Ra/ 226 Ra ratio of Sargasso is in approximate agreement with that of the ambient coastal water. Sargasso samples appear to have retained the 228 Ra/ 226 Ra ratio of the ambient coastal waters, and the temporal variations in that ratio provide insight into seasonal changes in water circulation in the Noto Peninsula coastal area

  4. Seasonality and vertical structure of microbial communities in an ocean gyre.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Treusch, Alexander H; Vergin, Kevin L; Finlay, Liam A; Donatz, Michael G; Burton, Robert M; Carlson, Craig A; Giovannoni, Stephen J

    2009-10-01

    Vertical, seasonal and geographical patterns in ocean microbial communities have been observed in many studies, but the resolution of community dynamics has been limited by the scope of data sets, which are seldom up to the task of illuminating the highly structured and rhythmic patterns of change found in ocean ecosystems. We studied vertical and temporal patterns in the microbial community composition in a set of 412 samples collected from the upper 300 m of the water column in the northwestern Sargasso Sea, on cruises between 1991 and 2004. The region sampled spans the extent of deep winter mixing and the transition between the euphotic and the upper mesopelagic zones, where most carbon fixation and reoxidation occurs. A bioinformatic pipeline was developed to de-noise, normalize and align terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) data from three restriction enzymes and link T-RFLP peaks to microbial clades. Non-metric multidimensional scaling statistics resolved three microbial communities with distinctive composition during seasonal stratification: a surface community in the region of lowest nutrients, a deep chlorophyll maximum community and an upper mesopelagic community. A fourth microbial community was associated with annual spring blooms of eukaryotic phytoplankton that occur in the northwestern Sargasso Sea as a consequence of winter convective mixing that entrains nutrients to the surface. Many bacterial clades bloomed in seasonal patterns that shifted with the progression of stratification. These richly detailed patterns of community change suggest that highly specialized adaptations and interactions govern the success of microbial populations in the oligotrophic ocean.

  5. Behaviour of stocked and naturally recruited European eels during migration

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Westerberg, Håkan; Sjöberg, Niklas; Lagenfelt, Ingvar

    2014-01-01

    An objection to the stocking of translocated eels as a management measure for the European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) is that these eels may lack the ability to find their way back to the spawning area in the Sargasso Sea because the translocation will confuse their imprinted navigation. We...... behaviour could be monitored by acoustic tagging, in addition to using archival and satellite tags to track the subsequent marine migration. In the second year, the eels were released on the open coast and only their marine migration was investigated. Eels were tracked more than 2000 km along a route that...

  6. Sargasso Sea phosphorus biogeochemistry: an important role for dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. W. Lomas

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Inorganic phosphorus (SRP concentrations in the subtropical North Atlantic are some of the lowest in the global ocean and have been hypothesized to constrain primary production. Based upon data from several transect cruises in this region, it has been hypothesized that dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP supports a significant fraction of primary production in the subtropical North Atlantic. In this study, a time-series of phosphorus biogeochemistry is presented for the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site, including rates of phosphorus export. Most parameters have a seasonal pattern, although year-over-year variability in the seasonal pattern is substantial, likely due to differences in external forcing. Suspended particulate phosphorus exhibits a seasonal maximum during the spring bloom, despite the absence of a seasonal peak in SRP. However, DOP concentrations are at an annual maximum prior to the winter/spring bloom and decline over the course of the spring bloom while whole community alkaline phosphatase activities are highest. As a result of DOP bioavailability, the growth of particles during the spring bloom occurs in Redfield proportions, though particles exported from the euphotic zone show rapid and significant remineralization of phosphorus within the first 50 m below the euphotic zone. Based upon DOP data from transect cruises in this region, the southward cross gyral flux of DOP is estimated to support ~25% of annual primary production and ~100% of phosphorus export. These estimates are consistent with other research in the subtropical North Atlantic and reinforce the hypothesis that while the subtropics may be phosphorus stressed (a physiological response to low inorganic phosphorus, utilization of the DOP pool allows production and accumulation of microbial biomass at Redfield proportions.

  7. Nature/culture/seawater.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helmreich, Stefan

    2011-01-01

    Seawater has occupied an ambiguous place in anthropological categories of "nature" and "culture." Seawater as nature appears as potentiality of form and uncontainable flux; it moves faster than culture - with culture frequently figured through land-based metaphors - even as culture seeks to channel water's (nature's) flow. Seawater as culture manifests as a medium of pleasure, sustenance, travel, disaster. I argue that, although seawater's qualities in early anthropology were portrayed impressionistically, today technical, scientific descriptions of water's form prevail. For example, processes of globalization - which may also be called "oceanization" - are often described as "currents," "flows," and "circulations." Examining sea-set ethnography, maritime anthropologies, and contemporary social theory, I propose that seawater has operated as a “theory machine” for generating insights about human cultural organization. I develop this argument with ethnography from the Sargasso Sea and in the Sea Islands. I conclude with a critique of appeals to water's form in social theory.

  8. Vertical distribution and isotopic composition of living planktonic foraminifera in the western North Atlantic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fairbanks, R.G.; Wiebe, P.H.; Be, A.W.H.

    1980-01-01

    Thirteen species of planktonic foraminifera collected with vertically stratified zooplankton tows in the slope water, Gulf Stream cold core ring, and northern Sargasso Sea show significant differences in their vertical distributions in the upper 200 meters of these different hydrographic regimes. Gulf Stream cold core rings may be responsible for a southern displacement of the faunal boundary associated with the Gulf Stream when reconstructed from the deep-sea sediment record. Oxygen isotope analyses of seven species reveal that nonspinose species (algal symbiont-barren) apparently calcify in oxygen isotope equilibrium, whereas spinose species usually calcify out of oxygen isotope equilibrium by approximately -0.3 to -0.4 per mil in delta 18 O values. The isotope data indicate that foraminifera shells calcify in depth zones that are significantly narrower than the overall vertical distribution of a species would imply

  9. Swimming physiology of European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palstra, Arjan P; van den Thillart, Guido E E J M

    2010-09-01

    The European eel migrates 5,000-6,000 km to the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. Because they venture into the ocean in a pre-pubertal state and reproduce after swimming for months, a strong interaction between swimming and sexual maturation is expected. Many swimming trials have been performed in 22 swim tunnels to elucidate their performance and the impact on maturation. European eels are able to swim long distances at a cost of 10-12 mg fat/km which is 4-6 times more efficient than salmonids. The total energy costs of reproduction correspond to 67% of the fat stores. During long distance swimming, the body composition stays the same showing that energy consumption calculations cannot be based on fat alone but need to be compensated for protein oxidation. The optimal swimming speed is 0.61-0.67 m s(-1), which is approximately 60% higher than the generally assumed cruise speed of 0.4 m s(-1) and implies that female eels may reach the Sargasso Sea within 3.5 months instead of the assumed 6 months. Swimming trials showed lipid deposition and oocyte growth, which are the first steps of sexual maturation. To investigate effects of oceanic migration on maturation, we simulated group-wise migration in a large swim-gutter with seawater. These trials showed suppressed gonadotropin expression and vitellogenesis in females, while in contrast continued sexual maturation was observed in silver males. The induction of lipid deposition in the oocytes and the inhibition of vitellogenesis by swimming in females suggest a natural sequence of events quite different from artificial maturation protocols.

  10. Sea level trends in Southeast Asian seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strassburg, M. W.; Hamlington, B. D.; Leben, R. R.; Manurung, P.; Lumban Gaol, J.; Nababan, B.; Vignudelli, S.; Kim, K.-Y.

    2015-05-01

    Southeast Asian seas span the largest archipelago in the global ocean and provide a complex oceanic pathway connecting the Pacific and Indian oceans. The Southeast Asian sea regional sea level trends are some of the highest observed in the modern satellite altimeter record that now spans almost 2 decades. Initial comparisons of global sea level reconstructions find that 17-year sea level trends over the past 60 years exhibit good agreement with decadal variability associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and related fluctuations of trade winds in the region. The Southeast Asian sea region exhibits sea level trends that vary dramatically over the studied time period. This historical variation suggests that the strong regional sea level trends observed during the modern satellite altimeter record will abate as trade winds fluctuate on decadal and longer timescales. Furthermore, after removing the contribution of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) to sea level trends in the past 20 years, the rate of sea level rise is greatly reduced in the Southeast Asian sea region. As a result of the influence of the PDO, the Southeast Asian sea regional sea level trends during the 2010s and 2020s are likely to be less than the global mean sea level (GMSL) trend if the observed oscillations in wind forcing and sea level persist. Nevertheless, long-term sea level trends in the Southeast Asian seas will continue to be affected by GMSL rise occurring now and in the future.

  11. Sea surface temperatures and salinities from platforms in the Barents Sea, Sea of Japan, North Atlantic Ocean, Philippine Sea, Red Sea, and the South China Sea (Nan Hai) from 1896-1950 (NODC Accession 0000506)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Surface temperatures and salinities were collected in the Barents Sea, Sea of Japan, North Atlantic Ocean, Philippine Sea, Red Sea, and South China Sea (Nan Hai)...

  12. Observational analysis of air-sea fluxes and sea water temperature offshore South China Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bi, X.; Huang, J.; Gao, Z.; Liu, Y.

    2017-12-01

    This paper investigates the air-sea fluxes (momentum flux, sensible heat flux and latent heat flux) from eddy covariance method based on data collected at an offshore observation tower in the South China Sea from January 2009 to December 2016 and sea water temperature (SWT) on six different levels based on data collected from November 2011 to June 2013. The depth of water at the tower over the sea averages about 15 m. This study presents the in-situ measurements of continuous air-sea fluxes and SWT at different depths. Seasonal and diurnal variations in air-sea fluxes and SWT on different depths are examined. Results show that air-sea fluxes and all SWT changed seasonally; sea-land breeze circulation appears all the year round. Unlike winters where SWT on different depths are fairly consistent, the difference between sea surface temperature (SST) and sea temperature at 10 m water depth fluctuates dramatically and the maximum value reaches 7 °C during summer.

  13. The distribution and diversity of sea cucumbers in the coral reefs of the South China Sea, Sulu Sea and Sulawesi Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woo, Sau Pinn; Yasin, Zulfigar; Ismail, Siti Hasmah; Tan, Shau Hwai

    2013-11-01

    A study on the distribution and diversity of sea cucumbers in the coral reefs of the South China Sea, Sulu Sea and Sulawesi Sea was carried out in July 2009. The survey was done using wandering transect underwater with SCUBA. Twelve species of sea cucumber were found from four different families and nine genera. The most dominant family was Holothuriidae (five species), followed by Stichopodidae (three species), Synaptidae (three species) and Cucumariidae with only one species. The most dominant species found around the island was Pearsonothuria graffei, which can be found abundantly on substrate of dead corals in a wide range of depth (6-15 m). The Sulawesi Sea showed a higher diversity of sea cucumber with seven different species compared to the South China Sea with only six different species and Sulu Sea with only two species. Ordination by multidimensional scaling of Bray-Curtis similarities clustered the sampling locations to three main clusters with two outgroups. Previous studies done indicated a higher diversity of sea cucumber as compared to this study. This can be indication that the population and diversity of sea cucumbers in the reef is under threat.

  14. Silver eel migration, wind power and alternating current fields; Blankaalsvandring, vindkraft och vaexelstroemsfaelt, 2011

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lagenfelt, Ingvar; Andersson, Ingemar; Westerberg, Haakan

    2012-02-15

    How are eels affected by large offshore wind farms? The study follows the silver eels' migration and behavior at Lillgrund wind farm in Oeresund and the passage over an 130 kV AC cable between the mainland and Oeland. The aim is to see if the AC cable precludes or otherwise affects the eel's ability to reach its destination. Eels migrate up to 7500 km from the Baltic Sea to spawn in the Sargasso Sea. Every delay is of importance for the silver eels, which must be able to travel the entire distance on a single energy reserve. Fish, which make use of the earth's magnetic field for navigation or which are sensitive to electromagnetic fields, may be affected by AC cables on the seabed. The study shows that the silver eels swimming speed was reduced when there was more current in the cable and there was an average delay of 40 minutes before they passed it

  15. Wind-sea surface temperature-sea ice relationship in the Chukchi-Beaufort Seas during autumn

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Jing; Stegall, Steve T.; Zhang, Xiangdong

    2018-03-01

    Dramatic climate changes, especially the largest sea ice retreat during September and October, in the Chukchi-Beaufort Seas could be a consequence of, and further enhance, complex air-ice-sea interactions. To detect these interaction signals, statistical relationships between surface wind speed, sea surface temperature (SST), and sea ice concentration (SIC) were analyzed. The results show a negative correlation between wind speed and SIC. The relationships between wind speed and SST are complicated by the presence of sea ice, with a negative correlation over open water but a positive correlation in sea ice dominated areas. The examination of spatial structures indicates that wind speed tends to increase when approaching the ice edge from open water and the area fully covered by sea ice. The anomalous downward radiation and thermal advection, as well as their regional distribution, play important roles in shaping these relationships, though wind-driven sub-grid scale boundary layer processes may also have contributions. Considering the feedback loop involved in the wind-SST-SIC relationships, climate model experiments would be required to further untangle the underlying complex physical processes.

  16. Origin of particulate organic carbon in the marine atmosphere as indicated by it stable carbon isotopic composition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chesselet, R.; Fontugne, M.; Buat-Menard, P.; Ezat, U.; Lambert, C.E.

    1981-01-01

    Organic carbon concentration and isotopic composition were determined in samples of atmospheric particulate matter collected in 1979 at remote marine locations (Enewetak atoll, Sargasso Sea) during the SEAREX (Sea-Air Exchange) program field experiments. Atmospheric Particulate Organic Carbon (POC) concentrations were found to be in the range of 0.3 to 1.2 mg. m -3 , in agreement with previous literature data. The major mass of POC was found on the smallest particles (r 13 C/ 12 C of the small particles is close to the one expected (d 13 C = 26 +- 2 0 //sub infinity/) for atmospheric POC of continental origin. For all the samples analysed so far, it appears that more than 80% of atmospheric POC over remote marine areas is of continental origin. This can be explained either by long-range transport of small sized continental organic aserosols or by the production of POC in the marine atmosphere from a vapor phase organic carbon pool of continental origin. The POC in the large size fraction of marine aerosols ( 13 C = -21 +- 2 0 / 00 ) for POC associated with sea-salt droplets transported to the marine atmosphere

  17. Climatology of sea breezes along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia

    KAUST Repository

    Khan, Basit

    2018-04-25

    Long-term near-surface observations from five coastal stations, high-resolution model data from Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) and high-resolution daily sea surface temperature (SST) from National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are used to investigate the climatology of sea breezes over the eastern side of the Red Sea region. Results show existence of separate sea breeze systems along different segments of the Red Sea coastline. Based on the physical character and synoptic influences, sea breezes in the Red Sea are broadly divided into three regions: the north and the middle Red Sea (NMRS), the Red Sea convergence zone (RSCZ) and the southern Red Sea (SRS) regions. On average, sea breezes developed on 67% of days of the 10-year study period. Although sea breezes occur almost all year, this mesoscale phenomenon is most frequent from May to October (78% of the total sea breeze days). The sea breeze frequency increases from north to south (equatorwards), and sea breeze characteristics appear to vary both temporally and spatially. In addition to land-sea thermal differential, coastline shape, latitude and topography, the prevailing northwesterly at NMRS region, the convergence of northwesterly and southeasterly wind system at RSCZ region and the northeast and southwest monsoon at SRS region play an important role in defining the sea breeze characteristics over the Red Sea.

  18. Intraseasonal sea surface temperature variability in Indonesian seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Napitu, A. M.; Gordon, A. L.; Yuan, X.

    2012-12-01

    The satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) data, 1998-mid 2012, are used to examine intraseasonal variability (ISV; 20-90 days) across the Indonesian seas. The most energetic ISV is observed in the Banda Sea and across the Indo-Australia basin with an The satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) data, 1998-mid 2012, are used to examine intraseasonal variability (ISV; 20-90 days) across the Indonesian seas. The most energetic ISV is observed in the Banda Sea and across the Indo-Australia basin with an average SST standard deviation (STD) between 0.4-0.5°C, with strongest signature during boreal winter. What physical processes force the SST ISV variability within the Indonesian seas? Ocean process, sea-air interaction, or both? To help identify the main forcing, the satellite derived outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and wind stress data in the region are examined. The OLR shows robust intraseasonal variations and is significantly correlated with the SST, particularly for variability with periods of 30-60 days, with OLR accounting for ~60-70% of the SST variance. The OLR is also maximum during boreal winter. Conversely, the surface wind may play insignificant role in perturbing the SST at intraseasonal timescales as shown by weak correlation between wind stress and SST. We thus suspect that the surface solar flux (suggested by the OLR) is likely more dominant than the surface turbulent heat flux (indicated by the surface wind) as the main source for the ISV in the SST in Indonesian seas. Furthermore the maximum OLR phase, coupled with a period of minimum mixed layer depth, may explain the strong SST variation during boreal winter in Indonesian seas. The influence of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) on the OLR and SST variability is currently being evaluated.

  19. Sea-ice evaluation of NEMO-Nordic 1.0: a NEMO-LIM3.6-based ocean-sea-ice model setup for the North Sea and Baltic Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pemberton, Per; Löptien, Ulrike; Hordoir, Robinson; Höglund, Anders; Schimanke, Semjon; Axell, Lars; Haapala, Jari

    2017-08-01

    The Baltic Sea is a seasonally ice-covered marginal sea in northern Europe with intense wintertime ship traffic and a sensitive ecosystem. Understanding and modeling the evolution of the sea-ice pack is important for climate effect studies and forecasting purposes. Here we present and evaluate the sea-ice component of a new NEMO-LIM3.6-based ocean-sea-ice setup for the North Sea and Baltic Sea region (NEMO-Nordic). The setup includes a new depth-based fast-ice parametrization for the Baltic Sea. The evaluation focuses on long-term statistics, from a 45-year long hindcast, although short-term daily performance is also briefly evaluated. We show that NEMO-Nordic is well suited for simulating the mean sea-ice extent, concentration, and thickness as compared to the best available observational data set. The variability of the annual maximum Baltic Sea ice extent is well in line with the observations, but the 1961-2006 trend is underestimated. Capturing the correct ice thickness distribution is more challenging. Based on the simulated ice thickness distribution we estimate the undeformed and deformed ice thickness and concentration in the Baltic Sea, which compares reasonably well with observations.

  20. Sea level report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schwartz, M.L.

    1979-01-01

    Study of Cenozoic Era sea levels shows a continual lowering of sea level through the Tertiary Period. This overall drop in sea level accompanied the Pleistocene Epoch glacio-eustatic fluctuations. The considerable change of Pleistocene Epoch sea level is most directly attributable to the glacio-eustatic factor, with a time span of 10 5 years and an amplitude or range of approximately 200 m. The lowering of sea level since the end of the Cretaceous Period is attributed to subsidence and mid-ocean ridges. The maximum rate for sea level change is 4 cm/y. At present, mean sea level is rising at about 3 to 4 mm/y. Glacio-eustacy and tectono-eustacy are the parameters for predicting sea level changes in the next 1 my. Glacio-eustatic sea level changes may be projected on the basis of the Milankovitch Theory. Predictions about tectono-eustatic sea level changes, however, involve predictions about future tectonic activity and are therefore somewhat difficult to make. Coastal erosion and sedimentation are affected by changes in sea level. Erosion rates for soft sediments may be as much as 50 m/y. The maximum sedimentation accumulation rate is 20 m/100 y

  1. The wind sea and swell waves climate in the Nordic seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Semedo, Alvaro; Vettor, Roberto; Breivik, Øyvind; Sterl, Andreas; Reistad, Magnar; Soares, Carlos Guedes; Lima, Daniela

    2015-02-01

    A detailed climatology of wind sea and swell waves in the Nordic Seas (North Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Barents Sea), based on the high-resolution reanalysis NORA10, developed by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, is presented. The higher resolution of the wind forcing fields, and the wave model (10 km in both cases), along with the inclusion of the bottom effect, allowed a better description of the wind sea and swell features, compared to previous global studies. The spatial patterns of the swell-dominated regional wave fields are shown to be different from the open ocean, due to coastal geometry, fetch dimensions, and island sheltering. Nevertheless, swell waves are still more prevalent and carry more energy in the Nordic Seas, with the exception of the North Sea. The influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the winter regional wind sea and swell patterns is also presented. The analysis of the decadal trends of wind sea and swell heights during the NORA10 period (1958-2001) shows that the long-term trends of the total significant wave height (SWH) in the Nordic Seas are mostly due to swell and to the wave propagation effect.

  2. Investigating Arctic Sea Ice Survivability in the Beaufort Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matthew Tooth

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Arctic sea ice extent has continued to decline in recent years, and the fractional coverage of multi-year sea ice has decreased significantly during this period. The Beaufort Sea region has been the site of much of the loss of multi-year sea ice, and it continues to play a large role in the extinction of ice during the melt season. We present an analysis of the influence of satellite-derived ice surface temperature, ice thickness, albedo, and downwelling longwave/shortwave radiation as well as latitude and airborne snow depth estimates on the change in sea ice concentration in the Beaufort Sea from 2009 to 2016 using a Lagrangian tracking database. Results from this analysis indicate that parcels that melt during summer in the Beaufort Sea reside at lower latitudes and have lower ice thickness at the beginning of the melt season in most cases. The influence of sea ice thickness and snow depth observed by IceBridge offers less conclusive results, with some years exhibiting higher thicknesses/depths for melted parcels. Parcels that melted along IceBridge tracks do exhibit lower latitudes and ice thicknesses, however, which indicates that earlier melt and breakup of ice may contribute to a greater likelihood of extinction of parcels in the summer.

  3. Sea level change

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Church, J.A.; Clark, P.U.; Cazenave, A.; Gregory, J.M.; Jevrejeva, S.; Levermann, A.; Merrifield, M.A.; Milne, G.A.; Nerem, R.S.; Nunn, P.D.; Payne, A.J.; Pfeffer, W.T.; Stammer, D.; Unnikrishnan, A.S.

    This chapter considers changes in global mean sea level, regional sea level, sea level extremes, and waves. Confidence in projections of global mean sea level rise has increased since the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) because of the improved...

  4. Air-sea exchange studies at the North Sea

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leeuw, G. de; Eijk, A.M.J. van; Kunz, G.J.; Veefkind, P.J.

    1996-01-01

    The North Sea can be considered as a local 'inner' sea in which many processes are quite different from these over the open ocean. The surrounding land has a major influence, being the source for man-made aerosols and gases, whereas the North Sea acts as a sink for these. At the same time the North

  5. Sea ice dynamics across the Mid-Pleistocene transition in the Bering Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Detlef, H; Belt, S T; Sosdian, S M; Smik, L; Lear, C H; Hall, I R; Cabedo-Sanz, P; Husum, K; Kender, S

    2018-03-05

    Sea ice and associated feedback mechanisms play an important role for both long- and short-term climate change. Our ability to predict future sea ice extent, however, hinges on a greater understanding of past sea ice dynamics. Here we investigate sea ice changes in the eastern Bering Sea prior to, across, and after the Mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT). The sea ice record, based on the Arctic sea ice biomarker IP 25 and related open water proxies from the International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1343, shows a substantial increase in sea ice extent across the MPT. The occurrence of late-glacial/deglacial sea ice maxima are consistent with sea ice/land ice hysteresis and land-glacier retreat via the temperature-precipitation feedback. We also identify interactions of sea ice with phytoplankton growth and ocean circulation patterns, which have important implications for glacial North Pacific Intermediate Water formation and potentially North Pacific abyssal carbon storage.

  6. ACCELERATION OF SEA LEVEL RISE OVER MALAYSIAN SEAS FROM SATELLITE ALTIMETER

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. I. A. Hamid

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Sea level rise becomes our concern nowadays as a result of variously contribution of climate change that cause by the anthropogenic effects. Global sea levels have been rising through the past century and are projected to rise at an accelerated rate throughout the 21st century. Due to this change, sea level is now constantly rising and eventually will threaten many low-lying and unprotected coastal areas in many ways. This paper is proposing a significant effort to quantify the sea level trend over Malaysian seas based on the combination of multi-mission satellite altimeters over a period of 23 years. Eight altimeter missions are used to derive the absolute sea level from Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS. Data verification is then carried out to verify the satellite derived sea level rise data with tidal data. Eight selected tide gauge stations from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak are chosen for this data verification. The pattern and correlation of both measurements of sea level anomalies (SLA are evaluated over the same period in each area in order to produce comparable results. Afterwards, the time series of the sea level trend is quantified using robust fit regression analysis. The findings clearly show that the absolute sea level trend is rising and varying over the Malaysian seas with the rate of sea level varies and gradually increase from east to west of Malaysia. Highly confident and correlation level of the 23 years measurement data with an astonishing root mean square difference permits the absolute sea level trend of the Malaysian seas has raised at the rate 3.14 ± 0.12 mm yr-1 to 4.81 ± 0.15 mm yr-1 for the chosen sub-areas, with an overall mean of 4.09 ± 0.12 mm yr-1. This study hopefully offers a beneficial sea level information to be applied in a wide range of related environmental and climatology issue such as flood and global warming.

  7. Acceleration of Sea Level Rise Over Malaysian Seas from Satellite Altimeter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamid, A. I. A.; Din, A. H. M.; Khalid, N. F.; Omar, K. M.

    2016-09-01

    Sea level rise becomes our concern nowadays as a result of variously contribution of climate change that cause by the anthropogenic effects. Global sea levels have been rising through the past century and are projected to rise at an accelerated rate throughout the 21st century. Due to this change, sea level is now constantly rising and eventually will threaten many low-lying and unprotected coastal areas in many ways. This paper is proposing a significant effort to quantify the sea level trend over Malaysian seas based on the combination of multi-mission satellite altimeters over a period of 23 years. Eight altimeter missions are used to derive the absolute sea level from Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS). Data verification is then carried out to verify the satellite derived sea level rise data with tidal data. Eight selected tide gauge stations from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak are chosen for this data verification. The pattern and correlation of both measurements of sea level anomalies (SLA) are evaluated over the same period in each area in order to produce comparable results. Afterwards, the time series of the sea level trend is quantified using robust fit regression analysis. The findings clearly show that the absolute sea level trend is rising and varying over the Malaysian seas with the rate of sea level varies and gradually increase from east to west of Malaysia. Highly confident and correlation level of the 23 years measurement data with an astonishing root mean square difference permits the absolute sea level trend of the Malaysian seas has raised at the rate 3.14 ± 0.12 mm yr-1 to 4.81 ± 0.15 mm yr-1 for the chosen sub-areas, with an overall mean of 4.09 ± 0.12 mm yr-1. This study hopefully offers a beneficial sea level information to be applied in a wide range of related environmental and climatology issue such as flood and global warming.

  8. Suspended marine particulate proteins in coastal and oligotrophic waters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bridoux, Maxime C.; Neibauer, Jaqui; Ingalls, Anitra E.; Nunn, Brook L.; Keil, Richard G.

    2015-03-01

    Metaproteomic analyses were performed on suspended sediments collected in one coastal environment (Washington margin, Pacific Ocean, n = 5) and two oligotrophic environments (Atlantic Ocean near BATS, n = 5, and Pacific Ocean near HOTS, n = 5). Using a database of 2.3 million marine proteins developed using the NCBI database, 443 unique peptides were detected from which 363 unique proteins were identified. Samples from the euphotic zone contained on average 2-3x more identifiable proteins than deeper waters (150-1500 m) and these proteins were predominately from photosynthetic organisms. Diatom peptides dominate the spectra of the Washington margin while peptides from cyanobacteria, such as Synechococcus sp. dominated the spectra of both oligotrophic sites. Despite differences in the exact proteins identified at each location, there is good agreement for protein function and cellular location. Proteins in surface waters code for a variety of cellular functions including photosynthesis (24% of detected proteins), energy production (10%), membrane production (9%) and genetic coding and reading (9%), and are split 60-40 between membrane proteins and intracellular cytoplasmic proteins. Sargasso Sea surface waters contain a suite of peptides consistent with proteins involved in circadian rhythms that promote both C and N fixation at night. At depth in the Sargasso Sea, both muscle-derived myosin protein and the muscle-hydrolyzing proteases deseasin MCP-01 and metalloprotease Mcp02 from γ-proteobacteria were observed. Deeper waters contain peptides predominately sourced from γ-proteobacteria (37% of detected proteins) and α-proteobacteria (26%), although peptides from membrane and photosynthetic proteins attributable to phytoplankton were still observed (13%). Relative to surface values, detection frequencies for bacterial membrane proteins and extracellular enzymes rose from 9 to 16 and 2 to 4% respectively below the thermocline and the overall balance between

  9. Temperature, Salinity, Oxygen, Phosphate, pH and Alkalinity data collected in the North Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Barents Sea, Greenland Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea and White Sea from R/Vs Artemovsk, Atlantida, Okeanograf, Professor Rudovits, and ice observations, 1957 - 1995 (NODC Accession 0073674)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Temperature, Salinity, Oxygen, Phosphate, pH and Alkalinity data collected in the North Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Barents Sea, Greenland Sea, North Sea, Norwegian...

  10. First biological measurements of deep-sea corals from the Red Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roder, C; Berumen, M L; Bouwmeester, J; Papathanassiou, E; Al-Suwailem, A; Voolstra, C R

    2013-10-03

    It is usually assumed that metabolic constraints restrict deep-sea corals to cold-water habitats, with 'deep-sea' and 'cold-water' corals often used as synonymous. Here we report on the first measurements of biological characters of deep-sea corals from the central Red Sea, where they occur at temperatures exceeding 20°C in highly oligotrophic and oxygen-limited waters. Low respiration rates, low calcification rates, and minimized tissue cover indicate that a reduced metabolism is one of the key adaptations to prevailing environmental conditions. We investigated four sites and encountered six species of which at least two appear to be undescribed. One species is previously reported from the Red Sea but occurs in deep cold waters outside the Red Sea raising interesting questions about presumed environmental constraints for other deep-sea corals. Our findings suggest that the present understanding of deep-sea coral persistence and resilience needs to be revisited.

  11. First biological measurements of deep-sea corals from the Red Sea.

    KAUST Repository

    Roder, Cornelia

    2013-10-03

    It is usually assumed that metabolic constraints restrict deep-sea corals to cold-water habitats, with \\'deep-sea\\' and \\'cold-water\\' corals often used as synonymous. Here we report on the first measurements of biological characters of deep-sea corals from the central Red Sea, where they occur at temperatures exceeding 20°C in highly oligotrophic and oxygen-limited waters. Low respiration rates, low calcification rates, and minimized tissue cover indicate that a reduced metabolism is one of the key adaptations to prevailing environmental conditions. We investigated four sites and encountered six species of which at least two appear to be undescribed. One species is previously reported from the Red Sea but occurs in deep cold waters outside the Red Sea raising interesting questions about presumed environmental constraints for other deep-sea corals. Our findings suggest that the present understanding of deep-sea coral persistence and resilience needs to be revisited.

  12. Subsurface water parameters: optimization approach to their determination from remotely sensed water color data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jain, S C; Miller, J R

    1976-04-01

    A method, using an optimization scheme, has been developed for the interpretation of spectral albedo (or spectral reflectance) curves obtained from remotely sensed water color data. This method used a two-flow model of the radiation flow and solves for the albedo. Optimization fitting of predicted to observed reflectance data is performed by a quadratic interpolation method for the variables chlorophyll concentration and scattering coefficient. The technique is applied to airborne water color data obtained from Kawartha Lakes, Sargasso Sea, and Nova Scotia coast. The modeled spectral albedo curves are compared to those obtained experimentally, and the computed optimum water parameters are compared to ground truth values. It is shown that the backscattered spectral signal contains information that can be interpreted to give quantitative estimates of the chlorophyll concentration and turbidity in the waters studied.

  13. Assessing patterns of hybridization between North Atlantic eels using diagnostic single-nucleotide polymorphisms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pujolar, José Martin; Jacobsen, M.W.; Als, Thomas Damm

    2014-01-01

    The two North Atlantic eel species, the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and the American eel (Anguilla rostrata), spawn in partial sympatry in the Sargasso Sea, providing ample opportunity to interbreed. In this study, we used a RAD (Restriction site Associated DNA) sequencing approach to identify...... species-specific diagnostic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and design a low-density array that combined with screening of a diagnostic mitochondrial DNA marker. Eels from Iceland (N=159) and from the neighboring Faroe Islands (N=29) were genotyped, along with 94 larvae (49 European and 45 American...... eel male crosses, backcrosses were also detected, including a first-generation backcross (F1 hybrid × pure European eel) and three individuals identified as second-generation backcrosses originating from American eel × F1 hybrid backcrosses interbreeding with pure European eels. In comparison...

  14. Phosphorus dynamics in the Black Sea and Baltic Sea

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dijkstra, N.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/372617034

    2017-01-01

    The dynamics of the key nutrient phosphorus (P) in hypoxic and anoxic marine basins are still incompletely understood. This thesis focuses on the cycling of P in two of such basins: the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Water column particulates and sediments from the deep basin of the Black Sea were

  15. Monitoring sea level and sea surface temperature trends from ERS satellites

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Knudsen, Per; Beckley, B.

    2002-01-01

    Data from the two ESA satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2 are used in global and regional analysis of sea level and sea surface temperature trends over the last, 7.8 years. T he ERS satellites and in the future the ENVISAT satellite provide unique opportunity for monitoring both changes in sea level and sea...

  16. A first insight into the occurrence and expression of functional amoA and accA genes of autotrophic and ammonia-oxidizing bathypelagic Crenarchaeota of Tyrrhenian Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yakimov, Michail M.; Cono, Violetta La; Denaro, Renata

    2009-05-01

    The autotrophic and ammonia-oxidizing crenarchaeal assemblage at offshore site located in the deep Mediterranean (Tyrrhenian Sea, depth 3000 m) water was studied by PCR amplification of the key functional genes involved in energy (ammonia mono-oxygenase alpha subunit, amoA) and central metabolism (acetyl-CoA carboxylase alpha subunit, accA). Using two recently annotated genomes of marine crenarchaeons, an initial set of primers targeting archaeal accA-like genes was designed. Approximately 300 clones were analyzed, of which 100% of amoA library and almost 70% of accA library were unambiguously related to the corresponding genes from marine Crenarchaeota. Even though the acetyl-CoA carboxylase is phylogenetically not well conserved and the remaining clones were affiliated to various bacterial acetyl-CoA/propionyl-CoA carboxylase genes, the pool of archaeal sequences was applied for development of quantitative PCR analysis of accA-like distribution using TaqMan ® methodolgy. The archaeal accA gene fragments, together with alignable gene fragments from the Sargasso Sea and North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (ALOHA Station) metagenome databases, were analyzed by multiple sequence alignment. Two accA-like sequences, found in ALOHA Station at the depth of 4000 m, formed a deeply branched clade with 64% of all archaeal Tyrrhenian clones. No close relatives for residual 36% of clones, except of those recovered from Eastern Mediterranean, was found, suggesting the existence of a specific lineage of the crenarchaeal accA genes in deep Mediterranean water. Alignment of Mediterranean amoA sequences defined four cosmopolitan phylotypes of Crenarchaeota putative ammonia mono-oxygenase subunit A gene occurring in the water sample from the 3000 m depth. Without exception all phylotypes fell into Deep Marine Group I cluster that contain the vast majority of known sequences recovered from global deep-sea environment. Remarkably, three phylotypes accounted for 91% of all Mediterranean

  17. Winter sea ice export from the Laptev Sea preconditions the local summer sea ice cover and fast ice decay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Itkin

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Ice retreat in the eastern Eurasian Arctic is a consequence of atmospheric and oceanic processes and regional feedback mechanisms acting on the ice cover, both in winter and summer. A correct representation of these processes in numerical models is important, since it will improve predictions of sea ice anomalies along the Northeast Passage and beyond. In this study, we highlight the importance of winter ice dynamics for local summer sea ice anomalies in thickness, volume and extent. By means of airborne sea ice thickness surveys made over pack ice areas in the south-eastern Laptev Sea, we show that years of offshore-directed sea ice transport have a thinning effect on the late-winter sea ice cover. To confirm the preconditioning effect of enhanced offshore advection in late winter on the summer sea ice cover, we perform a sensitivity study using a numerical model. Results verify that the preconditioning effect plays a bigger role for the regional ice extent. Furthermore, they indicate an increase in volume export from the Laptev Sea as a consequence of enhanced offshore advection, which has far-reaching consequences for the entire Arctic sea ice mass balance. Moreover we show that ice dynamics in winter not only preconditions local summer ice extent, but also accelerate fast-ice decay.

  18. Processes driving sea ice variability in the Bering Sea in an eddying ocean/sea ice model: Mean seasonal cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Linghan; McClean, Julie L.; Miller, Arthur J.; Eisenman, Ian; Hendershott, Myrl C.; Papadopoulos, Caroline A.

    2014-12-01

    The seasonal cycle of sea ice variability in the Bering Sea, together with the thermodynamic and dynamic processes that control it, are examined in a fine resolution (1/10°) global coupled ocean/sea-ice model configured in the Community Earth System Model (CESM) framework. The ocean/sea-ice model consists of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Parallel Ocean Program (POP) and the Los Alamos Sea Ice Model (CICE). The model was forced with time-varying reanalysis atmospheric forcing for the time period 1970-1989. This study focuses on the time period 1980-1989. The simulated seasonal-mean fields of sea ice concentration strongly resemble satellite-derived observations, as quantified by root-mean-square errors and pattern correlation coefficients. The sea ice energy budget reveals that the seasonal thermodynamic ice volume changes are dominated by the surface energy flux between the atmosphere and the ice in the northern region and by heat flux from the ocean to the ice along the southern ice edge, especially on the western side. The sea ice force balance analysis shows that sea ice motion is largely associated with wind stress. The force due to divergence of the internal ice stress tensor is large near the land boundaries in the north, and it is small in the central and southern ice-covered region. During winter, which dominates the annual mean, it is found that the simulated sea ice was mainly formed in the northern Bering Sea, with the maximum ice growth rate occurring along the coast due to cold air from northerly winds and ice motion away from the coast. South of St Lawrence Island, winds drive the model sea ice southwestward from the north to the southwestern part of the ice-covered region. Along the ice edge in the western Bering Sea, model sea ice is melted by warm ocean water, which is carried by the simulated Bering Slope Current flowing to the northwest, resulting in the S-shaped asymmetric ice edge. In spring and fall, similar thermodynamic and dynamic

  19. Sea Surface Height Variability and Eddy Statistical Properties in the Red Sea

    KAUST Repository

    Zhan, Peng

    2013-01-01

    Satellite sea surface height (SSH) data over 1992-2012 are analyzed to study the spatial and temporal variability of sea level in the Red Sea. Empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) analysis suggests the remarkable seasonality of SSH in the Red Sea

  20. Highly variable Pliocene sea surface conditions in the Norwegian Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. E. Bachem

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The Pliocene was a time of global warmth with small sporadic glaciations, which transitioned towards the larger-scale Pleistocene glacial–interglacial variability. Here, we present high-resolution records of sea surface temperature (SST and ice-rafted debris (IRD in the Norwegian Sea from 5.32 to 3.14 Ma, providing evidence that the Pliocene surface conditions of the Norwegian Sea underwent a series of transitions in response to orbital forcing and gateway changes. Average SSTs are 2 °C above the regional Holocene mean, with notable variability on millennial to orbital timescales. Both gradual changes and threshold effects are proposed for the progression of regional climate towards the Late Pliocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. Cooling from 4.5 to 4.3 Ma may be linked to the onset of poleward flow through the Bering Strait. This cooling was further intensified by a period of cool summers due to weak obliquity forcing. A 7 °C warming of the Norwegian Sea at 4.0 Ma suggests a major increase in northward heat transport from the North Atlantic, leading to an enhanced zonal SST gradient in the Nordic Seas, which may be linked to the expansion of sea ice in the Arctic and Nordic Seas. A warm Norwegian Sea and enhanced zonal temperature gradient between 4.0 and 3.6 Ma may have been a priming factor for increased glaciation around the Nordic Seas due to enhanced evaporation and precipitation at high northern latitudes.

  1. Contemporary Arctic Sea Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cazenave, A. A.

    2017-12-01

    During recent decades, the Arctic region has warmed at a rate about twice the rest of the globe. Sea ice melting is increasing and the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass at an accelerated rate. Arctic warming, decrease in the sea ice cover and fresh water input to the Arctic ocean may eventually impact the Arctic sea level. In this presentation, we review our current knowledge of contemporary Arctic sea level changes. Until the beginning of the 1990s, Arctic sea level variations were essentially deduced from tide gauges located along the Russian and Norwegian coastlines. Since then, high inclination satellite altimetry missions have allowed measuring sea level over a large portion of the Arctic Ocean (up to 80 degree north). Measuring sea level in the Arctic by satellite altimetry is challenging because the presence of sea ice cover limits the full capacity of this technique. However adapted processing of raw altimetric measurements significantly increases the number of valid data, hence the data coverage, from which regional sea level variations can be extracted. Over the altimetry era, positive trend patterns are observed over the Beaufort Gyre and along the east coast of Greenland, while negative trends are reported along the Siberian shelf. On average over the Arctic region covered by satellite altimetry, the rate of sea level rise since 1992 is slightly less than the global mea sea level rate (of about 3 mm per year). On the other hand, the interannual variability is quite significant. Space gravimetry data from the GRACE mission and ocean reanalyses provide information on the mass and steric contributions to sea level, hence on the sea level budget. Budget studies show that regional sea level trends over the Beaufort Gyre and along the eastern coast of Greenland, are essentially due to salinity changes. However, in terms of regional average, the net steric component contributes little to the observed sea level trend. The sea level budget in the Arctic

  2. Sea Surface Temperature and Ocean Color Variability in the South China Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conaty, A. P.

    2001-12-01

    The South China Sea is a marginal sea in the Southeast Asian region whose surface circulation is driven by monsoons and whose surface currents have complex seasonal patterns. Its rich natural resources and strategic location have made its small islands areas of political dispute among the neighboring nations. This study aims to show the seasonal and interannual variability of sea surface temperature and ocean color in South China Sea. It makes use of NOAA's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite data sets on sea surface temperature for the period 1981-2000 and NASA's Nimbus-7 Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) and Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) satellite data sets on pigment concentration (ocean color) for the period 1981-1996 and 1997-2000, respectively. Transect lines were drawn along several potential hotspot areas to show the variability in sea surface temperature and pigment concentration through time. In-situ data on sea surface temperature along South China Sea were likewise plotted to see the variability with time. Higher seasonal variability in sea surface temperature was seen at higher latitudes. Interannual variability was within 1-3 Kelvin. In most areas, pigment concentration was higher during northern hemisphere winter and autumn, after the monsoon rains, with a maximum of 30 milligrams per cubic meter.

  3. Vulnerability of marginal seas to sea level rise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gomis, Damia; Jordà, Gabriel

    2017-04-01

    Sea level rise (SLR) is a serious thread for coastal areas and has a potential negative impact on society and economy. SLR can lead for instance to land loss, beach reduction, increase of the damage of marine storms on coastal infrastructures and to the salinization of underground water streams. It is well acknowledged that future SLR will be inhomogeneous across the globe, with regional differences of up to 100% with respect to global mean sea level (GMSL). Several studies have addressed the projections of SLR at regional scale, but most of them are based on global climate models (GCMs) that have a relatively coarse spatial resolution (>1°). In marginal seas this has proven to be a strong limitation, as their particular configurations require spatial resolutions that are not reachable by present GCMs. A paradigmatic case is the Mediterranean Sea, connected to the global ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow passage of 14 km width. The functioning of the Mediterranean Sea involves a variety of processes including an overturning circulation, small-scale convection and a rich mesoscale field. Moreover, the long-term evolution of Mediterranean sea level has been significantly different from the global mean during the last decades. The observations of present climate and the projections for the next decades have lead some authors to hypothesize that the particular characteristics of the basin could allow Mediterranean mean sea level to evolve differently from the global mean. Assessing this point is essential to undertake proper adaptation strategies for the largely populated Mediterranean coastal areas. In this work we apply a new approach that combines regional and global projections to analyse future SLR. In a first step we focus on the quantification of the expected departures of future Mediterranean sea level from GMSL evolution and on the contribution of different processes to these departures. As a result we find that, in spite of its particularities

  4. Deep-sea Hexactinellida (Porifera) of the Weddell Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janussen, Dorte; Tabachnick, Konstantin R.; Tendal, Ole S.

    2004-07-01

    New Hexactinellida from the deep Weddel Sea are described. This moderately diverse hexactinellid fauna includes 14 species belonging to 12 genera, of which five species and one subgenus are new to science: Periphragella antarctica n. sp., Holascus pseudostellatus n. sp., Caulophacus (Caulophacus) discohexactinus n. sp., C. ( Caulodiscus) brandti n. sp., C. ( Oxydiscus) weddelli n. sp., and C. ( Oxydiscus) n. subgen. So far, 20 hexactinellid species have been reported from the deep Weddell Sea, 15 are known from the northern part and 10 only from here, while 10 came from the southern area, and five of these only from there. However, this apparent high "endemism" of Antarctic hexactinellid sponges is most likely the result of severe undersampling of the deep-sea fauna. We find no reason to believe that a division between an oceanic and a more continental group of species exists. The current poor database indicates that a substantial part of the deep hexactinellid fauna of the Weddell Sea is shared with other deep-sea regions, but it does not indicate a special biogeographic relationship with any other ocean.

  5. Sea Ice Drift Monitoring in the Bohai Sea Based on GF4 Satellite

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Y.; Wei, P.; Zhu, H.; Xing, B.

    2018-04-01

    The Bohai Sea is the inland sea with the highest latitude in China. In winter, the phenomenon of freezing occurs in the Bohai Sea due to frequent cold wave influx. According to historical records, there have been three serious ice packs in the Bohai Sea in the past 50 years which caused heavy losses to our economy. Therefore, it is of great significance to monitor the drift of sea ice and sea ice in the Bohai Sea. The GF4 image has the advantages of short imaging time and high spatial resolution. Based on the GF4 satellite images, the three methods of SIFT (Scale invariant feature - the transform and Scale invariant feature transform), MCC (maximum cross-correlation method) and sift combined with MCC are used to monitor sea ice drift and calculate the speed and direction of sea ice drift, the three calculation results are compared and analyzed by using expert interpretation and historical statistical data to carry out remote sensing monitoring of sea ice drift results. The experimental results show that the experimental results of the three methods are in accordance with expert interpretation and historical statistics. Therefore, the GF4 remote sensing satellite images have the ability to monitor sea ice drift and can be used for drift monitoring of sea ice in the Bohai Sea.

  6. Climatology of sea breezes along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia

    KAUST Repository

    Khan, Basit; Abualnaja, Yasser; Al-Subhi, Abdullah M.; Nellayaputhenpeedika, Mohammedali; Nellikkattu Thody, Manoj; Sturman, Andrew P.

    2018-01-01

    and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are used to investigate the climatology of sea breezes over the eastern side of the Red Sea region. Results show existence of separate sea breeze systems along different segments of the Red Sea coastline. Based on the physical

  7. Seasonal variation of deep-sea bioluminescence in the Ionian Sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Craig, Jessica; Jamieson, Alan J.; Bagley, Philip M.; Priede, Imants G.

    2011-01-01

    The ICDeep (Image Intensified Charge Coupled Device for Deep sea research) profiler was used to measure the density of deep bioluminescent animals (BL) through the water column in the east, west and mid-Ionian Sea and in the Algerian Basin. A west to east decrease in BL density was found. Generalized additive modelling was used to investigate seasonal variation in the east and west Ionian Sea (NESTOR and NEMO neutrino telescope sites, respectively) from BL measurements in autumn 2008 and spring 2009. A significant seasonal effect was found in the west Ionian Sea (p<0.001), where a deep autumnal peak in BL density occurred between 500 and 2400 m. No significant seasonal variation in BL density was found in the east Ionian Sea (p=0.07). In both spring and autumn, significant differences in BL density were found through the water column between the east and west Ionian Sea (p<0.001).

  8. Seasonal variation of deep-sea bioluminescence in the Ionian Sea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Craig, Jessica, E-mail: j.craig@abdn.ac.u [University of Aberdeen, Oceanlab, Main Street, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, AB41 6AA (United Kingdom); Jamieson, Alan J.; Bagley, Philip M.; Priede, Imants G. [University of Aberdeen, Oceanlab, Main Street, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, AB41 6AA (United Kingdom)

    2011-01-21

    The ICDeep (Image Intensified Charge Coupled Device for Deep sea research) profiler was used to measure the density of deep bioluminescent animals (BL) through the water column in the east, west and mid-Ionian Sea and in the Algerian Basin. A west to east decrease in BL density was found. Generalized additive modelling was used to investigate seasonal variation in the east and west Ionian Sea (NESTOR and NEMO neutrino telescope sites, respectively) from BL measurements in autumn 2008 and spring 2009. A significant seasonal effect was found in the west Ionian Sea (p<0.001), where a deep autumnal peak in BL density occurred between 500 and 2400 m. No significant seasonal variation in BL density was found in the east Ionian Sea (p=0.07). In both spring and autumn, significant differences in BL density were found through the water column between the east and west Ionian Sea (p<0.001).

  9. Deep-sea geohazards in the South China Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Shiguo; Wang, Dawei; Völker, David

    2018-02-01

    Various geological processes and features that might inflict hazards identified in the South China Sea by using new technologies and methods. These features include submarine landslides, pockmark fields, shallow free gas, gas hydrates, mud diapirs and earthquake tsunami, which are widely distributed in the continental slope and reefal islands of the South China Sea. Although the study and assessment of geohazards in the South China Sea came into operation only recently, advances in various aspects are evolving at full speed to comply with National Marine Strategy and `the Belt and Road' Policy. The characteristics of geohazards in deep-water seafloor of the South China Sea are summarized based on new scientific advances. This progress is aimed to aid ongoing deep-water drilling activities and decrease geological risks in ocean development.

  10. 50 CFR 697.12 - At-sea sea sampler/observer coverage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... sampler/observer access to and use of the vessel's communications equipment and personnel upon request for...) Allow the sea sampler/observer to inspect and copy the vessel's log, communications log, and records... must: (1) Notify the sea sampler/observer of any sea turtles, marine mammals, or other specimens taken...

  11. Deglacial sea level history of the East Siberian Sea and Chukchi Sea margins

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cronin, Thomas M.; O'Regan, Matt; Pearce, Christof; Gemery, Laura; Toomey, Michael; Semiletov, Igor; Jakobsson, Martin

    2017-09-01

    Deglacial (12.8-10.7 ka) sea level history on the East Siberian continental shelf and upper continental slope was reconstructed using new geophysical records and sediment cores taken during Leg 2 of the 2014 SWERUS-C3 expedition. The focus of this study is two cores from Herald Canyon, piston core SWERUS-L2-4-PC1 (4-PC1) and multicore SWERUS-L2-4-MC1 (4-MC1), and a gravity core from an East Siberian Sea transect, SWERUS-L2-20-GC1 (20-GC1). Cores 4-PC1 and 20-GC were taken at 120 and 115 m of modern water depth, respectively, only a few meters above the global last glacial maximum (LGM; ˜ 24 kiloannum or ka) minimum sea level of ˜ 125-130 meters below sea level (m b.s.l.). Using calibrated radiocarbon ages mainly on molluscs for chronology and the ecology of benthic foraminifera and ostracode species to estimate paleodepths, the data reveal a dominance of river-proximal species during the early part of the Younger Dryas event (YD, Greenland Stadial GS-1) followed by a rise in river-intermediate species in the late Younger Dryas or the early Holocene (Preboreal) period. A rapid relative sea level rise beginning at roughly 11.4 to 10.8 ka ( ˜ 400 cm of core depth) is indicated by a sharp faunal change and unconformity or condensed zone of sedimentation. Regional sea level at this time was about 108 m b.s.l. at the 4-PC1 site and 102 m b.s.l. at 20-GC1. Regional sea level near the end of the YD was up to 42-47 m lower than predicted by geophysical models corrected for glacio-isostatic adjustment. This discrepancy could be explained by delayed isostatic adjustment caused by a greater volume and/or geographical extent of glacial-age land ice and/or ice shelves in the western Arctic Ocean and adjacent Siberian land areas.

  12. Situation in the sea area between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Situationen i havsomraadet mellan Nordsjoen och Oestersjoen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dybern, B.I.; Soederstroem, J.; Thorell, L.

    1984-01-01

    Due to the special topographical and hydrological features the seas surrounding Sweden are very sensitive to both natural changes and changes caused by man. The sea area between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea has come into focus during the last few decades due to problems with pollution and its impact on the ecosystems and to overfishing of some commer- cially important species. In order to elucidate the present situation from the Swedish viewpoint, the National Board of Fisheries, the National Environment Protection Board and the County Council of the County Goeteborg and Bohyslaen arranged a Symposium on the Situation in the Sea Area between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea in Goeteborg, 14-16 March, 1983. This volume contains lectures given at that Symposium. In most cases there are English summaries and English translations of texts to figures and tables.

  13. Sea-ice cover in the Nordic Seas and the sensitivity to Atlantic water temperatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, Mari F.; Nisancioglu, Kerim H.; Spall, Michael A.

    2017-04-01

    Changes in the sea-ice cover of the Nordic Seas have been proposed to play a key role for the dramatic temperature excursions associated with the Dansgaard-Oeschger events during the last glacial. However, with its proximity to the warm Atlantic water, how a sea-ice cover can persist in the Nordic Seas is not well understood. In this study, we apply an eddy-resolving configuration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model with an idealized topography to study the presence of sea ice in a Nordic Seas-like domain. We assume an infinite amount of warm Atlantic water present in the south by restoring the southern area to constant temperatures. The sea-surface temperatures are restored toward cold, atmospheric temperatures, and as a result, sea ice is present in the interior of the domain. However, the sea-ice cover in the margins of the Nordic Seas, an area with a warm, cyclonic boundary current, is sensitive to the amount of heat entering the domain, i.e., the restoring temperature in the south. When the temperature of the warm, cyclonic boundary current is high, the margins are free of sea ice and heat is released to the atmosphere. We show that with a small reduction in the temperature of the incoming Atlantic water, the Nordic Seas-like domain is fully covered in sea ice. Warm water is still entering the Nordic Seas, however, this happens at depths below a cold, fresh surface layer produced by melted sea ice. Consequently, the heat release to the atmosphere is reduced along with the eddy heat fluxes. Results suggest a threshold value in the amount of heat entering the Nordic Seas before the sea-ice cover disappears in the margins. We study the sensitivity of this threshold to changes in atmospheric temperatures and vertical diffusivity.

  14. Variability and Trends in Sea Ice Extent and Ice Production in the Ross Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Comiso, Josefino; Kwok, Ronald; Martin, Seelye; Gordon, Arnold L.

    2011-01-01

    Salt release during sea ice formation in the Ross Sea coastal regions is regarded as a primary forcing for the regional generation of Antarctic Bottom Water. Passive microwave data from November 1978 through 2008 are used to examine the detailed seasonal and interannual characteristics of the sea ice cover of the Ross Sea and the adjacent Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas. For this period the sea ice extent in the Ross Sea shows the greatest increase of all the Antarctic seas. Variability in the ice cover in these regions is linked to changes in the Southern Annular Mode and secondarily to the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave. Over the Ross Sea shelf, analysis of sea ice drift data from 1992 to 2008 yields a positive rate of increase in the net ice export of about 30,000 sq km/yr. For a characteristic ice thickness of 0.6 m, this yields a volume transport of about 20 cu km/yr, which is almost identical, within error bars, to our estimate of the trend in ice production. The increase in brine rejection in the Ross Shelf Polynya associated with the estimated increase with the ice production, however, is not consistent with the reported Ross Sea salinity decrease. The locally generated sea ice enhancement of Ross Sea salinity may be offset by an increase of relatively low salinity of the water advected into the region from the Amundsen Sea, a consequence of increased precipitation and regional glacial ice melt.

  15. Temporal and spatial variations of oceanic pCO2 and air-sea CO2 flux in th Greenland Sea and the Barents Sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakaoka, Shin-Ichiro; Aoki, Shuji; Nakazawa, Takakiyo; Yoshikawa-Inoue, Hisayuki

    2006-01-01

    In order to elucidate the seasonal and inter annual variations of oceanic CO 2 uptake in the Greenland Sea and the Barents Sea, the partial pressure of CO 2 in the surface ocean (pCO 2 sea ) was measured in all seasons between 1992 and 2001. We derived monthly varying relationships between pCO 2 sea and sea surface temperature (SST) and combined them with the SST data from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis to determine pCO 2 sea and air-sea CO 2 flux in these seas. The pCO 2 sea values were normalized to the year 1995 by assuming that pCO 2 sea increased at the same growth rate (1.5 μatm/yr) of the pCO 2 in the air (pCO 2 air ) between 1992 and 2001. In 1995, the annual net air-sea CO 2 fluxes were evaluated to be 52 ± 20 gC/m 2 /yr in the Greenland Sea and 46 ± 18 gC/m 2 /yr in the Barents Sea. The CO 2 flux into the ocean reached its maximum in winter and minimum in summer. The wind speed and (delta)pCO 2 (=pCO 2 air -pCO 2 sea ) exerted a greater influence on the seasonal variation than the sea ice coverage. The annual CO 2 uptake examined in this study (70-80 deg N, 20 deg W-40 deg E) was estimated to be 0.050 ± 0.020 GtC/yr in 1995. The inter annual variation in the annual CO 2 uptake was found to be positively correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI) via wind strength but negatively correlated with (delta)pCO 2 and the sea ice coverage. The present results indicate that the variability in wind speed and sea ice coverage play a major role, while that in (delta)pCO 2 plays a minor role, in determining the interannual variation of CO 2 uptake in this area

  16. First biological measurements of deep-sea corals from the Red Sea

    OpenAIRE

    C. Roder; M. L. Berumen; J. Bouwmeester; E. Papathanassiou; A. Al-Suwailem; C. R. Voolstra

    2013-01-01

    It is usually assumed that metabolic constraints restrict deep-sea corals to cold-water habitats, with ?deep-sea? and ?cold-water? corals often used as synonymous. Here we report on the first measurements of biological characters of deep-sea corals from the central Red Sea, where they occur at temperatures exceeding 20?C in highly oligotrophic and oxygen-limited waters. Low respiration rates, low calcification rates, and minimized tissue cover indicate that a reduced metabolism is one of the ...

  17. Sea Urchin Embryogenesis as Bioindicators of Marine Pollution in Impact Areas of the Sea of Japan/East Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lukyanova, Olga N; Zhuravel, Elena V; Chulchekov, Denis N; Mazur, Andrey A

    2017-08-01

    The embryogenesis of the sea urchin sand dollar Scaphechinus mirabilis was used as bioindicators of seawater quality from the impact areas of the Sea of Japan/East Sea (Peter the Great Bay) and the Sea of Okhotsk (northwestern shelf of Sakhalin Island and western shelf of Kamchatka Peninsula). Fertilization membrane formation, first cleavage, blastula formation, gastrulation, and 2-armed and 4-armed pluteus formation have been analyzed and a number of abnormalities were calculated. Number of embryogenesis anomalies in sand dollar larvae exposed to sea water from different stations in Peter the Great Bay corresponds to pollution level at each area. The Sea of Okhotsk is the main fishing area for Russia. Anthropogenic impact on the marine ecosystem is caused by fishing and transport vessels mainly. But two shelf areas are considered as "hot spots" due to oil and gas drilling. Offshore oil exploitation on the northeastern Sakhalin Island has been started and at present time oil is being drill on oil-extracting platforms continuously. Significant reserves of hydrocarbons are prospected on western Kamchatka shelf, and exploitation drilling in this area was intensified in 2014. A higher number of abnormalities at gastrula and pluteus stages (19-36%) were detected for the stations around oil platforms near Sakhalin Island. On the western Kamchatka shelf number of abnormalities was 7-21%. Such anomalies as exogastrula, incomplete development of pairs of arms were not observed at all; only the delay of development was registered. Eggs, embryos, and larvae of sea urchins are the suitable bioindicators of early disturbances caused by marine pollution in impact ecosystems.

  18. Sea ice algal biomass and physiology in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kevin R. Arrigo

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Sea ice covers approximately 5% of the ocean surface and is one of the most extensive ecosystems on the planet. The microbial communities that live in sea ice represent an important food source for numerous organisms at a time of year when phytoplankton in the water column are scarce. Here we describe the distributions and physiology of sea ice microalgae in the poorly studied Amundsen Sea sector of the Southern Ocean. Microalgal biomass was relatively high in sea ice in the Amundsen Sea, due primarily to well developed surface communities that would have been replenished with nutrients during seawater flooding of the surface as a result of heavy snow accumulation. Elevated biomass was also occasionally observed in slush, interior, and bottom ice microhabitats throughout the region. Sea ice microalgal photophysiology appeared to be controlled by the availability of both light and nutrients. Surface communities used an active xanthophyll cycle and effective pigment sunscreens to protect themselves from harmful ultraviolet and visible radiation. Acclimation to low light microhabitats in sea ice was facilitated by enhanced pigment content per cell, greater photosynthetic accessory pigments, and increased photosynthetic efficiency. Photoacclimation was especially effective in the bottom ice community, where ready access to nutrients would have allowed ice microalgae to synthesize a more efficient photosynthetic apparatus. Surprisingly, the pigment-detected prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis antarctica was an important component of surface communities (slush and surface ponds where its acclimation to high light may precondition it to seed phytoplankton blooms after the sea ice melts in spring.

  19. Walrus areas of use in the Chukchi Sea during sparse sea ice cover

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jay, Chadwick V.; Fischbach, Anthony S.; Kochnev, Anatoly A.

    2012-01-01

    The Pacific walrus Odobenus rosmarus divergens feeds on benthic invertebrates on the continental shelf of the Chukchi and Bering Seas and rests on sea ice between foraging trips. With climate warming, ice-free periods in the Chukchi Sea have increased and are projected to increase further in frequency and duration. We radio-tracked walruses to estimate areas of walrus foraging and occupancy in the Chukchi Sea from June to November of 2008 to 2011, years when sea ice was sparse over the continental shelf in comparison to historical records. The earlier and more extensive sea ice retreat in June to September, and delayed freeze-up of sea ice in October to November, created conditions for walruses to arrive earlier and stay later in the Chukchi Sea than in the past. The lack of sea ice over the continental shelf from September to October caused walruses to forage in nearshore areas instead of offshore areas as in the past. Walruses did not frequent the deep waters of the Arctic Basin when sea ice retreated off the shelf. Walruses foraged in most areas they occupied, and areas of concentrated foraging generally corresponded to regions of high benthic biomass, such as in the northeastern (Hanna Shoal) and southwestern Chukchi Sea. A notable exception was the occurrence of concentrated foraging in a nearshore area of northwestern Alaska that is apparently depauperate in walrus prey. With increasing sea ice loss, it is likely that walruses will increase their use of coastal haul-outs and nearshore foraging areas, with consequences to the population that are yet to be understood.

  20. SEA and planning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stoeglehner, G.; Brown, A.L.; Kørnøv, Lone

    2009-01-01

    , and the relationship of the SEA to the planning activity itself. This paper focuses on the influence that planners have in these implementation processes, postulating the hypothesis that these are key players in achieving effectiveness in SEA. Based upon implementation theory and empirical experience, the paper......As the field of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) has matured, the focus has moved from the development of legislation, guidelines and methodologies towards improving the effectiveness of SEA. Measuring and of course achieving effectiveness is both complex and challenging. This paper...

  1. Deglacial sea level history of the East Siberian Sea and Chukchi Sea margins

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cronin, Thomas M.; O'Regan, Matt; Pearce, Christof; Gemery, Laura; Toomey, Michael; Semiletov, Igor

    2017-01-01

    Deglacial (12.8–10.7 ka) sea level history on the East Siberian continental shelf and upper continental slope was reconstructed using new geophysical records and sediment cores taken during Leg 2 of the 2014 SWERUS-C3 expedition. The focus of this study is two cores from Herald Canyon, piston core SWERUS-L2-4-PC1 (4-PC1) and multicore SWERUS-L2-4-MC1 (4-MC1), and a gravity core from an East Siberian Sea transect, SWERUS-L2-20-GC1 (20-GC1). Cores 4-PC1 and 20-GC were taken at 120 and 115 m of modern water depth, respectively, only a few meters above the global last glacial maximum (LGM;  ∼  24 kiloannum or ka) minimum sea level of  ∼  125–130 meters below sea level (m b.s.l.). Using calibrated radiocarbon ages mainly on molluscs for chronology and the ecology of benthic foraminifera and ostracode species to estimate paleodepths, the data reveal a dominance of river-proximal species during the early part of the Younger Dryas event (YD, Greenland Stadial GS-1) followed by a rise in river-intermediate species in the late Younger Dryas or the early Holocene (Preboreal) period. A rapid relative sea level rise beginning at roughly 11.4 to 10.8 ka ( ∼  400 cm of core depth) is indicated by a sharp faunal change and unconformity or condensed zone of sedimentation. Regional sea level at this time was about 108 m b.s.l. at the 4-PC1 site and 102 m b.s.l. at 20-GC1. Regional sea level near the end of the YD was up to 42–47 m lower than predicted by geophysical models corrected for glacio-isostatic adjustment. This discrepancy could be explained by delayed isostatic adjustment caused by a greater volume and/or geographical extent of glacial-age land ice and/or ice shelves in the western Arctic Ocean and adjacent Siberian land areas.

  2. Deglacial sea level history of the East Siberian Sea and Chukchi Sea margins

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. M. Cronin

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Deglacial (12.8–10.7 ka sea level history on the East Siberian continental shelf and upper continental slope was reconstructed using new geophysical records and sediment cores taken during Leg 2 of the 2014 SWERUS-C3 expedition. The focus of this study is two cores from Herald Canyon, piston core SWERUS-L2-4-PC1 (4-PC1 and multicore SWERUS-L2-4-MC1 (4-MC1, and a gravity core from an East Siberian Sea transect, SWERUS-L2-20-GC1 (20-GC1. Cores 4-PC1 and 20-GC were taken at 120 and 115 m of modern water depth, respectively, only a few meters above the global last glacial maximum (LGM;  ∼  24 kiloannum or ka minimum sea level of  ∼  125–130 meters below sea level (m b.s.l.. Using calibrated radiocarbon ages mainly on molluscs for chronology and the ecology of benthic foraminifera and ostracode species to estimate paleodepths, the data reveal a dominance of river-proximal species during the early part of the Younger Dryas event (YD, Greenland Stadial GS-1 followed by a rise in river-intermediate species in the late Younger Dryas or the early Holocene (Preboreal period. A rapid relative sea level rise beginning at roughly 11.4 to 10.8 ka ( ∼  400 cm of core depth is indicated by a sharp faunal change and unconformity or condensed zone of sedimentation. Regional sea level at this time was about 108 m b.s.l. at the 4-PC1 site and 102 m b.s.l. at 20-GC1. Regional sea level near the end of the YD was up to 42–47 m lower than predicted by geophysical models corrected for glacio-isostatic adjustment. This discrepancy could be explained by delayed isostatic adjustment caused by a greater volume and/or geographical extent of glacial-age land ice and/or ice shelves in the western Arctic Ocean and adjacent Siberian land areas.

  3. Sensitivity of modeled atmospheric nitrogen species and nitrogen deposition to variations in sea salt emissions in the North Sea and Baltic Sea regions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Neumann

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Coarse sea salt particles are emitted ubiquitously from the ocean surface by wave-breaking and bubble-bursting processes. These particles impact the atmospheric chemistry by affecting the condensation of gas-phase species and, thus, indirectly the nucleation of new fine particles, particularly in regions with significant air pollution. In this study, atmospheric particle concentrations are modeled for the North Sea and Baltic Sea regions in northwestern Europe using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ modeling system and are compared to European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP measurement data. The sea salt emission module is extended by a salinity-dependent scaling of the sea salt emissions because the salinity in large parts of the Baltic Sea is very low, which leads to considerably lower sea salt mass emissions compared to other oceanic regions. The resulting improvement in predicted sea salt concentrations is assessed. The contribution of surf zone emissions is considered separately. Additionally, the impacts of sea salt particles on atmospheric nitrate and ammonium concentrations and on nitrogen deposition are evaluated. The comparisons with observational data show that sea salt concentrations are commonly overestimated at coastal stations and partly underestimated farther inland. The introduced salinity scaling improves the predicted Baltic Sea sea salt concentrations considerably. The dates of measured peak concentrations are appropriately reproduced by the model. The impact of surf zone emissions is negligible in both seas. Nevertheless, they might be relevant because surf zone emissions were cut at an upper threshold in this study. Deactivating sea salt leads to minor increases in NH3 +  NH4+ and HNO3 +  NO3− and a decrease in NO3− concentrations. However, the overall effect on NH3 +  NH4+ and HNO3 +  NO3− concentrations is smaller than the deviation from the measurements. Nitrogen wet deposition is

  4. The Ross Sea Dipole - temperature, snow accumulation and sea ice variability in the Ross Sea region, Antarctica, over the past 2700 years

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bertler, Nancy A. N.; Conway, Howard; Dahl-Jensen, Dorthe; Emanuelsson, Daniel B.; Winstrup, Mai; Vallelonga, Paul T.; Lee, James E.; Brook, Ed J.; Severinghaus, Jeffrey P.; Fudge, Taylor J.; Keller, Elizabeth D.; Baisden, W. Troy; Hindmarsh, Richard C. A.; Neff, Peter D.; Blunier, Thomas; Edwards, Ross; Mayewski, Paul A.; Kipfstuhl, Sepp; Buizert, Christo; Canessa, Silvia; Dadic, Ruzica; Kjær, Helle A.; Kurbatov, Andrei; Zhang, Dongqi; Waddington, Edwin D.; Baccolo, Giovanni; Beers, Thomas; Brightley, Hannah J.; Carter, Lionel; Clemens-Sewall, David; Ciobanu, Viorela G.; Delmonte, Barbara; Eling, Lukas; Ellis, Aja; Ganesh, Shruthi; Golledge, Nicholas R.; Haines, Skylar; Handley, Michael; Hawley, Robert L.; Hogan, Chad M.; Johnson, Katelyn M.; Korotkikh, Elena; Lowry, Daniel P.; Mandeno, Darcy; McKay, Robert M.; Menking, James A.; Naish, Timothy R.; Noerling, Caroline; Ollive, Agathe; Orsi, Anaïs; Proemse, Bernadette C.; Pyne, Alexander R.; Pyne, Rebecca L.; Renwick, James; Scherer, Reed P.; Semper, Stefanie; Simonsen, Marius; Sneed, Sharon B.; Steig, Eric J.; Tuohy, Andrea; Ulayottil Venugopal, Abhijith; Valero-Delgado, Fernando; Venkatesh, Janani; Wang, Feitang; Wang, Shimeng; Winski, Dominic A.; Winton, V. Holly L.; Whiteford, Arran; Xiao, Cunde; Yang, Jiao; Zhang, Xin

    2018-02-01

    High-resolution, well-dated climate archives provide an opportunity to investigate the dynamic interactions of climate patterns relevant for future projections. Here, we present data from a new, annually dated ice core record from the eastern Ross Sea, named the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice core. Comparison of this record with climate reanalysis data for the 1979-2012 interval shows that RICE reliably captures temperature and snow precipitation variability in the region. Trends over the past 2700 years in RICE are shown to be distinct from those in West Antarctica and the western Ross Sea captured by other ice cores. For most of this interval, the eastern Ross Sea was warming (or showing isotopic enrichment for other reasons), with increased snow accumulation and perhaps decreased sea ice concentration. However, West Antarctica cooled and the western Ross Sea showed no significant isotope temperature trend. This pattern here is referred to as the Ross Sea Dipole. Notably, during the Little Ice Age, West Antarctica and the western Ross Sea experienced colder than average temperatures, while the eastern Ross Sea underwent a period of warming or increased isotopic enrichment. From the 17th century onwards, this dipole relationship changed. All three regions show current warming, with snow accumulation declining in West Antarctica and the eastern Ross Sea but increasing in the western Ross Sea. We interpret this pattern as reflecting an increase in sea ice in the eastern Ross Sea with perhaps the establishment of a modern Roosevelt Island polynya as a local moisture source for RICE.

  5. Authigenic gypsum in a deep sea core from Southeastern Arabian Sea

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Guptha, M.V.S.

    Authigenic gypsum has been encountered in a deep sea core RC9-157 from the southeastern Arabian Sea at a depth of 4111 m which is a zone of lysocline. The formation of gypsum in the deep sea region is attributed to the prevailing sulphate rich...

  6. Revealing Holobiont Structure and Function of Three Red Sea Deep-Sea Corals

    KAUST Repository

    Yum, Lauren

    2014-12-01

    Deep-sea corals have long been regarded as cold-water coral; however a reevaluation of their habitat limitations has been suggested after the discovery of deep-sea coral in the Red Sea where temperatures exceed 20˚C. To gain further insight into the biology of deep-sea corals at these temperatures, the work in this PhD employed a holotranscriptomic approach, looking at coral animal host and bacterial symbiont gene expression in Dendrophyllia sp., Eguchipsammia fistula, and Rhizotrochus sp. sampled from the deep Red Sea. Bacterial community composition was analyzed via amplicon-based 16S surveys and cultured bacterial strains were subjected to bioprospecting in order to gauge the pharmaceutical potential of coralassociated microbes. Coral host transcriptome data suggest that coral can employ mitochondrial hypometabolism, anaerobic glycolysis, and surface cilia to enhance mass transport rates to manage the low oxygen and highly oligotrophic Red Sea waters. In the microbial community associated with these corals, ribokinases and retron-type reverse transcriptases are abundantly expressed. In its first application to deep-sea coral associated microbial communities, 16S-based next-generation sequencing found that a single operational taxonomic unit can comprise the majority of sequence reads and that a large number of low abundance populations are present, which cannot be visualized with first generation sequencing. Bioactivity testing of selected bacterial isolates was surveyed over 100 cytological parameters with high content screening, covering several major organelles and key proteins involved in a variety of signaling cascades. Some of these cytological profiles were similar to those of several reference pharmacologically active compounds, which suggest that the bacteria isolates produce compounds with similar mechanisms of action as the reference compounds. The sum of this work offers several mechanisms by which Red Sea deep-sea corals cope with environmental

  7. Sea level hazards: Altimetric monitoring of tsunamis and sea level rise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamlington, Benjamin Dillon

    Whether on the short timescale of an impending tsunami or the much longer timescale of climate change-driven sea level rise, the threat stemming from rising and inundating ocean waters is a great concern to coastal populations. Timely and accurate observations of potentially dangerous changes in sea level are vital in determining the precautionary steps that need to be taken in order to protect coastal communities. While instruments from the past have provided in situ measurements of sea level at specific locations across the globe, satellites can be used to provide improved spatial and temporal sampling of the ocean in addition to producing more accurate measurements. Since 1993, satellite altimetry has provided accurate measurements of sea surface height (SSH) with near-global coverage. Not only have these measurements led to the first definitive estimates of global mean sea level rise, satellite altimetry observations have also been used to detect tsunami waves in the open ocean where wave amplitudes are relatively small, a vital step in providing early warning to those potentially affected by the impending tsunami. The use of satellite altimetry to monitor two specific sea level hazards is examined in this thesis. The first section will focus on the detection of tsunamis in the open ocean for the purpose of providing early warning to coastal inhabitants. The second section will focus on estimating secular trends using satellite altimetry data with the hope of improving our understanding of future sea level change. Results presented here will show the utility of satellite altimetry for sea level monitoring and will lay the foundation for further advancement in the detection of the two sea level hazards considered.

  8. Sea-level and deep-sea-temperature variability over the past 5.3 million years.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rohling, E J; Foster, G L; Grant, K M; Marino, G; Roberts, A P; Tamisiea, M E; Williams, F

    2014-04-24

    Ice volume (and hence sea level) and deep-sea temperature are key measures of global climate change. Sea level has been documented using several independent methods over the past 0.5 million years (Myr). Older periods, however, lack such independent validation; all existing records are related to deep-sea oxygen isotope (δ(18)O) data that are influenced by processes unrelated to sea level. For deep-sea temperature, only one continuous high-resolution (Mg/Ca-based) record exists, with related sea-level estimates, spanning the past 1.5 Myr. Here we present a novel sea-level reconstruction, with associated estimates of deep-sea temperature, which independently validates the previous 0-1.5 Myr reconstruction and extends it back to 5.3 Myr ago. We find that deep-sea temperature and sea level generally decreased through time, but distinctly out of synchrony, which is remarkable given the importance of ice-albedo feedbacks on the radiative forcing of climate. In particular, we observe a large temporal offset during the onset of Plio-Pleistocene ice ages, between a marked cooling step at 2.73 Myr ago and the first major glaciation at 2.15 Myr ago. Last, we tentatively infer that ice sheets may have grown largest during glacials with more modest reductions in deep-sea temperature.

  9. Dancing-drawing fields of presence in SeaUnSea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ramsgaard Thomsen, Mette

    2008-01-01

    Dance and architecture have much in common as both are concerned with practices of space. For a dancer, the act of choreography occurs through the unfolding of spaces by means of gesture and embodied movement, whereas for an architect, space is the medium through which form emerges and habitation...... is constructed. For both, the first space of experience is the space of the body. This essay is a writing out of the interstices of these two disciplines as they touch and inform each other in the process and production of SeaUnSea, an interactive dance installation which premiered at Siobhan Davies Studios...... as part of Dance Umbrella in London, October 2006. SeaUnSea is a collaboration between the authors, choreographer Carol Brown and architect Mette Ramsgard Thomsen, working with programmer Chiron Mottram....

  10. Indicators and SEA

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gao, Jingjing; Kørnøv, Lone; Christensen, Per

    Abstract: Indicators are widely used in SEA to measure, communicate and monitor impacts from a proposed policy, plan or programme, and can improve the effectiveness for the SEA by simplifying the complexity of both assessment and presentation. Indicators can be seen as part of the implementation...... and if the information requirement for different target groups is not addressed. Indicators are widely used in SEA to measure, communicate and monitor impacts from a proposed policy, plan or programme, and can improve the effectiveness for the SEA by simplifying the complexity of both assessment and presentation...... process helping to understand, communicate and, integrate important environmental issues in planning and decision-making. On the other hand, use of indicators can also limit SEA effectiveness, if the ones chosen are biased or limited, if the aggregation gives incorrect interpretation...

  11. Sea ice contribution to the air-sea CO(2) exchange in the Arctic and Southern Oceans

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rysgaard...[], Søren; Bendtsen, Jørgen; Delille, B.

    2011-01-01

    Although salt rejection from sea ice is a key process in deep-water formation in ice-covered seas, the concurrent rejection of CO(2) and the subsequent effect on air-sea CO(2) exchange have received little attention. We review the mechanisms by which sea ice directly and indirectly controls the air......-sea CO(2) exchange and use recent measurements of inorganic carbon compounds in bulk sea ice to estimate that oceanic CO(2) uptake during the seasonal cycle of sea-ice growth and decay in ice-covered oceanic regions equals almost half of the net atmospheric CO(2) uptake in ice-free polar seas. This sea......-sea CO(2) exchange during winter, and (3) release of CO(2)-depleted melt water with excess total alkalinity during sea-ice decay and (4) biological CO(2) drawdown during primary production in sea ice and surface oceanic waters....

  12. Zooplankton community structure in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea in autumn

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hongju Chen

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Study on zooplankton spatial distribution is essential for understanding food web dynamics in marine ecosystems and fishery management. Here we elucidated the composition and distribution of large mesozooplankton on the continental shelf of the Yellow Sea and East China Sea, and explored the zooplankton community structure in these water masses. Sixty vertical hauls (bottom or 200 m in deep water to surface using a ring net (diameter 0.8 m, 505-μm mesh were exploited in November 2007. The biogeographic patterns of zooplankton communities were investigated using multivariate analysis methods; copepod biodiversity was analyzed using univariate indices. Copepods and protozoans were dominate in the communities. Based on the species composition, we divided the study areas into six station groups. Significant differences in zooplankton assemblages were detected between the Yellow Sea and East China Sea. Species richness was higher in East China Sea groups than those in Yellow Sea, whereas taxonomic distinctness was higher in Yellow Sea than in East China Sea. There was a clear relationship between the species composition and water mass group.

  13. Taxonomic research on deep-sea macrofauna in the South China Sea using the Chinese deep-sea submersible Jiaolong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xinzheng

    2017-07-01

    This paper reviews the taxonomic and biodiversity studies of deep-sea invertebrates in the South China Sea based on the samples collected by the Chinese manned deep-sea submersible Jiaolong. To date, 6 new species have been described, including the sponges Lophophysema eversa, Saccocalyx microhexactin and Semperella jiaolongae as well as the crustaceans Uroptychus jiaolongae, Uroptychus spinulosus and Globospongicola jiaolongi; some newly recorded species from the South China Sea have also been reported. The Bathymodiolus platifrons-Shinkaia crosnieri deep-sea cold seep community has been reported by Li (2015), as has the mitochondrial genome of the glass sponge L. eversa by Zhang et al. (2016). The population structures of two dominant species, the shrimp Shinkaia crosnieri and the mussel Bathymodiolus platifrons, from the cold seep Bathymodiolus platifrons-Shinkaia crosnieri community in the South China Sea and the hydrothermal vents in the Okinawa Trough, were compared using molecular analysis. The systematic position of the shrimp genus Globospongicola was discussed based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. © 2017 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

  14. Arctic sea ice decline: Projected changes in timing and extent of sea ice in the Bering and Chukchi Seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Douglas, David C.

    2010-01-01

    The Arctic region is warming faster than most regions of the world due in part to increasing greenhouse gases and positive feedbacks associated with the loss of snow and ice cover. One consequence has been a rapid decline in Arctic sea ice over the past 3 decades?a decline that is projected to continue by state-of-the-art models. Many stakeholders are therefore interested in how global warming may change the timing and extent of sea ice Arctic-wide, and for specific regions. To inform the public and decision makers of anticipated environmental changes, scientists are striving to better understand how sea ice influences ecosystem structure, local weather, and global climate. Here, projected changes in the Bering and Chukchi Seas are examined because sea ice influences the presence of, or accessibility to, a variety of local resources of commercial and cultural value. In this study, 21st century sea ice conditions in the Bering and Chukchi Seas are based on projections by 18 general circulation models (GCMs) prepared for the fourth reporting period by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. Sea ice projections are analyzed for each of two IPCC greenhouse gas forcing scenarios: the A1B `business as usual? scenario and the A2 scenario that is somewhat more aggressive in its CO2 emissions during the second half of the century. A large spread of uncertainty among projections by all 18 models was constrained by creating model subsets that excluded GCMs that poorly simulated the 1979-2008 satellite record of ice extent and seasonality. At the end of the 21st century (2090-2099), median sea ice projections among all combinations of model ensemble and forcing scenario were qualitatively similar. June is projected to experience the least amount of sea ice loss among all months. For the Chukchi Sea, projections show extensive ice melt during July and ice-free conditions during August, September, and October by the end of the century, with high agreement

  15. South China Sea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Morton, Brian [Hong Kong Univ., Swire Inst. of Marine Science, Hong Kong (China); Hong Kong Univ., Dept. of Ecology and Biodiversity, Hong Kong (China); Blackmore, Graham [Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, Dept. of Biology, Hong Kong (China)

    2001-07-01

    The South China Sea is poorly understood in terms of its marine biota, ecology and the human impacts upon it. What is known is most often contained in reports and workshops and conference documents that are not available to the wider scientific community. The South China Sea has an area of some 3.3 million km{sup 2} and depths range from the shallowest coastal fringe to 5377m in the Manila Trench. It is also studded with numerous islets, atolls and reefs many of which are just awash at low tide. It is largely confined within the Tropic of Cancer and, therefore, experiences a monsoonal climate being influenced by the Southwest Monsoon in summer and the Northeast Monsoon in winter. The South China Sea is a marginal sea and, therefore, largely surrounded by land. Countries that have a major influence on and claims to the sea include China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, although Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan have some too. The coastal fringes of the South China Sea are home to about 270 million people that have had some of the fastest developing and most vibrant economics on the globe. Consequently, anthropogenic impacts, such as over-exploitation of resources and pollution, are anticipated to be huge although, in reality, relatively little is known about them. The Indo-West Pacific biogeographic province, at the centre of which the South China Sea lies, is probably the world's most diverse shallow-water marine area. Of three major nearshore habitat types, i.e., coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses, 45 mangrove species out of a global total of 51, most of the currently recognised 70 coral genera and 20 of 50 known seagrass species have been recorded from the South China Sea. The island groups of the South China Sea are all disputed and sovereignty is claimed over them by a number of countries. Conflicts have in recent decades arisen over them because of perceived national rights. It is perhaps because of this that so little research has been undertaken

  16. South China Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morton, Brian; Blackmore, Graham

    2001-01-01

    The South China Sea is poorly understood in terms of its marine biota, ecology and the human impacts upon it. What is known is most often contained in reports and workshop and conference documents that are not available to the wider scientific community. The South China Sea has an area of some 3.3 million km2 and depths range from the shallowest coastal fringe to 5377 m in the Manila Trench. It is also studded with numerous islets, atolls and reefs many of which are just awash at low tide. It is largely confined within the Tropic of Cancer and, therefore, experiences a monsoonal climate being influenced by the Southwest Monsoon in summer and the Northeast Monsoon in winter. The South China Sea is a marginal sea and, therefore, largely surrounded by land. Countries that have a major influence on and claims to the sea include China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, although Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan have some too. The coastal fringes of the South China Sea are home to about 270 million people that have had some of the fastest developing and most vibrant economies on the globe. Consequently, anthropogenic impacts, such as over-exploitation of resources and pollution, are anticipated to be huge although, in reality, relatively little is known about them. The Indo-West Pacific biogeographic province, at the centre of which the South China Sea lies, is probably the world's most diverse shallow-water marine area. Of the three major nearshore habitat types, i.e., coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses, 45 mangrove species out of a global of 51, most of the currently recognised 70 coral genera and 20 of 50 known seagrass species have been recorded from the South China Sea. The island groups of the South China Sea are all disputed and sovereignty is claimed over them by a number of countries. Conflicts have in recent decades arisen over them because of perceived national rights. It is perhaps because of this that so little research has been undertaken on the South

  17. Radioactivity in the Arctic Seas. Report for the International Arctic Seas Assessment Project (IASAP)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-04-01

    This report provides comprehensive information on environmental conditions in the Arctic Seas as required for the study of possible radiological consequences from dumped high level radioactive wastes in the Kara Sea. The report describes the oceanography of the regions, with emphasis on the Kara and Barents Seas, including the East Novaya Zemlya Fjords. The ecological description concentrates on biological production, marine food-weds and fisheries in the Arctic Seas. The report presents data on radionuclide concentrations in the Kara and Barents Seas and uses these data to estimate the inventories of radionuclides currently in the marine environment of the Kara and Barents Seas

  18. Late Holocene sea ice conditions in Herald Canyon, Chukchi Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pearce, C.; O'Regan, M.; Rattray, J. E.; Hutchinson, D. K.; Cronin, T. M.; Gemery, L.; Barrientos, N.; Coxall, H.; Smittenberg, R.; Semiletov, I. P.; Jakobsson, M.

    2017-12-01

    Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has been in steady decline in recent decades and, based on satellite data, the retreat is most pronounced in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Historical observations suggest that the recent changes were unprecedented during the last 150 years, but for a longer time perspective, we rely on the geological record. For this study, we analyzed sediment samples from two piston cores from Herald Canyon in the Chukchi Sea, collected during the 2014 SWERUS-C3 Arctic Ocean Expedition. The Herald Canyon is a local depression across the Chukchi Shelf, and acts as one of the main pathways for Pacific Water to the Arctic Ocean after entering through the narrow and shallow Bering Strait. The study site lies at the modern-day seasonal sea ice minimum edge, and is thus an ideal location for the reconstruction of past sea ice variability. Both sediment cores contain late Holocene deposits characterized by high sediment accumulation rates (100-300 cm/kyr). Core 2-PC1 from the shallow canyon flank (57 m water depth) is 8 meter long and extends back to 4200 cal yrs BP, while the upper 3 meters of Core 4-PC1 from the central canyon (120 mwd) cover the last 3000 years. The chronologies of the cores are based on radiocarbon dates and the 3.6 ka Aniakchak CFE II tephra, which is used as an absolute age marker to calculate the marine radiocarbon reservoir age. Analysis of biomarkers for sea ice and surface water productivity indicate stable sea ice conditions throughout the entire late Holocene, ending with an abrupt increase of phytoplankton sterols in the very top of both sediment sequences. The shift is accompanied by a sudden increase in coarse sediments (> 125 µm) and a minor change in δ13Corg. We interpret this transition in the top sediments as a community turnover in primary producers from sea ice to open water biota. Most importantly, our results indicate that the ongoing rapid ice retreat in the Chukchi Sea of recent decades was unprecedented during the

  19. Coastal seas as resource for Blue Growth - SmartSea project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kotilainen, Aarno; Alvi, Kimmo; Boman, Anton; Hämäläinen, Jyrki; Kaskela, Anu; Rantataro, Jyrki; Vallius, Henry; Virtasalo, Joonas

    2017-04-01

    Blue growth is a long term strategy of the European Union (EU) to enhance the sustainable growth of the maritime sector. Our surrounding seas have been drivers for the European economy for a long time, but still they have great potential for further exploiting of natural resources and economic growth. Especially if the growth can be achieved in an environmentally sustainable way, benefits are obvious. It has been estimated that improvement of the state of the Baltic Sea would until 2030 create 900 000 jobs in the whole Baltic Sea area, mainly in Blue Tech, tourism, real estate and building businesses (Dahlgren et al. 2015). However, coastal seas already experience multiple stressors like off-shore construction, pollution, eutrophication, shipping, over-fishing, and climate change. In order to obtain sustainable Blue Growth, it is necessary to localize and assess the current maritime activities, estimate their growth potential, and investigate their present and future effects on each other and on the marine environment. The purpose of the SmartSea project is to support the growth of commercial marine activities in the Gulf of Bothnia region, in the northern Baltic Sea. The Gulf of Bothnia is an essential resource in terms of fish farming and wind power, for example, and it is also possible to make use of the geological resources of the gulf. Moreover, the rapid growth of the commercial marine activities and the consequences of the climate change may lead to conflicts between the different activities and harm the marine ecosystem of the Gulf of Bothnia. The SmartSea project aims to identify these risks and find solutions for the sustainable use of the sea. SmartSea project is funded by the Strategic Research Council of Academy of Finland, grant No: 292 985. The project will last for six years (2015-2020) and its funding totals nearly 8 million euros. The project involves close to 40 researchers from eight different institutions: the Finnish Meteorological Institute

  20. Projecting future sea level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cayan, Daniel R.; Bromirski, Peter; Hayhoe, Katharine; Tyree, Mary; Dettinger, Mike; Flick, Reinhard

    2006-01-01

    California’s coastal observations and global model projections indicate that California’s open coast and estuaries will experience increasing sea levels over the next century. Sea level rise has affected much of the coast of California, including the Southern California coast, the Central California open coast, and the San Francisco Bay and upper estuary. These trends, quantified from a small set of California tide gages, have ranged from 10–20 centimeters (cm) (3.9–7.9 inches) per century, quite similar to that estimated for global mean sea level. So far, there is little evidence that the rate of rise has accelerated, and the rate of rise at California tide gages has actually flattened since 1980, but projections suggest substantial sea level rise may occur over the next century. Climate change simulations project a substantial rate of global sea level rise over the next century due to thermal expansion as the oceans warm and runoff from melting land-based snow and ice accelerates. Sea level rise projected from the models increases with the amount of warming. Relative to sea levels in 2000, by the 2070–2099 period, sea level rise projections range from 11–54 cm (4.3–21 in) for simulations following the lower (B1) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions scenario, from 14–61 cm (5.5–24 in) for the middle-upper (A2) emission scenario, and from 17–72 cm (6.7–28 in) for the highest (A1fi) scenario. In addition to relatively steady secular trends, sea levels along the California coast undergo shorter period variability above or below predicted tide levels and changes associated with long-term trends. These variations are caused by weather events and by seasonal to decadal climate fluctuations over the Pacific Ocean that in turn affect the Pacific coast. Highest coastal sea levels have occurred when winter storms and Pacific climate disturbances, such as El Niño, have coincided with high astronomical tides. This study considers a range of projected future

  1. A review of the possible impacts of long-term oceanic and climate changes and fishing mortality on recruitment of anguillid eels of the Northern Hemisphere.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knights, B

    2003-07-01

    Possible causes of declines in recruitment of European, American and Japanese eels to continental waters are reviewed. Negative correlations between the Den Oever glass eel recruitment index (DOI) and the North Atlantic Oscillation Index since 1938 are discussed, together with older anecdotal evidence. Correlations are established between the DOI and sea surface temperature anomalies at 100-250 m between 1952 and 1995 in the Sargasso Sea/Sub-Tropical Gyre (STG) spawning area. It is hypothesised that, associated with global warming trends, STG warming inhibits spring thermocline mixing and nutrient circulation, with negative impacts on productivity and hence food for leptocephalus larvae. Concurrent gyre spin-up also affects major currents and slowing of oceanic migration has probably enhanced starvation and predation losses. Local factors, such as unfavourable wind-driven currents, can also affect recruitment of glass eels on continental shelves. In contrast, evidence is discussed that indicates fishing mortality and continental climate change appear to have had lesser impacts. Similar starvation-advection explanations for declines in Japanese eel recruitment are proposed. Predictions for the future are made and multidisciplinary and integrated monitoring and research are recommended for managing eel stocks and fisheries.

  2. Air–Sea Interaction and Horizontal Circulation in the Red Sea

    KAUST Repository

    Bower, Amy S.

    2015-01-01

    This chapter discusses the horizontal circulation of the Red Sea and the surface meteorology that drives it, and recent satellite and in situ measurements from the region are used to illustrate properties of the Red Sea circulation and the atmospheric forcing. The surface winds over the Red Sea have rich spatial structure, with variations in speed and direction on both synoptic and seasonal timescales. Wintertime mountain-gap wind jets drive large heat losses and evaporation at some locations, with as much as 9 cm of evaporation in a week. The near-surface currents in the Red Sea exhibit similarly rich variability, with an energetic and complex flow field dominated by persistent, quasi-stationary eddies, and convoluted boundary currents. At least one quasi-stationary eddy pair is driven largely by winds blowing through a gap in the mountains (Tokar Gap), but numerical simulations suggest that much of the eddy field is driven by the interaction of the buoyancy-driven flow with topography. Recent measurements suggest that Gulf of Aden Intermediate Water (GAIW) penetrates further northward into the Red Sea than previously reported.

  3. Satellite altimetry in sea ice regions - detecting open water for estimating sea surface heights

    Science.gov (United States)

    Müller, Felix L.; Dettmering, Denise; Bosch, Wolfgang

    2017-04-01

    The Greenland Sea and the Farm Strait are transporting sea ice from the central Arctic ocean southwards. They are covered by a dynamic changing sea ice layer with significant influences on the Earth climate system. Between the sea ice there exist various sized open water areas known as leads, straight lined open water areas, and polynyas exhibiting a circular shape. Identifying these leads by satellite altimetry enables the extraction of sea surface height information. Analyzing the radar echoes, also called waveforms, provides information on the surface backscatter characteristics. For example waveforms reflected by calm water have a very narrow and single-peaked shape. Waveforms reflected by sea ice show more variability due to diffuse scattering. Here we analyze altimeter waveforms from different conventional pulse-limited satellite altimeters to separate open water and sea ice waveforms. An unsupervised classification approach employing partitional clustering algorithms such as K-medoids and memory-based classification methods such as K-nearest neighbor is used. The classification is based on six parameters derived from the waveform's shape, for example the maximum power or the peak's width. The open-water detection is quantitatively compared to SAR images processed while accounting for sea ice motion. The classification results are used to derive information about the temporal evolution of sea ice extent and sea surface heights. They allow to provide evidence on climate change relevant influences as for example Arctic sea level rise due to enhanced melting rates of Greenland's glaciers and an increasing fresh water influx into the Arctic ocean. Additionally, the sea ice cover extent analyzed over a long-time period provides an important indicator for a globally changing climate system.

  4. Sea Turtle Conservation on Bonaire. Sea Turtle Club Bonaire 1997. Project Report

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schuit, M.; Put, van A.L.L.M.; Valkering, N.P.; Eijck, van T.J.W.

    1998-01-01

    The Sea Turtle Club Bonaire (STCB) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization. Its main goal is the conservation of the sea turtles that occur on Bonaire. To reach this goal, annual projects are undertaken, such as research and the promotion of public awareness on sea turtle conservation. The

  5. The Ross Sea Dipole – temperature, snow accumulation and sea ice variability in the Ross Sea region, Antarctica, over the past 2700 years

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. A. N. Bertler

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available High-resolution, well-dated climate archives provide an opportunity to investigate the dynamic interactions of climate patterns relevant for future projections. Here, we present data from a new, annually dated ice core record from the eastern Ross Sea, named the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE ice core. Comparison of this record with climate reanalysis data for the 1979–2012 interval shows that RICE reliably captures temperature and snow precipitation variability in the region. Trends over the past 2700 years in RICE are shown to be distinct from those in West Antarctica and the western Ross Sea captured by other ice cores. For most of this interval, the eastern Ross Sea was warming (or showing isotopic enrichment for other reasons, with increased snow accumulation and perhaps decreased sea ice concentration. However, West Antarctica cooled and the western Ross Sea showed no significant isotope temperature trend. This pattern here is referred to as the Ross Sea Dipole. Notably, during the Little Ice Age, West Antarctica and the western Ross Sea experienced colder than average temperatures, while the eastern Ross Sea underwent a period of warming or increased isotopic enrichment. From the 17th century onwards, this dipole relationship changed. All three regions show current warming, with snow accumulation declining in West Antarctica and the eastern Ross Sea but increasing in the western Ross Sea. We interpret this pattern as reflecting an increase in sea ice in the eastern Ross Sea with perhaps the establishment of a modern Roosevelt Island polynya as a local moisture source for RICE.

  6. Women in the Looking-Glass: Post-Colonial and Psychoanalytical Techniques in Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Despain, Martha

    2004-01-01

    When Jean Rhys takes on the underdog tale of Charlotte Bronte's Bertha Mason, she both moves beyond license by appropriating a popular, Victorian text and imposes limits by choosing a story with an unchangeable ending...

  7. Evidence for aggregation and export of cyanobacteria and nano-eukaryotes from the Sargasso Sea euphotic zone

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. W. Lomas

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Pico-plankton and nano-plankton are generally thought to represent a negligible fraction of the total particulate organic carbon (POC export flux in oligotrophic gyres due to their small size, slow individual sinking rates, and tight grazer control that leads to high rates of recycling in the euphotic zone. Based upon recent inverse modeling and network analysis however, it has been hypothesized that pico-plankton, including the cyanobacteria Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, and nano-plankton contribute significantly to POC export, via formation and gravitational settling of aggregates and/or consumption of those aggregates by mesozooplankton, in proportion to their contribution to net primary production. This study presents total suspended particulate (>0.7 μm and particle size-fractionated (10–20 μm, 20–53 μm, >53 μm pigment concentrations from within and below the euphotic zone in the oligotrophic subtropical North Atlantic, collected using Niskin bottles and large volume in-situ pumps, respectively. Results show the indicator pigments for Synechococcus, Prochlorococcus and nano-eukaryotes are; (1 found at depths down to 500 m, and; (2 essentially constant, relative to the sum of all indicator pigments, across particle size fractions ranging from 10 μm to >53 μm. Based upon the presence of chlorophyll precursor and degradation pigments, and that in situ pumps do not effectively sample fecal pellets, it is concluded that these pigments were redistributed to deeper waters on larger, more rapidly sinking aggregates likely by gravitational settling and/or convective mixing. Using available pigment and ancillary data from these cruises, these Synechococcus, Prochlorococcus and nano-plankton derived aggregates are estimated to contribute 2–13% (5 ± 4%, 1–20% (5 ± 7%, and 6–43% (23 ± 14% of the total sediment trap POC flux measured on the same cruises, respectively. Furthermore, nano-eukaryotes contribute equally to POC export and autotrophic biomass, while cyanobacteria contributions to POC export are one-tenth of their contribution to autotrophic biomass. These field observations provide direct evidence that pico- and nano-plankton represent a significant contribution to the total POC export via formation of aggregates in this oligotrophic ocean gyre. We suggest that aggregate formation and fate should be included in ecosystem models, particularly as oligotrophic regions are hypothesized to expand in areal extent with warming and increased stratification in the future.

  8. Sea Reclamation Status of Countries around the South China Sea from 1975 to 2010

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junjue Zhang

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available As a way of turning sea into land for living space for humans, the actions of sea reclamation bring about significant benefits. Nevertheless, it is also an under-recognized threat to the environment and the marine ecosystem. Based on images in two periods, sea reclamation information of countries around the South China Sea was extracted from 1975 to 2010. The spatial state and driven forces of sea reclamation are then discussed. Results show that the overall strength of sea reclamation in the South China Sea was great. New reclaimed land added up to 3264 km2. Sea reclamation for fish farming was the main reclamation type and widely distributed in the whole area, especially on the coast from the Pearl River Delta to the Red River Delta, and the coast of Ca Mau Peninsula. Sea reclamation in China and Vietnam was rather significant, which occupies 80.6% of the total reclamation area. Singapore had the highest level of sea reclamation. New reclaimed land for fish farming holds a key role in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, while new reclaimed land for construction and docks dominated in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. Areas and use-type compositions of new reclaimed land in countries varied greatly due to the differences of economic factors, policy inclination, and landscapes in the respective countries.

  9. An Investigation of the Radiative Effects and Climate Feedbacks of Sea Ice Sources of Sea Salt Aerosol

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horowitz, H. M.; Alexander, B.; Bitz, C. M.; Jaegle, L.; Burrows, S. M.

    2017-12-01

    In polar regions, sea ice is a major source of sea salt aerosol through lofting of saline frost flowers or blowing saline snow from the sea ice surface. Under continued climate warming, an ice-free Arctic in summer with only first-year, more saline sea ice in winter is likely. Previous work has focused on climate impacts in summer from increasing open ocean sea salt aerosol emissions following complete sea ice loss in the Arctic, with conflicting results suggesting no net radiative effect or a negative climate feedback resulting from a strong first aerosol indirect effect. However, the radiative forcing from changes to the sea ice sources of sea salt aerosol in a future, warmer climate has not previously been explored. Understanding how sea ice loss affects the Arctic climate system requires investigating both open-ocean and sea ice sources of sea-salt aerosol and their potential interactions. Here, we implement a blowing snow source of sea salt aerosol into the Community Earth System Model (CESM) dynamically coupled to the latest version of the Los Alamos sea ice model (CICE5). Snow salinity is a key parameter affecting blowing snow sea salt emissions and previous work has assumed constant regional snow salinity over sea ice. We develop a parameterization for dynamic snow salinity in the sea ice model and examine how its spatial and temporal variability impacts the production of sea salt from blowing snow. We evaluate and constrain the snow salinity parameterization using available observations. Present-day coupled CESM-CICE5 simulations of sea salt aerosol concentrations including sea ice sources are evaluated against in situ and satellite (CALIOP) observations in polar regions. We then quantify the present-day radiative forcing from the addition of blowing snow sea salt aerosol with respect to aerosol-radiation and aerosol-cloud interactions. The relative contributions of sea ice vs. open ocean sources of sea salt aerosol to radiative forcing in polar regions is

  10. Arctic Sea Level Reconstruction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Svendsen, Peter Limkilde

    Reconstruction of historical Arctic sea level is very difficult due to the limited coverage and quality of tide gauge and altimetry data in the area. This thesis addresses many of these issues, and discusses strategies to help achieve a stable and plausible reconstruction of Arctic sea level from...... 1950 to today.The primary record of historical sea level, on the order of several decades to a few centuries, is tide gauges. Tide gauge records from around the world are collected in the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) database, and includes data along the Arctic coasts. A reasonable...... amount of data is available along the Norwegian and Russian coasts since 1950, and most published research on Arctic sea level extends cautiously from these areas. Very little tide gauge data is available elsewhere in the Arctic, and records of a length of several decades,as generally recommended for sea...

  11. Putting SEA in context: A discourse perspective on how SEA contributes to decision-making

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Runhaar, Hens

    2009-01-01

    Over the last couple of years there is an ongoing debate in the environmental assessment literature about the contribution of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to public decision-making and how this can be understood and enhanced by better incorporating insights from policy analysis, planning theory and political sciences. By explicitly framing SEA as an element in a process where stakeholders with diverging interests struggle, acceptability of SEA processes and results by stakeholders has become an important element in SEA evaluation. In addition, the importance of other context variables, such as the institutional organisation, and the need for SEA to adapt to this context, is stressed. Thus far, publications in this area have been dealing with the operationalisation of SEA's 'contribution', typologies of roles that SEA can or should play in different policy settings and on factors that stimulate or impede SEA to play these roles. In this paper an alternative approach is suggested that starts from the deliberative processes around a particular policy issue or decision supported by SEA. Of particular interest are 'discourses': the frames through which groups of actors give meaning to aspects of the policy issues and decisions that are supported by SEA. Discourses do not only reflect conflicts of interests and power play, but also the ways in which actors perceive and understand aspects of the world. Decision-making is conceptualised as a 'system of competing discourse coalitions and their struggles to 'control shared meanings' and to gain acceptance of their framing of a policy issue' [Durning D. A review of Fischer and Forrester (1993) The argumentative turn in policy analysis and planning. Policy Sci 1995;28(1):102-8]. SEA is one of the events in this process that may impact upon dominant discourses. Discourse analysis allows for an understanding of arguments that are considered legitimate for (not) incorporating particular elements of SEA. In addition it

  12. Sea-ice thickness from field measurements in the northwestern Barents Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Jennifer; Spreen, Gunnar; Gerland, Sebastian; Haas, Christian; Hendricks, Stefan; Kaleschke, Lars; Wang, Caixin

    2017-02-01

    The Barents Sea is one of the fastest changing regions of the Arctic, and has experienced the strongest decline in winter-time sea-ice area in the Arctic, at -23±4% decade-1. Sea-ice thickness in the Barents Sea is not well studied. We present two previously unpublished helicopter-borne electromagnetic (HEM) ice thickness measurements from the northwestern Barents Sea acquired in March 2003 and 2014. The HEM data are compared to ice thickness calculated from ice draft measured by ULS deployed between 1994 and 1996. These data show that ice thickness varies greatly from year to year; influenced by the thermodynamic and dynamic processes that govern local formation vs long-range advection. In a year with a large inflow of sea-ice from the Arctic Basin, the Barents Sea ice cover is dominated by thick multiyear ice; as was the case in 2003 and 1995. In a year with an ice cover that was mainly grown in situ, the ice will be thin and mechanically unstable; as was the case in 2014. The HEM data allow us to explore the spatial and temporal variability in ice thickness. In 2003 the dominant ice class was more than 2 years old; and modal sea-ice thickness varied regionally from 0.6 to 1.4 m, with the thinner ice being either first-year ice, or multiyear ice which had come into contact with warm Atlantic water. In 2014 the ice cover was predominantly locally grown ice less than 1 month old (regional modes of 0.5-0.8 m). These two situations represent two extremes of a range of possible ice thickness distributions that can present very different conditions for shipping traffic; or have a different impact on heat transport from ocean to atmosphere.

  13. SeaRAM: an evaluation of the safety of RAM transport by sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McConnell, P.; Sorenson, K.B.; Carter, M.H.; Keane, M.P.; Keith, V.F.; Heid, R.J.

    1995-01-01

    SeaRAM is a multi-year Department of Energy (DOE) project designed to validate the safety of shipping radioactive materials (RAM) by sea. The project has an ultimate goal of developing and demonstrating analytic tools for performing comprehensive analyses to evaluate the risks to humans and the environment due to sea transport of plutonium, vitrified high-level waste (VHLW), and spent fuel associated with reprocessing and research reactors. To achieve this end, evaluations of maritime databases and structural an thermal analyses of particular severe collision and fire accidents have been and will continue to be conducted. Program management for SeaRAM is based at the DOE's Office of Environmental Restoration. Technical activities for the project are being conducted at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). Several private organizations are also involved in providing technical support, notably Engineering Computer Optecnomics, Inc. (ECO). The technical work performed for SeaRAM also supports DOE participation in an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Cooperative Research Program (CRP) entitled Accident Severity at Sea During Transport of Radioactive Material. This paper discusses activities performed during the first year of the project

  14. Sea level ~400 000 years ago (MIS 11: analogue for present and future sea-level?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Q. Bowen

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Comparison of the sea-level today with that of 400 000 years ago (MIS 11, when the Earth's orbital characteristics were similar may provide, under conditions of natural variability, indications of future sea-level during the present interglacial. Then, as now, orbital eccentricity was low and precession dampened. Evidence for MIS 11 sea-level occurs on uplifting coastlines where shorelines with geochronological ages have been preserved. The sea-level term and the uplift term may be separated with an "uplift correction" formula. This discovers the original sea-level at which the now uplifted shoreline was fashioned. Estimates are based on average uplift rates of the "last interglacial" sea-level (MIS 5.5 using a range of estimates for sea-level and age at that time at different locations. These, with varying secular tectonic regimes in different ocean basins, provide a band of estimates for the MIS 11 sea-level. They do not support the hypothesis of an MIS 11 sea-level at ~20 m, and instead show that it was closer to its present level.

  15. The radioactivity of the sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Walker, M.I.; Rose, K.S.B.

    1990-01-01

    The radioactivity in the world's surface sea water averages 13.6 Bq/kg of water. Over 88% of this activity arises from a single natural radionuclide, 40 K, and 7% of the remainder results from nuclear weapon test fallout. Variations in the radioactivity occur due to changes in salinity, weapon test fallout and discharges of artificial radionuclides, and are examined here on the basis of published measurements. The most radioactive sea identified by these measurements is the Dead Sea, which averages 178 Bq/kg due to its high salinity. Other enclosed, highly saline waters can be expected to have similar levels. The radioactivity in open seas varies within a much narrower range, generally within 20% of the world average. The highest averages are found in the Persian Gulf (22 Bq/kg), the Red Sea (15 Bq/kg) and the Eastern Mediterranean (14.6 Bq/kg). The Irish Sea averaged 13.7 Bq/kg in 1987, with the effect of the Sellafield discharges being partly offset by lower than average salinity. Although higher levels occurred in the Irish Sea during the 1970s when the Sellafield discharges were higher, the average level has always been much less than that in the Dead Sea, so that the Irish Sea has never been the most radioactive sea in the world. Exceptionally low levels of radioactivity (4 Bq/kg) occur in the Baltic Sea due to dilution by fresh water. (author)

  16. Potential of sea level rise impact on South China Sea: a preliminary ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The effect of the sea level rise was involved the existence of sea water intrusion and coastal erosion phenomenon in the coastal of Terengganu. This study aim to determine fluctuation of high and low tides of the South China Sea in their relation to water quality value of Marang and Paka Rivers as well as from wells ...

  17. Formation and spreading of Red Sea Outflow Water in the Red Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhai, Ping; Bower, Amy S.; Smethie, William M.; Pratt, Larry J.

    2015-09-01

    Hydrographic data, chlorofluorocarbon-12 (CFC-12) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) measurements collected in March 2010 and September-October 2011 in the Red Sea, as well as an idealized numerical experiment are used to study the formation and spreading of Red Sea Outflow Water (RSOW) in the Red Sea. Analysis of inert tracers, potential vorticity distributions, and model results confirm that RSOW is formed through mixed-layer deepening caused by sea surface buoyancy loss in winter in the northern Red Sea and reveal more details on RSOW spreading rates, pathways, and vertical structure. The southward spreading of RSOW after its formation is identified as a layer with minimum potential vorticity and maximum CFC-12 and SF6. Ventilation ages of seawater within the RSOW layer, calculated from the partial pressure of SF6 (pSF6), range from 2 years in the northern Red Sea to 15 years at 17°N. The distribution of the tracer ages is in agreement with the model circulation field which shows a rapid transport of RSOW from its formation region to the southern Red Sea where there are longer circulation pathways and hence longer residence time due to basin wide eddies. The mean residence time of RSOW within the Red Sea estimated from the pSF6 age is 4.7 years. This time scale is very close to the mean transit time (4.8 years) for particles from the RSOW formation region to reach the exit at the Strait of Bab el Mandeb in the numerical experiment.

  18. Formation of Barents Sea Branch Water in the north-eastern Barents Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vidar S. Lien

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The Barents Sea throughflow accounts for approximately half of the Atlantic Water advection to the Arctic Ocean, while the other half flows through Fram Strait. Within the Barents Sea, the Atlantic Water undergoes considerable modifications before entering the Arctic Ocean through the St. Anna Trough. While the inflow area in the south-western Barents Sea is regularly monitored, oceanographic data from the outflow area to the north-east are very scarce. Here, we use conductivity, temperature and depth data from August/September 2008 to describe in detail the water masses present in the downstream area of the Barents Sea, their spatial distribution and transformations. Both Cold Deep Water, formed locally through winter convection and ice-freezing processes, and Atlantic Water, modified mainly through atmospheric cooling, contribute directly to the Barents Sea Branch Water. As a consequence, it consists of a dense core characterized by a temperature and salinity maximum associated with the Atlantic Water, in addition to the colder, less saline and less dense core commonly referred to as the Barents Sea Branch Water core. The denser core likely constitutes a substantial part of the total flow, and it is more saline and considerably denser than the Fram Strait branch as observed within the St. Anna Trough. Despite the recent warming of the Barents Sea, the Barents Sea Branch Water is denser than observed in the 1990s, and the bottom water observed in the St. Anna Trough matches the potential density at 2000 m depth in the Arctic Ocean.

  19. Sea ice contribution to the air-sea CO{sub 2} exchange in the Arctic and Southern Oceans

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rysgaard, Soeren (Greenland Climate Research Centre, Greenland Inst. of Natural Resources, Nuuk, Greenland (Denmark); Centre for Earth Observation Science, CHR Faculty of Environment Earth and Resources, Univ. of Manitoba, Winnipeg (Canada)), e-mail: rysgaard@natur.gl; Bendtsen, Joergen (Greenland Climate Research Centre, Greenland Inst. of Natural Resources, Nuuk, Greenland (Denmark); Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Inst., Univ. of Copenhagen, Copenhagen O (Denmark)); Delille, Bruno (Unit' e d' Oceanographie Chimique, Interfacultary Centre for Marine Research, Universite de Liege, Liege (Belgium)); Dieckmann, Gerhard S. (Alfred Wegener Inst. for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven (Germany)); Glud, Ronnie N. (Greenland Climate Research Centre, Greenland Inst. of Natural Resources, Nuuk, Greenland (Denmark); Scottish Association of Marine Sciences, Scotland UK, Southern Danish Univ. and NordCee, Odense M (Denmark)); Kennedy, Hilary; Papadimitriou, Stathys (School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor Univ., Menai Bridge, Anglesey, Wales (United Kingdom)); Mortensen, John (Greenland Climate Research Centre, Greenland Inst. of Natural Resources, Nuuk, Greenland (Denmark)); Thomas, David N. (School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor Univ., Menai Bridge, Anglesey, Wales (United Kingdom); Finnish Environment Inst. (SYKE), Marine Research Centre, Helsinki (Finland)); Tison, Jean-Louis (Glaciology Unit, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, (Belgium))

    2011-11-15

    Although salt rejection from sea ice is a key process in deep-water formation in ice-covered seas, the concurrent rejection of CO{sub 2} and the subsequent effect on air-sea CO{sub 2} exchange have received little attention. We review the mechanisms by which sea ice directly and indirectly controls the air-sea CO{sub 2} exchange and use recent measurements of inorganic carbon compounds in bulk sea ice to estimate that oceanic CO{sub 2} uptake during the seasonal cycle of sea-ice growth and decay in ice-covered oceanic regions equals almost half of the net atmospheric CO{sub 2} uptake in ice-free polar seas. This sea-ice driven CO{sub 2} uptake has not been considered so far in estimates of global oceanic CO{sub 2} uptake. Net CO{sub 2} uptake in sea-ice-covered oceans can be driven by; (1) rejection during sea-ice formation and sinking of CO{sub 2}-rich brine into intermediate and abyssal oceanic water masses, (2) blocking of air-sea CO{sub 2} exchange during winter, and (3) release of CO{sub 2}-depleted melt water with excess total alkalinity during sea-ice decay and (4) biological CO{sub 2} drawdown during primary production in sea ice and surface oceanic waters

  20. The Red Sea during the Last Glacial Maximum: implications for sea level reconstructions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gildor, H.; Biton, E.; Peltier, W. R.

    2006-12-01

    The Red Sea (RS) is a semi-enclosed basin connected to the Indian Ocean via a narrow and shallow strait, and surrounded by arid areas which exhibits high sensitivity to atmospheric changes and sea level reduction. We have used the MIT GCM to investigate the changes in the hydrography and circulation in the RS in response to reduced sea level, variability in the Indian monsoons, and changes in atmospheric temperature and humidity that occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The model results show high sensitivity to sea level reduction especially in the salinity field (increasing with the reduction in sea level) together with a mild atmospheric impact. Sea level reduction decreases the stratification, increases subsurface temperatures, and alters the circulation pattern at the Strait of Bab el Mandab, which experiences a transition from submaximal flow to maximal flow. The reduction in sea level at LGM alters the location of deep water formation which shifts to an open sea convective site in the northern part of the RS compared to present day situation in which deep water is formed from the Gulf of Suez outflow. Our main result based on both the GCM and on a simple hydraulic control model which takes into account mixing process at the Strait of Bab El Mandeb, is that sea level was reduced by only ~100 m in the Bab El Mandeb region during the LGM, i.e. the water depth at the Hanish sill (the shallowest part in the Strait Bab el Mandab) was around 34 m. This result agrees with the recent reconstruction of the LGM low stand of the sea in this region based upon the ICE-5G (VM2) model of Peltier (2004).

  1. Biologically-Oriented Processes in the Coastal Sea Ice Zone of the White Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melnikov, I. A.

    2002-12-01

    The annual advance and retreat of sea ice is a major physical determinant of spatial and temporal changes in the structure and function of marine coastal biological communities. Sea ice biological data obtained in the tidal zone of Kandalaksha Gulf (White Sea) during 1996-2001 period will be presented. Previous observations in this area were mainly conducted during the ice-free summer season. However, there is little information on the ice-covered winter season (6-7 months duration), and, especially, on the sea-ice biology in the coastal zone within tidal regimes. During the January-May period time-series observations were conducted on transects along shorelines with coastal and fast ice. Trends in the annual extent of sea ice showed significant impacts on ice-associated biological communities. Three types of sea ice impact on kelps, balanoides, littorinas and amphipods are distinguished: (i) positive, when sea ice protects these populations from grinding (ii) negative, when ice grinds both fauna and flora, and (iii) a combined effect, when fast ice protects, but anchored ice grinds plant and animals. To understand the full spectrum of ecological problems caused by pollution on the coastal zone, as well as the problems of sea ice melting caused by global warming, an integrated, long-term study of the physical, chemical, and biological processes is needed.

  2. Warming in the Nordic Seas, North Atlantic storms and thinning Arctic sea ice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexeev, Vladimir A.; Walsh, John E.; Ivanov, Vladimir V.; Semenov, Vladimir A.; Smirnov, Alexander V.

    2017-08-01

    Arctic sea ice over the last few decades has experienced a significant decline in coverage both in summer and winter. The currently warming Atlantic Water layer has a pronounced impact on sea ice in the Nordic Seas (including the Barents Sea). More open water combined with the prevailing atmospheric pattern of airflow from the southeast, and persistent North Atlantic storms such as the recent extremely strong Storm Frank in December 2015, lead to increased energy transport to the high Arctic. Each of these storms brings sizeable anomalies of heat to the high Arctic, resulting in significant warming and slowing down of sea ice growth or even melting. Our analysis indicates that the recently observed sea ice decline in the Nordic Seas during the cold season around Svalbard, Franz Joseph Land and Novaya Zemlya, and the associated heat release from open water into the atmosphere, contributed significantly to the increase in the downward longwave radiation throughout the entire Arctic. Added to other changes in the surface energy budget, this increase since the 1960s to the present is estimated to be at least 10 W m-2, which can result in thinner (up to at least 15-20 cm) Arctic ice at the end of the winter. This change in the surface budget is an important contributing factor accelerating the thinning of Arctic sea ice.

  3. Polarimetric signatures of sea ice in the Greenland Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skriver, Henning; Pedersen, Leif Toudal

    1995-01-01

    Polarimetric SAR data of sea ice have been acquired by the Danish polarimetric SAR (EMISAR) during a mission at the Greenland Sea in August 1994. Video recordings from a low-altitude acquisition have been used for interpretation of the SAR data. Also, ERS-1 SAR data and NOAA AVHRR-data have been...

  4. Temperature, salinity, and nutrients data collected from North Atlantic Ocean, White Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and Sea of Azov from 1924-03-19 to 1989-11-19 by multiple Soviet Union institutes (NODC Accession 0077413)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Temperature, salinity, and nutrients data collected from North Atlantic Ocean, White Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and Sea of Azov from 1924-03-19 to 1989-11-19...

  5. Raising the Dead without a Red Sea-Dead Sea project? Hydro-economics and governance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. E. Rosenberg

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Seven decades of extractions have dramatically reduced Jordan River flows, lowered the Dead Sea level, opened sink holes, and caused other environmental problems. The fix Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinians propose would build an expensive multipurpose conveyance project from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea that would also generate hydropower and desalinate water. This paper compares the Red-Dead project to alternatives that may also raise the Dead Sea level. Hydro-economic model results for the Jordan-Israel-Palestinian inter-tied water systems show two restoration alternatives are more economically viable than the proposed Red-Dead project. Many decentralized new supply, wastewater reuse, conveyance, conservation, and leak reduction projects and programs in each country can together increase economic benefits and reliably deliver up to 900 MCM yr−1 to the Dead Sea. Similarly, a smaller Red-Dead project that only generates hydropower can deliver large flows to the Dead Sea when the sale price of generated electricity is sufficiently high. However, for all restoration options, net benefits fall and water scarcity rises as flows to the Dead Sea increase. This finding suggests (i each country has no individual incentive to return water to the Dead Sea, and (ii outside institutions that seek to raise the Dead must also offer countries direct incentives to deliver water to the Sea besides building the countries new infrastructure.

  6. [Multiple scattering of visible and infrared light by sea fog over wind driving rough sea surface].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Xian-Ming; Wang, Hai-Hua; Lei, Cheng-Xin; Shen, Jin

    2013-08-01

    The present paper is concerned with computing the multiple scattering characteristics of a sea fog-sea surface couple system within this context. The single scattering characteristics of sea fog were studied by Mie theory, and the multiple scattering of sunlight by single sea fog layer was studied by radiative transfer theory. The reflection function of a statistically rough ocean surface was obtained using the standard Kirchhoff formulation, with shadowing effects taken into account. The reflection properties of the combined sea fog and ocean surface were obtained employing the adding method, and the results indicated that the reflected light intensity of sea fog increased with the sea background.

  7. Frost flowers and sea-salt aerosols over seasonal sea-ice areas in northwestern Greenland during winter–spring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Hara

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Sea salts and halogens in aerosols, frost flowers, and brine play an important role in atmospheric chemistry in polar regions. Simultaneous sampling and observations of frost flowers, brine, and aerosol particles were conducted around Siorapaluk in northwestern Greenland during December 2013 to March 2014. Results show that water-soluble frost flower and brine components are sea-salt components (e.g., Na+, Cl−, Mg2+, K+, Ca2+, Br−, and iodine. Concentration factors of sea-salt components of frost flowers and brine relative to seawater were 1.14–3.67. Sea-salt enrichment of Mg2+, K+, Ca2+, and halogens (Cl−, Br−, and iodine in frost flowers is associated with sea-salt fractionation by precipitation of mirabilite and hydrohalite. High aerosol number concentrations correspond to the occurrence of higher abundance of sea-salt particles in both coarse and fine modes, and blowing snow and strong winds. Aerosol number concentrations, particularly in coarse mode, are increased considerably by release from the sea-ice surface under strong wind conditions. Sulfate depletion by sea-salt fractionation was found to be limited in sea-salt aerosols because of the presence of non-sea-salt (NSS SO42−. However, coarse and fine sea-salt particles were found to be rich in Mg. Strong Mg enrichment might be more likely to proceed in fine sea-salt particles. Magnesium-rich sea-salt particles might be released from the surface of snow and slush layer (brine on sea ice and frost flowers. Mirabilite-like and ikaite-like particles were identified only in aerosol samples collected near new sea-ice areas. From the field evidence and results from earlier studies, we propose and describe sea-salt cycles in seasonal sea-ice areas.

  8. Frost flowers and sea-salt aerosols over seasonal sea-ice areas in northwestern Greenland during winter-spring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hara, Keiichiro; Matoba, Sumito; Hirabayashi, Motohiro; Yamasaki, Tetsuhide

    2017-07-01

    Sea salts and halogens in aerosols, frost flowers, and brine play an important role in atmospheric chemistry in polar regions. Simultaneous sampling and observations of frost flowers, brine, and aerosol particles were conducted around Siorapaluk in northwestern Greenland during December 2013 to March 2014. Results show that water-soluble frost flower and brine components are sea-salt components (e.g., Na+, Cl-, Mg2+, K+, Ca2+, Br-, and iodine). Concentration factors of sea-salt components of frost flowers and brine relative to seawater were 1.14-3.67. Sea-salt enrichment of Mg2+, K+, Ca2+, and halogens (Cl-, Br-, and iodine) in frost flowers is associated with sea-salt fractionation by precipitation of mirabilite and hydrohalite. High aerosol number concentrations correspond to the occurrence of higher abundance of sea-salt particles in both coarse and fine modes, and blowing snow and strong winds. Aerosol number concentrations, particularly in coarse mode, are increased considerably by release from the sea-ice surface under strong wind conditions. Sulfate depletion by sea-salt fractionation was found to be limited in sea-salt aerosols because of the presence of non-sea-salt (NSS) SO42-. However, coarse and fine sea-salt particles were found to be rich in Mg. Strong Mg enrichment might be more likely to proceed in fine sea-salt particles. Magnesium-rich sea-salt particles might be released from the surface of snow and slush layer (brine) on sea ice and frost flowers. Mirabilite-like and ikaite-like particles were identified only in aerosol samples collected near new sea-ice areas. From the field evidence and results from earlier studies, we propose and describe sea-salt cycles in seasonal sea-ice areas.

  9. Black Sea aerosols

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hacisalihoglu, G.; Eliyakut, F.; Anwari, M.A.; Ataman, O.Y.; Balkas, T.I.; Tuncel, G.; Olmez, I.

    1991-01-01

    Shipboard, high volume air particulate samples were collected from the Black Sea atmosphere and analyzed by instrumental neutron activation analysis, atomic absorption spectrophotometry and ion chromatography for about 40 elements and ions. Concentrations of elements in the eastern and western parts of the Black Sea are different at the 95% confidence level, with lower concentrations in the eastern Black Sea. Back-trajectories and concentrations of elements in trajectory groups show that Europe accounts for more than 70% of the anthropogenic elements in the atmosphere. The average sulfate concentration was 7 μg/m 3 , which is comparable with rural sulfate levels in western Europe. Fluxes of elements from the atmosphere to the Black Sea are in good agreement with the results of similar flux calculations for other regions

  10. Sea Surface Temperature Climate Data Record for the North Sea and Baltic Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Høyer, Jacob L.; Karagali, Ioanna

    2016-01-01

    A 30-yr climate data record (CDR) of sea surface temperature (SST) has been produced with daily gap-free analysis fields for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea region from 1982 to 2012 by combining the Pathfinder AVHRR satellite data record with the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) Reprocessing...... for Climate (ARC) dataset and with in situ observations. A dynamical bias correction scheme adjusts the Pathfinder observations toward the ARC and in situ observations. Largest Pathfinder-ARC differences are found in the summer months, when the Pathfinder observations are up to 0.4 °C colder than the ARC...... observations on average. Validation against independent in situ observations shows a very stable performance of the data record, with a mean difference of -0.06 °C compared to moored buoys and a 0.46 °C standard deviation of the differences. The mean annual biases of the SST CDR are small for all years...

  11. Fin whales and microplastics: The Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Cortez scenarios

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fossi, Maria Cristina; Marsili, Letizia; Baini, Matteo; Giannetti, Matteo; Coppola, Daniele; Guerranti, Cristiana; Caliani, Ilaria; Minutoli, Roberta; Lauriano, Giancarlo; Finoia, Maria Grazia; Rubegni, Fabrizio; Panigada, Simone; Bérubé, Martine; Urbán Ramírez, Jorge; Panti, Cristina

    2016-01-01

    The impact that microplastics have on baleen whales is a question that remains largely unexplored. This study examined the interaction between free-ranging fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and microplastics by comparing populations living in two semi-enclosed basins, the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California, Mexico). The results indicate that a considerable abundance of microplastics and plastic additives exists in the neustonic samples from Pelagos Sanctuary of the Mediterranean Sea, and that pelagic areas containing high densities of microplastics overlap with whale feeding grounds, suggesting that whales are exposed to microplastics during foraging; this was confirmed by the observation of a temporal increase in toxicological stress in whales. Given the abundance of microplastics in the Mediterranean environment, along with the high concentrations of Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) chemicals, plastic additives and biomarker responses detected in the biopsies of Mediterranean whales as compared to those in whales inhabiting the Sea of Cortez, we believe that exposure to microplastics because of direct ingestion and consumption of contaminated prey poses a major threat to the health of fin whales in the Mediterranean Sea. - Highlights: • Microplastics and phthalates were higher in the Mediterranean Sea than in the Sea of Cortez. • The overlap between the whale feeding areas and high microplastic density shows the risk of interaction. • Data suggest an increasing risk of chemical transfer from microplastic to whales during the foraging. • Mediterranean whales are exposed to higher ecotoxicological threat of than Sea of Cortez whales. - This study identified temporal and regional ecotoxicological variations in free-ranging fin whales inhabiting two seas different characterized by different microplastic abundance.

  12. Three modes of interdecadal trends in sea surface temperature and sea surface height

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gnanadesikan, A.; Pradal, M.

    2013-12-01

    It might be thought that sea surface height and sea surface temperature would be tightly related. We show that this is not necessarily the case on a global scale. We analysed this relationship in a suite of coupled climate models run under 1860 forcing conditions. The models are low-resolution variants of the GFDL Earth System Model, reported in Galbraith et al. (J. Clim. 2011). 1. Correlated changes in global sea surface height and global sea surface temperature. This mode corresponds to opening and closing of convective chimneys in the Southern Ocean. As the Southern Ocean destratifies, sea ice formation is suppressed during the winter and more heat is taken up during the summer. This mode of variability is highly correlated with changes in the top of the atmosphere radiative budget and weakly correlated with changes in the deep ocean circulation. 2. Uncorrelated changes in global sea surface height and global sea surface temperature. This mode of variability is associated with interdecadal variabliity in tropical winds. Changes in the advective flux of heat to the surface ocean play a critical role in driving these changes, which also result in significant local changes in sea level. Changes sea ice over the Southern Ocean still result in changes in solar absorption, but these are now largely cancelled by changes in outgoing longwave radiation. 3. Anticorrelated changes in global sea surface height and global sea surface temperatures. By varying the lateral diffusion coefficient in the ocean model, we are able to enhance and suppress convection in the Southern and Northern Pacific Oceans. Increasing the lateral diffusion coefficients shifts the balance sources of deep water away from the warm salty deep water of the North Atlantic and towards cold fresh deep water from the other two regions. As a result, even though the planet as a whole warms, the deep ocean cools and sea level falls, with changes of order 30 cm over 500 years. The increase in solar absorption

  13. Increased Land Use by Chukchi Sea Polar Bears in Relation to Changing Sea Ice Conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rode, Karyn D; Wilson, Ryan R; Regehr, Eric V; St Martin, Michelle; Douglas, David C; Olson, Jay

    2015-01-01

    Recent observations suggest that polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly using land habitats in some parts of their range, where they have minimal access to their preferred prey, likely in response to loss of their sea ice habitat associated with climatic warming. We used location data from female polar bears fit with satellite radio collars to compare land use patterns in the Chukchi Sea between two periods (1986-1995 and 2008-2013) when substantial summer sea-ice loss occurred. In both time periods, polar bears predominantly occupied sea-ice, although land was used during the summer sea-ice retreat and during the winter for maternal denning. However, the proportion of bears on land for > 7 days between August and October increased between the two periods from 20.0% to 38.9%, and the average duration on land increased by 30 days. The majority of bears that used land in the summer and for denning came to Wrangel and Herald Islands (Russia), highlighting the importance of these northernmost land habitats to Chukchi Sea polar bears. Where bears summered and denned, and how long they spent there, was related to the timing and duration of sea ice retreat. Our results are consistent with other studies supporting increased land use as a common response of polar bears to sea-ice loss. Implications of increased land use for Chukchi Sea polar bears are unclear, because a recent study observed no change in body condition or reproductive indices between the two periods considered here. This result suggests that the ecology of this region may provide a degree of resilience to sea ice loss. However, projections of continued sea ice loss suggest that polar bears in the Chukchi Sea and other parts of the Arctic may increasingly use land habitats in the future, which has the potential to increase nutritional stress and human-polar bear interactions.

  14. Intermittent sea-level acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olivieri, M.; Spada, G.

    2013-10-01

    Using instrumental observations from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL), we provide a new assessment of the global sea-level acceleration for the last ~ 2 centuries (1820-2010). Our results, obtained by a stack of tide gauge time series, confirm the existence of a global sea-level acceleration (GSLA) and, coherently with independent assessments so far, they point to a value close to 0.01 mm/yr2. However, differently from previous studies, we discuss how change points or abrupt inflections in individual sea-level time series have contributed to the GSLA. Our analysis, based on methods borrowed from econometrics, suggests the existence of two distinct driving mechanisms for the GSLA, both involving a minority of tide gauges globally. The first effectively implies a gradual increase in the rate of sea-level rise at individual tide gauges, while the second is manifest through a sequence of catastrophic variations of the sea-level trend. These occurred intermittently since the end of the 19th century and became more frequent during the last four decades.

  15. GHRSST Level 4 DMI_OI North Sea and Baltic Sea Regional Foundation Sea Surface Temperature Analysis (GDS version 1)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Level 4 sea surface temperature analysis produced daily on an operational basis by the Danish...

  16. Regulatory heterochronies and loose temporal scaling between sea star and sea urchin regulatory circuits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gildor, Tsvia; Hinman, Veronica; Ben-Tabou-De-Leon, Smadar

    2017-01-01

    It has long been argued that heterochrony, a change in relative timing of a developmental process, is a major source of evolutionary innovation. Heterochronic changes of regulatory gene activation could be the underlying molecular mechanism driving heterochronic changes through evolution. Here, we compare the temporal expression profiles of key regulatory circuits between sea urchin and sea star, representative of two classes of Echinoderms that shared a common ancestor about 500 million years ago. The morphologies of the sea urchin and sea star embryos are largely comparable, yet, differences in certain mesodermal cell types and ectodermal patterning result in distinct larval body plans. We generated high resolution temporal profiles of 17 mesodermally-, endodermally- and ectodermally-expressed regulatory genes in the sea star, Patiria miniata, and compared these to their orthologs in the Mediterranean sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus. We found that the maternal to zygotic transition is delayed in the sea star compared to the sea urchin, in agreement with the longer cleavage stage in the sea star. Interestingly, the order of gene activation shows the highest variation in the relatively diverged mesodermal circuit, while the correlations of expression dynamics are the highest in the strongly conserved endodermal circuit. We detected loose scaling of the developmental rates of these species and observed interspecies heterochronies within all studied regulatory circuits. Thus, after 500 million years of parallel evolution, mild heterochronies between the species are frequently observed and the tight temporal scaling observed for closely related species no longer holds.

  17. The Satellite Passive-Microwave Record of Sea Ice in the Ross Sea Since Late 1978

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parkinson, Claire L.

    2009-01-01

    Satellites have provided us with a remarkable ability to monitor many aspects of the globe day-in and day-out and sea ice is one of numerous variables that by now have quite substantial satellite records. Passive-microwave data have been particularly valuable in sea ice monitoring, with a record that extends back to August 1987 on daily basis (for most of the period), to November 1970 on a less complete basis (again for most of the period), and to December 1972 on a less complete basis. For the period since November 1970, Ross Sea sea ice imagery is available at spatial resolution of approximately 25 km. This allows good depictions of the seasonal advance and retreat of the ice cover each year, along with its marked interannual variability. The Ross Sea ice extent typically reaches a minimum of approximately 0.7 x 10(exp 6) square kilometers in February, rising to a maximum of approximately 4.0 x 10(exp 6) square kilometers in September, with much variability among years for both those numbers. The Ross Sea images show clearly the day-by-day activity greatly from year to year. Animations of the data help to highlight the dynamic nature of the Ross Sea ice cover. The satellite data also allow calculation of trends in the ice cover over the period of the satellite record. Using linear least-squares fits, the Ross Sea ice extent increased at an average rate of 12,600 plus or minus 1,800 square kilometers per year between November 1978 and December 2007, with every month exhibiting increased ice extent and the rates of increase ranging from a low of 7,500 plus or minus 5,000 square kilometers per year for the February ice extents to a high of 20,300 plus or minus 6,100 kilometers per year for the October ice extents. On a yearly average basis, for 1979-2007 the Ross Sea ice extent increased at a rate of 4.8 plus or minus 1.6 % per decade. Placing the Ross Sea in the context of the Southern Ocean as a whole, over the November 1978-December 2007 period the Ross Sea had

  18. A heavy sea fog event over the Yellow Sea in March 2005: Analysis and numerical modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Shanhong; Lin, Hang; Shen, Biao; Fu, Gang

    2007-02-01

    In this paper, a heavy sea fog episode that occurred over the Yellow Sea on 9 March 2005 is investigated. The sea fog patch, with a spatial scale of several hundred kilometers at its mature stage, reduced visibility along the Shandong Peninsula coast to 100 m or much less at some sites. Satellite images, surface observations and soundings at islands and coasts, and analyses from the Japan Meteorology Agency (JMA) are used to describe and analyze this event. The analysis indicates that this sea fog can be categorized as advection cooling fog. The main features of this sea fog including fog area and its movement are reasonably reproduced by the Fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5). Model results suggest that the formation and evolution of this event can be outlined as: (1) southerly warm/moist advection of low-level air resulted in a strong sea-surface-based inversion with a thickness of about 600 m; (2) when the inversion moved from the warmer East Sea to the colder Yellow Sea, a thermal internal boundary layer (TIBL) gradually formed at the base of the inversion while the sea fog grew in response to cooling and moistening by turbulence mixing; (3) the sea fog developed as the TIBL moved northward and (4) strong northerly cold and dry wind destroyed the TIBL and dissipated the sea fog. The principal findings of this study are that sea fog forms in response to relatively persistent southerly warm/moist wind and a cold sea surface, and that turbulence mixing by wind shear is the primary mechanism for the cooling and moistening the marine layer. In addition, the study of sensitivity experiments indicates that deterministic numerical modeling offers a promising approach to the prediction of sea fog over the Yellow Sea but it may be more efficient to consider ensemble numerical modeling because of the extreme sensitivity to model input.

  19. Sea Ice Summer Camp: Bringing Together Arctic Sea Ice Modelers and Observers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perovich, D. K.; Holland, M. M.

    2016-12-01

    The Arctic sea ice has undergone dramatic change and numerical models project this to continue for the foreseeable future. Understanding the mechanisms behind sea ice loss and its consequences for the larger Arctic and global systems is of critical importance if we are to anticipate and plan for the future. One impediment to progress is a disconnect between the observational and modeling communities. A sea ice summer camp was held in Barrow Alaska from 26 May to 1 June 2016 to overcome this impediment and better integrate the sea ice community. The 25 participants were a mix of modelers and observers from 13 different institutions at career stages from graduate student to senior scientist. The summer camp provided an accelerated program on sea ice observations and models and also fostered future collaborative interdisciplinary activities. Each morning was spent in the classroom with a daily lecture on an aspect of modeling or remote sensing followed by practical exercises. Topics included using models to assess sensitivity, to test hypotheses and to explore sources of uncertainty in future Arctic sea ice loss. The afternoons were spent on the ice making observations. There were four observational activities; albedo observations, ice thickness measurements, ice coring and physical properties, and ice morphology surveys. The last field day consisted of a grand challenge where the group formulated a hypothesis, developed an observational and modeling strategy to test the hypothesis, and then integrated the observations and model results. The impacts of changing sea ice are being felt today in Barrow Alaska. We opened a dialog with Barrow community members to further understand these changes. This included an evening discussion with two Barrow sea ice experts and a community presentation of our work in a public lecture at the Inupiat Heritage Center.

  20. Quaternary Sea-ice history in the Arctic Ocean based on a new Ostracode sea-ice proxy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cronin, T. M.; Gemery, L.; Briggs, W.M.; Jakobsson, M.; Polyak, L.; Brouwers, E.M.

    2010-01-01

    Paleo-sea-ice history in the Arctic Ocean was reconstructed using the sea-ice dwelling ostracode Acetabulastoma arcticum from late Quaternary sediments from the Mendeleyev, Lomonosov, and Gakkel Ridges, the Morris Jesup Rise and the Yermak Plateau. Results suggest intermittently high levels of perennial sea ice in the central Arctic Ocean during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (25-45 ka), minimal sea ice during the last deglacial (16-11 ka) and early Holocene thermal maximum (11-5 ka) and increasing sea ice during the mid-to-late Holocene (5-0 ka). Sediment core records from the Iceland and Rockall Plateaus show that perennial sea ice existed in these regions only during glacial intervals MIS 2, 4, and 6. These results show that sea ice exhibits complex temporal and spatial variability during different climatic regimes and that the development of modern perennial sea ice may be a relatively recent phenomenon. ?? 2010.

  1. Grain-size based sea-level reconstruction in the south Bohai Sea during the past 135 kyr

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yi, Liang; Chen, Yanping

    2013-04-01

    Future anthropogenic sea-level rise and its impact on coastal regions is an important issue facing human civilizations. Due to the short nature of the instrumental record of sea-level change, development of proxies for sea-level change prior to the advent of instrumental records is essential to reconstruct long-term background sea-level changes on local, regional and global scales. Two of the most widely used approaches for past sea-level changes are: (1) exploitation of dated geomorphologic features such as coastal sands (e.g. Mauz and Hassler, 2000), salt marsh (e.g. Madsen et al., 2007), terraces (e.g. Chappell et al., 1996), and other coastal sediments (e.g. Zong et al., 2003); and (2) sea-level transfer functions based on faunal assemblages such as testate amoebae (e.g. Charman et al., 2002), foraminifera (e.g. Chappell and Shackleton, 1986; Horton, 1997), and diatoms (e.g. Horton et al., 2006). While a variety of methods has been developed to reconstruct palaeo-changes in sea level, many regions, including the Bohai Sea, China, still lack detailed relative sea-level curves extending back to the Pleistocene (Yi et al., 2012). For example, coral terraces are absent in the Bohai Sea, and the poor preservation of faunal assemblages makes development of a transfer function for a relative sea-level reconstruction unfeasible. In contrast, frequent alternations between transgression and regression has presumably imprinted sea-level change on the grain size distribution of Bohai Sea sediments, which varies from medium silt to coarse sand during the late Quaternary (IOCAS, 1985). Advantages of grainsize-based relative sea-level transfer function approaches are that they require smaller sample sizes, allowing for replication, faster measurement and higher spatial or temporal resolution at a fraction of the cost of detail micro-palaeontological analysis (Yi et al., 2012). Here, we employ numerical methods to partition sediment grain size using a combined database of

  2. Sea-ice dynamics strongly promote Snowball Earth initiation and destabilize tropical sea-ice margins

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Voigt

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The Snowball Earth bifurcation, or runaway ice-albedo feedback, is defined for particular boundary conditions by a critical CO2 and a critical sea-ice cover (SI, both of which are essential for evaluating hypotheses related to Neoproterozoic glaciations. Previous work has shown that the Snowball Earth bifurcation, denoted as (CO2, SI*, differs greatly among climate models. Here, we study the effect of bare sea-ice albedo, sea-ice dynamics and ocean heat transport on (CO2, SI* in the atmosphere–ocean general circulation model ECHAM5/MPI-OM with Marinoan (~ 635 Ma continents and solar insolation (94% of modern. In its standard setup, ECHAM5/MPI-OM initiates a~Snowball Earth much more easily than other climate models at (CO2, SI* ≈ (500 ppm, 55%. Replacing the model's standard bare sea-ice albedo of 0.75 by a much lower value of 0.45, we find (CO2, SI* ≈ (204 ppm, 70%. This is consistent with previous work and results from net evaporation and local melting near the sea-ice margin. When we additionally disable sea-ice dynamics, we find that the Snowball Earth bifurcation can be pushed even closer to the equator and occurs at a hundred times lower CO2: (CO2, SI* ≈ (2 ppm, 85%. Therefore, the simulation of sea-ice dynamics in ECHAM5/MPI-OM is a dominant determinant of its high critical CO2 for Snowball initiation relative to other models. Ocean heat transport has no effect on the critical sea-ice cover and only slightly decreases the critical CO2. For disabled sea-ice dynamics, the state with 85% sea-ice cover is stabilized by the Jormungand mechanism and shares characteristics with the Jormungand climate states. However, there is no indication of the Jormungand bifurcation and hysteresis in ECHAM5/MPI-OM. The state with 85% sea-ice cover therefore is a soft Snowball state rather than a true

  3. The USGS Salton Sea Science Office

    Science.gov (United States)

    Case, Harvey Lee; Barnum, Douglas A.

    2007-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Salton Sea Science Office (SSSO) provides scientific information and evaluations to decisionmakers who are engaged in restoration planning and actions associated with the Salton Sea. The primary focus is the natural resources of the Salton Sea, including the sea?s ability to sustain biological resources and associated social and economic values.

  4. XXI century projections of wind-wave conditions and sea-level rise in the Black sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polonsky, A.; Garmashov, A.; Fomin, V.; Valchev, N.; Trifonova, E.

    2012-04-01

    Projection of regional climate changes for XXI century is one of the priorities of EC environmental programme. Potential worsening of the waves' statistics, sea level rise and extreme surges are the principal negative consequences of the climate change for marine environment. That is why the main purpose of this presentation is to discuss the above issue for the Black sea region (with a strong focus to the south-west subregion because the maximum heights of waves exceeding 10 m occur just here) using output of several global coupled models (GCM) for XXI century, wave simulation, long-term observations of sea level and statistical techniques. First of all we tried to choose the best coupled model (s) simulated the Black sea climate change and variability using the control experiments for 20 century (203). The principal result is as follows. There is not one model which is simulating adequately even one atmospheric parameter for all seasons. Therefore we considered (for the climate projection) different outputs form various models. When it was possible we calculated also the ensemble mean projection for the selected model (s) and emission scenarios. To calculate the wave projection we used the output of SWAN model forced by the GCM wind projection for 2010 to 2100. To estimate the sea level rise in XXI century and future surges statistics we extrapolate the observed sea level rise tendencies, statistical relation between wave heights and sea level and wave scenarios. Results show that in general, the climate change in XXI century doesn't lead to the catastrophic change of the Black sea wind-wave statistics including the extreme waves in the S-W Black sea. The typical atmospheric pattern leading to the intense storm in the S-W Black sea is characterized by the persistent anticyclonic area to the North of the Black sea and cyclonic conditions in the Southern Black sea region. Such pressure pattern causes persistent and strong eastern or north-eastern wind which

  5. The future for the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) Sea Level Data Rescue

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bradshaw, Elizabeth; Matthews, Andrew; Rickards, Lesley; Aarup, Thorkild

    2016-04-01

    Historical sea level data are rare and unrepeatable measurements with a number of applications in climate studies (sea level rise), oceanography (ocean currents, tides, surges), geodesy (national datum), geophysics and geology (coastal land movements) and other disciplines. However, long-term time series are concentrated in the northern hemisphere and there are no records at the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) global data bank longer than 100 years in the Arctic, Africa, South America or Antarctica. Data archaeology activities will help fill in the gaps in the global dataset and improve global sea level reconstruction. The Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) is an international programme conducted under the auspices of the WMO-IOC Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology. It was set up in 1985 to collect long-term tide gauge observations and to develop systems and standards "for ocean monitoring and flood warning purposes". At the GLOSS-GE-XIV Meeting in 2015, GLOSS agreed on a number of action items to be developed in the next two years. These were: 1. To explore mareogram digitisation applications, including NUNIEAU (more information available at: http://www.mediterranee.cerema.fr/logiciel-de-numerisation-des-enregistrements-r57.html) and other recent developments in scanning/digitisation software, such as IEDRO's Weather Wizards program, to see if they could be used via a browser. 2. To publicise sea level data archaeology and rescue by: • maintaining and regularly updating the Sea Level Data Archaeology page on the GLOSS website • strengthening links to the GLOSS data centres and data rescue organisations e.g. linking to IEDRO, ACRE, RDA • restarting the sea level data rescue blog with monthly posts. 3. Investigate sources of funding for data archaeology and rescue projects. 4. Propose "Guidelines" for rescuing sea level data. These action items will aid the discovery, scanning, digitising and quality control

  6. Temporal variability in SeaWiFS derived apparent optical properties in European seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vantrepotte, V.; Mélin, F.

    2010-02-01

    The 10-year record of ocean color data provided by the SeaWiFS mission is an important asset for monitoring and research activities conducted on the optically complex European seas. This study makes use of the SeaWiFS data set of normalized water leaving radiances LWN to study the major characteristics of temporal variability associated with optical properties across the entire European domain. Specifically, the time series of LWN and associated band ratios are decomposed into terms representing a fixed seasonal cycle, irregular variations and trends, and the contribution of these components to the total variance is described for the various basins. The diversity of the European waters is fully reflected by the range of results varying with regions and wavelengths. Generally, the Mediterranean and Baltic seas appear as two end-members with, respectively, high and low contributions of the seasonal component to the total variance. The existence of linear trends affecting the satellite products is also explored for each basin. By focusing the analysis on LWN and band ratios, the validity of the results is not limited by the varying levels of uncertainty that characterize derived products such as the concentration of chlorophyll a in optically complex waters. Statistically significant, and in some cases large, trends are detected in the Atlantic Ocean west of the European western shelf, the central North Sea, the English Channel, the Black Sea, the northern Adriatic, and various regions of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern Baltic Sea, revealing changes in the concentrations of optically significant constituents in these regions.

  7. The Influence of Wind and Basin Eddies in Controlling Sea Level Variations in the Coastal Red Sea

    KAUST Repository

    Abualnaja, Yasser

    2015-04-01

    Sea level variations in the central Red Sea coastal zone span a range of roughly 1.2 m. Though relatively small, these water level changes can significantly impact the environment over the shallow reef tops prevalent in the central Red Sea, altering the water depth by a factor or two or more. Roughly half of the coastal sea level variance in central Red Sea is due to elevation changes in an \\'intermediate\\' frequency band, with periods between 2 days and 1 month. We examined the sea level signal in this band using the data from pressure sensors maintained for more than five years at a number of locations in Saudi Arabian coastal waters between 20.1 and 23.5 oN. We find that the intermediate-band sea level variations are strongly correlated with the local wind stress measured at a meteorological buoy. The maximum pressure-wind correlation occurs at wind direction closely aligned with the alongshore orientation and at a lag (wind leading) of 45 hr, which is consistent with the expected response of the coastal sea level to local wind forcing. However, less than half of the sea level variance in the intermediate band is related, through linear correlation, with local wind forcing. Our analysis indicates that the residual coastal sea level signal, not associated with wind forcing, is largely driven remotely by the passage of mesoscale eddies, revealed by satellite altimeter-derived sea level anomaly fields of the central Red Sea. These eddy-driven coastal sea level changes occur on time scales of 10-30 days. They span a range of 0.5 m, and thus constitute an import component of the sea level signal in the coastal Red Sea.

  8. The Influence of Wind and Basin Eddies in Controlling Sea Level Variations in the Coastal Red Sea

    KAUST Repository

    Abualnaja, Yasser; Churchill, James H.; Nellayaputhenpeedika, Mohammedali; Limeburner, Richard

    2015-01-01

    Sea level variations in the central Red Sea coastal zone span a range of roughly 1.2 m. Though relatively small, these water level changes can significantly impact the environment over the shallow reef tops prevalent in the central Red Sea, altering the water depth by a factor or two or more. Roughly half of the coastal sea level variance in central Red Sea is due to elevation changes in an 'intermediate' frequency band, with periods between 2 days and 1 month. We examined the sea level signal in this band using the data from pressure sensors maintained for more than five years at a number of locations in Saudi Arabian coastal waters between 20.1 and 23.5 oN. We find that the intermediate-band sea level variations are strongly correlated with the local wind stress measured at a meteorological buoy. The maximum pressure-wind correlation occurs at wind direction closely aligned with the alongshore orientation and at a lag (wind leading) of 45 hr, which is consistent with the expected response of the coastal sea level to local wind forcing. However, less than half of the sea level variance in the intermediate band is related, through linear correlation, with local wind forcing. Our analysis indicates that the residual coastal sea level signal, not associated with wind forcing, is largely driven remotely by the passage of mesoscale eddies, revealed by satellite altimeter-derived sea level anomaly fields of the central Red Sea. These eddy-driven coastal sea level changes occur on time scales of 10-30 days. They span a range of 0.5 m, and thus constitute an import component of the sea level signal in the coastal Red Sea.

  9. The Red Sea: An Arena for Wind-Wave Modeling in Enclosed Seas

    KAUST Repository

    Langodan, Sabique

    2016-12-01

    Wind and waves play a major role in important ocean dynamical processes, such as the exchange of heat, momentum and gases between atmosphere and ocean, that greatly contributes to the earth climate and marine lives. Knowledge on wind and wave weather and climate is crucial for a wide range of applications, including oceanographic studies, maritime activities and ocean engineering. Despite being one of the important world shipping routes, the wind-wave characteristics in the Red Sea are yet to be fully explored. Because of the scarcity of waves data in the Red Sea, numerical models become crucial and provide very powerful tools to extrapolate wind and wave data in space, and backward and forward in time. Unlike open oceans, enclosed basins wave have different characteristics, mainly because of their local generation processes. The complex orography on both sides of the Red Sea makes the local wind, and consequently wave, modeling very challenging. This thesis considers the modeling of wind-wave characteristics in the Red Sea, including their climate variability and trends using state-of-the-art numerical models and all available observations. Different approaches are investigated to model and understand the general and unusual wind and wave conditions in the basin using standard global meteorological products and customised regional wind and wave models. After studying and identifying the main characteristics of the wind-wave variability in the Red Sea, we demonstrate the importance of generating accurate atmospheric forcing through data assimilation for reliable wave simulations. In particular, we show that the state-of-the-art physical formulation of wave models is not suitable to model the unique situation of the two opposing wind-waves systems in the Red Sea Convergence Zone, and propose and successfully test a modification to the input and white-capping source functions to address this problem. We further investigate the climate variability and trends of wind

  10. Estimating the effective nitrogen import: An example for the North Sea-Baltic Sea boundary

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radtke, H.; Maar, M.

    2016-10-01

    Semienclosed water bodies such as the Baltic Sea are prone to eutrophication problems. If local nutrient abatement measures are taken to tackle these problems, their success may be limited if a strong nutrient exchange with the adjacent waters exists. The quantification of this exchange is therefore essential to estimate its impact on the ecosystem status. At the example of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, we illustrate that neither gross transports nor net transports of nutrients have a strong informative value in this context. Instead, we define an "effective import" as the import of nutrients which have not been inside the Baltic Sea before and estimate it in an ecological model with a nutrient-tagging technique. This effective import of bioreactive nitrogen from the Skagerrak to the Kattegat amounts to 103 kt/yr; from Kattegat to Belt Sea it is 54 kt/yr. The nitrogen exchange is therefore 30% stronger than other estimates, e.g., based on import in the deep water, suggest. An isolated view on the Baltic Sea and the North Sea in terms of eutrophication, as it is practiced in management today, is therefore questionable. Nitrogen imported from the North Sea typically spreads eastward up to the Bornholm Basin but can be transported into the deep waters of the Gotland Basin during Major Baltic Inflows in a significant amount.

  11. Daytime sea fog retrieval based on GOCI data: a case study over the Yellow Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, Yibo; Qiu, Zhongfeng; Sun, Deyong; Wang, Shengqiang; Yue, Xiaoyuan

    2016-01-25

    In this paper, a new daytime sea fog detection algorithm has been developed by using Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) data. Based on spectral analysis, differences in spectral characteristics were found over different underlying surfaces, which include land, sea, middle/high level clouds, stratus clouds and sea fog. Statistical analysis showed that the Rrc (412 nm) (Rayleigh Corrected Reflectance) of sea fog pixels is approximately 0.1-0.6. Similarly, various band combinations could be used to separate different surfaces. Therefore, three indices (SLDI, MCDI and BSI) were set to discern land/sea, middle/high level clouds and fog/stratus clouds, respectively, from which it was generally easy to extract fog pixels. The remote sensing algorithm was verified using coastal sounding data, which demonstrated that the algorithm had the ability to detect sea fog. The algorithm was then used to monitor an 8-hour sea fog event and the results were consistent with observational data from buoys data deployed near the Sheyang coast (121°E, 34°N). The goal of this study was to establish a daytime sea fog detection algorithm based on GOCI data, which shows promise for detecting fog separately from stratus.

  12. The potential role of sea spray droplets in facilitating air-sea gas transfer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andreas, E. L.; Vlahos, P.; Monahan, E. C.

    2016-05-01

    For over 30 years, air-sea interaction specialists have been evaluating and parameterizing the role of whitecap bubbles in air-sea gas exchange. To our knowledge, no one, however, has studied the mirror image process of whether sea spray droplets can facilitate air-sea gas exchange. We are therefore using theory, data analysis, and numerical modeling to quantify the role of spray on air-sea gas transfer. In this, our first formal work on this subject, we seek the rate-limiting step in spray-mediated gas transfer by evaluating the three time scales that govern the exchange: τ air , which quantifies the rate of transfer between the atmospheric gas reservoir and the surface of the droplet; τ int , which quantifies the exchange rate across the air-droplet interface; and τ aq , which quantifies gas mixing within the aqueous solution droplet.

  13. The White Sea, Russia

    Science.gov (United States)

    2002-01-01

    Editor's Note: The caption below, published on May 10, 2001, is incorrect. According to Masha Vorontsova, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Moscow, the situation with the seal pups in the White Sea is normal. There is no disaster and there never was. For more details, refer to the article entitled 'No Danger' on the New Scientist home page. The Earth Observatory regrets the earlier errant report. Original Caption According to the Russian Polar Research Institute for Fisheries and Oceanography, between 250,000 and 300,000 Greenland seal pups face death by starvation over the next two months due to a cruel trick by mother nature. The seals, most of them less than two months old, are trapped on ice sheets that remain locked in the White Sea, located near Archangel in Northern Russia. Typically, during the spring thaw the ice sheets break up and flow with the currents northward into the Barents Sea, the seals' spring feeding grounds. The seal pups hitch a ride on the ice floes, living on their own individual stores of fat until they arrive in the Barents Sea. Their mothers departed for the Barents Sea weeks ago. In a normal year, the seal pups' trip from the White Sea out to the Barents takes about six weeks and the seals have adapted to rely upon this mechanism of mother nature. During their yearly migration, the mother seals usually stay with their pups and feed them until their pelts turn from white to grey--a sign that the pups are mature enough to swim and feed themselves. Unfortunately, this year unusually strong northerly winds created a bottleneck of ice near the mouth of the white sea, thus blocking the flow of ice and trapping the pups. These true-color images of the White Sea were acquired by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft. This image, taken May 2, 2000 that there is usually much less ice in the White Sea this time of year as most of it is typically en route to the

  14. Sea Ice Ecosystems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arrigo, Kevin R.

    2014-01-01

    Polar sea ice is one of the largest ecosystems on Earth. The liquid brine fraction of the ice matrix is home to a diverse array of organisms, ranging from tiny archaea to larger fish and invertebrates. These organisms can tolerate high brine salinity and low temperature but do best when conditions are milder. Thriving ice algal communities, generally dominated by diatoms, live at the ice/water interface and in recently flooded surface and interior layers, especially during spring, when temperatures begin to rise. Although protists dominate the sea ice biomass, heterotrophic bacteria are also abundant. The sea ice ecosystem provides food for a host of animals, with crustaceans being the most conspicuous. Uneaten organic matter from the ice sinks through the water column and feeds benthic ecosystems. As sea ice extent declines, ice algae likely contribute a shrinking fraction of the total amount of organic matter produced in polar waters.

  15. The SeaDAS Processing and Analysis System: SeaWiFS, MODIS, and Beyond

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacDonald, M. D.; Ruebens, M.; Wang, L.; Franz, B. A.

    2005-12-01

    The SeaWiFS Data Analysis System (SeaDAS) is a comprehensive software package for the processing, display, and analysis of ocean data from a variety of satellite sensors. Continuous development and user support by programmers and scientists for more than a decade has helped to make SeaDAS the most widely used software package in the world for ocean color applications, with a growing base of users from the land and sea surface temperature community. Full processing support for past (CZCS, OCTS, MOS) and present (SeaWiFS, MODIS) sensors, and anticipated support for future missions such as NPP/VIIRS, enables end users to reproduce the standard ocean archive product suite distributed by NASA's Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG), as well as a variety of evaluation and intermediate ocean, land, and atmospheric products. Availability of the processing algorithm source codes and a software build environment also provide users with the tools to implement custom algorithms. Recent SeaDAS enhancements include synchronization of MODIS processing with the latest code and calibration updates from the MODIS Calibration Support Team (MCST), support for all levels of MODIS processing including Direct Broadcast, a port to the Macintosh OS X operating system, release of the display/analysis-only SeaDAS-Lite, and an extremely active web-based user support forum.

  16. Spatial sea-level reconstruction in the Baltic Sea and in the Pacific Ocean from tide gauges observations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco Olivieri

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Exploiting the Delaunay interpolation, we present a newly implemented 2-D sea-level reconstruction from coastal sea-level observations to open seas, with the aim of characterizing the spatial variability of the rate of sea-level change. To test the strengths and weaknesses of this method and to determine its usefulness in sea-level interpolation, we consider the case studies of the Baltic Sea and of the Pacific Ocean. In the Baltic Sea, a small basin well sampled by tide gauges, our reconstructions are successfully compared with absolute sea-level observations from altimetry during 1993-2011. The regional variability of absolute sea level observed across the Pacific Ocean, however, cannot be reproduced. We interpret this result as the effect of the uneven and sparse tide gauge data set and of the composite vertical land movements in and around the region. Useful considerations arise that can serve as a basis for developing sophisticated approaches.

  17. NOAA NDBC SOS, 2008-present, sea_floor_depth_below_sea_surface

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The NOAA NDBC SOS server is part of the IOOS DIF SOS Project. The stations in this dataset have sea_floor_depth_below_sea_surface data. Because of the nature of SOS...

  18. Increased Land Use by Chukchi Sea Polar Bears in Relation to Changing Sea Ice Conditions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karyn D Rode

    Full Text Available Recent observations suggest that polar bears (Ursus maritimus are increasingly using land habitats in some parts of their range, where they have minimal access to their preferred prey, likely in response to loss of their sea ice habitat associated with climatic warming. We used location data from female polar bears fit with satellite radio collars to compare land use patterns in the Chukchi Sea between two periods (1986-1995 and 2008-2013 when substantial summer sea-ice loss occurred. In both time periods, polar bears predominantly occupied sea-ice, although land was used during the summer sea-ice retreat and during the winter for maternal denning. However, the proportion of bears on land for > 7 days between August and October increased between the two periods from 20.0% to 38.9%, and the average duration on land increased by 30 days. The majority of bears that used land in the summer and for denning came to Wrangel and Herald Islands (Russia, highlighting the importance of these northernmost land habitats to Chukchi Sea polar bears. Where bears summered and denned, and how long they spent there, was related to the timing and duration of sea ice retreat. Our results are consistent with other studies supporting increased land use as a common response of polar bears to sea-ice loss. Implications of increased land use for Chukchi Sea polar bears are unclear, because a recent study observed no change in body condition or reproductive indices between the two periods considered here. This result suggests that the ecology of this region may provide a degree of resilience to sea ice loss. However, projections of continued sea ice loss suggest that polar bears in the Chukchi Sea and other parts of the Arctic may increasingly use land habitats in the future, which has the potential to increase nutritional stress and human-polar bear interactions.

  19. Biogeochemical Cycling and Sea Ice Dynamics in the Bering Sea across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Detlef, H.; Sosdian, S. M.; Belt, S. T.; Smik, L.; Lear, C. H.; Hall, I. R.; Kender, S.; Leng, M. J.; Husum, K.; Cabedo-Sanz, P.

    2017-12-01

    Today the Bering Sea is characterized by high primary productivity (PP) along the eastern shelf, maintained by CO2 and nutrient rich upwelled deep waters and nutrient release during spring sea ice melting. As such, low oxygen concentrations are pervasive in mid-depth waters. Changes in ventilation and export productivity in the past have been shown to impact this oxygen minimum zone. On glacial/interglacial (G/IG) timescales sea ice formation plays a pivotal role on intermediate water ventilation with evidence pointing to the formation of North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) in the Bering Sea during Pleistocene glacial intervals. In addition, sea ice plays a significant role in both long- and short-term climate change via associated feedback mechanisms. Thus, records of sea ice dynamics and biogeochemical cycling in the Bering Sea are necessary to fully understand the interaction between PP, circulation patterns, and past G/IG climates with potential implications for the North Pacific carbon cycle. Here we use a multi-proxy approach to study sea ice dynamics and bottom water oxygenation, across three intervals prior to, across, and after the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT, 1.2-0.7 Ma) from International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1343. The MPT, most likely driven by internal climate mechanisms, is ideal to study changes in sea ice dynamics and sedimentary redox conditions on orbital timescales and to investigate the implications for associated feedback mechanisms. The sea ice record, based on various biomarkers, including IP25, shows substantial increase in sea ice extent across the MPT and the occurrence of a late-glacial/deglacial sea ice spike, with consequences for glacial NPIW formation and land glacier retreat via the temperature-precipitation feedback. U/Mn of foraminiferal authigenic coatings, a novel proxy for bottom water oxygenation, also shows distinct variability on G/IG timescales across the MPT, most likely a result of PP and water mass

  20. Mediterranean, our sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Markaki, Foteini

    2017-04-01

    My school (1o EPAL Ymittos -Athens, Greece) is a technical school of secondary education and throughout this school year being drafted a program of environmental education. The main theme is the Mediterranean Sea, the biggest closed sea extending between three continents. Topics studied: 1. Biodiversity and the risks threat. 2. The geophysics that characterize (earthquakes, volcanoes explosions, etc). 3. The Mediterranean Sea as environment anthropogenesis, a mosaic of other cultures and even place current notions of social phenomena (refugees). Pedagogical Objectives: Cognitive/Enviromental: 1. To investigate and understand the biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea and the risks to threaten and phenomena that characterize. 2. To understand the position of the Mediterranean Sea in the land and the role of the historical, cultural and social human environment. 3. To come in contact with texts literary, social, articles on the Mediterranean. Psychomotor: 1. To work together and collect information for the Mediterranean Sea. 2. Experiential approach to the natural environment. 3. Develop critical thinking. 4. Undertake responsibilities for the presentation of the program. Emotional: 1. To feel joy from participation in the program. 2. Being sensitized and configure attitudes and actions of respect towards the environment. Methodology implementation: Teamwork. Interdisciplinary - holistic to dissemination of program recordings to courses curriculum. Study in the field. Gathering information from newspapers, magazines, internet, maps, and photographs. Experiential method- Project. Assessment methods and self-assessment. Fields of courses: Greek language- History- Biology- Chemistry- Technology Dissemination of results: Make a page of social media (facebook), a blog, enhancing environmental awareness via video, make an electronic poster.

  1. A Newly Recorded Sea Cucumber (Holothuroidea: Aspidochirotida: Synallactidae from East Sea, Korea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lee, Taekjun

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Five sea cucumbers were collected from Gisamun and Gonghyeonjin of Gangwon-do, in the East Sea, Korea from 27 December 2009 to 14 November 2012. These specimens were classified as Synallactes nozawai Mitsukuri, 1912 belonging to the family Synallactidae of order Aspidochirotida based on morphological characteristics. The family, genus and species are recorded for the first time from Korea. The distinct morphological characteristics of this species are as follows: body flexible, with thin gelatinous body wall; presence of numerous tubercles along dorsal ambulacra table of body wall consisted of three- or four-armed disk and a spire-form pillar. This species usually inhabits the deep sea and is distributed in the Northwest Pacific from northern Japan to Bering Sea.

  2. The Dead Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-01-01

    The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth at 418 meters below sea level, and also one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth with a salinity of about 300 parts-per-thousand (nine times greater than ocean salinity). It is located on the border between Jordan and Israel, and is fed by the Jordan River. The Dead Sea is located in the Dead Sea Rift, formed as a result of the Arabian tectonic plate moving northward away from the African Plate. The mineral content of the Dead Sea is significantly different from that of ocean water, consisting of approximately 53% magnesium chloride, 37% potassium chloride and 8% sodium chloride. In the early part of the 20th century, the Dead Sea began to attract interest from chemists who deduced that the Sea was a natural deposit of potash and bromine. From the Dead Sea brine, Israel and Jordan produce 3.8 million tons potash, 200,000 tons elemental bromine, 45,000 tons caustic soda, 25, 000 tons magnesium metal, and sodium chloride. Both countries use extensive salt evaporation pans that have essentially diked the entire southern end of the Dead Sea. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping, and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining

  3. Autonomous Sea-Ice Thickness Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-06-01

    the conductivity of an infinitely thick slab of sea ice. Ice thickness, Hice, is then obtained by subtracting the height of the ...Thickness Survey of Sea Ice Runway” ERDC/CRREL SR-16-4 ii Abstract We conducted an autonomous survey of sea -ice thickness using the Polar rover Yeti...efficiency relative to manual surveys routinely con- ducted to assess the safety of roads and runways constructed on the sea ice. Yeti executed the

  4. New Tools for Sea Ice Data Analysis and Visualization: NSIDC's Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vizcarra, N.; Stroeve, J.; Beam, K.; Beitler, J.; Brandt, M.; Kovarik, J.; Savoie, M. H.; Skaug, M.; Stafford, T.

    2017-12-01

    Arctic sea ice has long been recognized as a sensitive climate indicator and has undergone a dramatic decline over the past thirty years. Antarctic sea ice continues to be an intriguing and active field of research. The National Snow and Ice Data Center's Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis (ASINA) offers researchers and the public a transparent view of sea ice data and analysis. We have released a new set of tools for sea ice analysis and visualization. In addition to Charctic, our interactive sea ice extent graph, the new Sea Ice Data and Analysis Tools page provides access to Arctic and Antarctic sea ice data organized in seven different data workbooks, updated daily or monthly. An interactive tool lets scientists, or the public, quickly compare changes in ice extent and location. Another tool allows users to map trends, anomalies, and means for user-defined time periods. Animations of September Arctic and Antarctic monthly average sea ice extent and concentration may also be accessed from this page. Our tools help the NSIDC scientists monitor and understand sea ice conditions in near real time. They also allow the public to easily interact with and explore sea ice data. Technical innovations in our data center helped NSIDC quickly build these tools and more easily maintain them. The tools were made publicly accessible to meet the desire from the public and members of the media to access the numbers and calculations that power our visualizations and analysis. This poster explores these tools and how other researchers, the media, and the general public are using them.

  5. Antarctic sea ice increase consistent with intrinsic variability of the Amundsen Sea Low

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner, John; Hosking, J. Scott; Marshall, Gareth J.; Phillips, Tony; Bracegirdle, Thomas J.

    2016-04-01

    We investigate the relationship between atmospheric circulation variability and the recent trends in Antarctic sea ice extent (SIE) using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) atmospheric data, ECMWF Interim reanalysis fields and passive microwave satellite data processed with the Bootstrap version 2 algorithm. Over 1979-2013 the annual mean total Antarctic SIE increased at a rate of 195 × 103 km2 dec-1 (1.6 % dec-1), p 4.0 % dec-1) has been in the Ross Sea sector. Off West Antarctica there is a high correlation between trends in SIE and trends in the near-surface winds. The Ross Sea SIE seasonal trends are positive throughout the year, but largest in spring. The stronger meridional flow over the Ross Sea has been driven by a deepening of the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL). Pre-industrial control and historical simulations from CMIP5 indicate that the observed deepening of the ASL and stronger southerly flow over the Ross Sea are within the bounds of modeled intrinsic variability. The spring trend would need to continue for another 11 years for it to fall outside the 2 standard deviation range seen in 90 % of the simulations.

  6. Effects of air-sea coupling over the North Sea and the Baltic Sea on simulated summer precipitation over Central Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ho-Hagemann, Ha Thi Minh; Gröger, Matthias; Rockel, Burkhardt; Zahn, Matthias; Geyer, Beate; Meier, H. E. Markus

    2017-12-01

    This study introduces a new approach to investigate the potential effects of air-sea coupling on simulated precipitation inland over Central Europe. We present an inter-comparison of two regional climate models (RCMs), namely, the COSMO-CLM (hereafter CCLM) and RCA4 models, which are configured for the EURO-CORDEX domain in the coupled and atmosphere-only modes. Two versions of the CCLM model, namely, 4.8 and 5.0, join the inter-comparison being almost two different models while providing pronouncedly different summer precipitation simulations because of many changes in the dynamics and physics of CCLM in version 5.0. The coupling effect on the prominent summer dry bias over Central Europe is analysed using seasonal (JJA) mean statistics for the 30-year period from 1979 to 2009, with a focus on extreme precipitation under specific weather regimes. The weather regimes are compared between the coupled and uncoupled simulations to better understand the mechanism of the coupling effects. The comparisons of the coupled systems with the atmosphere-only models show that coupling clearly reduces the dry bias over Central Europe for CCLM 4.8, which has a large dry summer bias, but not for CCLM 5.0 and RCA4, which have smaller dry biases. This result implies that if the atmosphere-only model already yields reasonable summer precipitation over Central Europe, not much room for improvement exists that can be caused by the air-sea coupling over the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. However, if the atmosphere-only model shows a pronounced summer dry bias because of a lack of moisture transport from the seas into the region, the considered coupling may create an improved simulation of summer precipitation over Central Europe, such as for CCLM 4.8. For the latter, the benefit of coupling varies over the considered timescales. The precipitation simulations that are generated by the coupled system COSTRICE 4.8 and the atmosphere-only CCLM 4.8 are mostly identical for the summer mean

  7. A method of detecting sea fogs using CALIOP data and its application to improve MODIS-based sea fog detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Dong; Lu, Bo; Zhang, Tianche; Yan, Fengqi

    2015-01-01

    A method to detect sea fogs from the measurement data acquired by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aboard the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite is proposed in this paper. Because of the unique capability of vertical-resolved measurements, sea fogs and low clouds can be more easily distinguished in the CALIOP data compared with passive satellite measurements. Yellow Sea where sea fogs occur frequently is selected to test the method. Nine cases of daytime sea fog events from 2008 to 2011 in the Yellow Sea are studied intensively to characterize the remotely sensed radiation properties of various targets, such as clear-sky sea surface, sea fog, low cloud and high cloud. These fog cases are then used in an attempt to evaluate sea fogs identified from the MODIS measurements. The method proposed in this paper can also be used for nighttime cases. Multi-year sea fog dataset can be made from the CALIOP measurement and used to validate the MODIS sea fog detection. - Highlights: • A method of sea fog detection from the CALIOP measurements is proposed. • CALIOP VFM and 532-nm attenuated backscatter products are integrated used. • Sea fogs and low clouds can be more easily distinguished in the CALIOP data. • 9 Cases of daytime sea fog events in the Yellow Sea are selected to test the method. • The MODIS sea fog detections are evaluated using the collocated CALIOP data

  8. Mass-induced [|#8#|]Sea Level Variations in the Red Sea from Satellite Altimetry and GRACE

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, W.; Lemoine, J.; Zhong, M.; Hsu, H.

    2011-12-01

    We have analyzed mass-induced sea level variations (SLVs) in the Red Sea from steric-corrected altimetry and GRACE between January 2003 and December 2010. The steric component of SLVs in the Red Sea calculated from climatological temperature and salinity data is relatively small and anti-phase with the mass-induced SLV. The total SLV in the Red Sea is mainly driven by the mass-induced SLV, which increases in winter when the Red Sea gains the water mass from the Gulf of Aden and vice versa in summer. Spatial and temporal patterns of mass-induced SLVs in the Red Sea from steric-corrected altimetry agree very well with GRACE observations. Both of two independent observations show high annual amplitude in the central Red Sea (>20cm). Total mass-induced SLVs in the Red Sea from two independent observations have similar annual amplitude and phase. One main purpose of our work is to see whether GRGS's ten-day GRACE results can observe intra-seasonal mass change in the Red Sea. The wavelet coherence analysis indicates that GRGS's results show the high correlation with the steric-corrected SLVs on intra-seasonal time scale. The agreement is excellent for all the time-span until 1/3 year period and is patchy between 1/3 and 1/16 year period. Furthermore, water flux estimates from current-meter arrays and moorings show mass gain in winter and mass loss in summer, which is also consistent with altimetry and GRACE.

  9. Seasonal regional forecast of the minimum sea ice extent in the LapteV Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tremblay, B.; Brunette, C.; Newton, R.

    2017-12-01

    Late winter anomaly of sea ice export from the peripheral seas of the Atctic Ocean was found to be a useful predictor for the minimum sea ice extent (SIE) in the Arctic Ocean (Williams et al., 2017). In the following, we present a proof of concept for a regional seasonal forecast of the min SIE for the Laptev Sea based on late winter coastal divergence quantified using a Lagrangian Ice Tracking System (LITS) forced with satellite derived sea-ice drifts from the Polar Pathfinder. Following Nikolaeva and Sesterikov (1970), we track an imaginary line just offshore of coastal polynyas in the Laptev Sea from December of the previous year to May 1 of the following year using LITS. Results show that coastal divergence in the Laptev Sea between February 1st and May 1st is best correlated (r = -0.61) with the following September minimum SIE in accord with previous results from Krumpen et al. (2013, for the Laptev Sea) and Williams et a. (2017, for the pan-Arctic). This gives a maximum seasonal predictability of Laptev Sea min SIE anomalies from observations of approximately 40%. Coastal ice divergence leads to formation of thinner ice that melts earlier in early summer, hence creating areas of open water that have a lower albedo and trigger an ice-albedo feedback. In the Laptev Sea, we find that anomalies of coastal divergence in late winter are amplified threefold to result in the September SIE. We also find a correlation coefficient r = 0.49 between February-March-April (FMA) anomalies of coastal divergence with the FMA averaged AO index. Interestingly, the correlation is stronger, r = 0.61, when comparing the FMA coastal divergence anomalies to the DJFMA averaged AO index. It is hypothesized that the AO index at the beginning of the winter (and the associated anomalous sea ice export) also contains information that impact the magnitude of coastal divergence opening later in the winter. Our approach differs from previous approaches (e.g. Krumpen et al and Williams et al

  10. Response of Antarctic sea surface temperature and sea ice to ozone depletion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferreira, D.; Gnanadesikan, A.; Kostov, Y.; Marshall, J.; Seviour, W.; Waugh, D.

    2017-12-01

    The influence of the Antarctic ozone hole extends all the way from the stratosphere through the troposphere down to the surface, with clear signatures on surface winds, and SST during summer. In this talk we discuss the impact of these changes on the ocean circulation and sea ice state. We are notably motivated by the observed cooling of the surface Southern Ocean and associated increase in Antarctic sea ice extent since the 1970s. These trends are not reproduced by CMIP5 climate models, and the underlying mechanism at work in nature and the models remain unexplained. Did the ozone hole contribute to the observed trends?Here, we review recent advances toward answering these issues using "abrupt ozone depletion" experiments. The ocean and sea ice response is rather complex, comprising two timescales: a fast ( 1-2y) cooling of the surface ocean and sea ice cover increase, followed by a slower warming trend, which, depending on models, flip the sign of the SST and sea ice responses on decadal timescale. Although the basic mechanism seems robust, comparison across climate models reveal large uncertainties in the timescales and amplitude of the response to the extent that even the sign of the ocean and sea ice response to ozone hole and recovery remains unconstrained. After briefly describing the dynamics and thermodynamics behind the two-timescale response, we will discuss the main sources of uncertainties in the modeled response, namely cloud effects and air-sea heat exchanges, surface wind stress response and ocean eddy transports. Finally, we will consider the implications of our results on the ability of coupled climate models to reproduce observed Southern Ocean changes.

  11. Diverse deep-sea fungi from the South China Sea and their antimicrobial activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xiao-Yong; Zhang, Yun; Xu, Xin-Ya; Qi, Shu-Hua

    2013-11-01

    We investigated the diversity of fungal communities in nine different deep-sea sediment samples of the South China Sea by culture-dependent methods followed by analysis of fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences. Although 14 out of 27 identified species were reported in a previous study, 13 species were isolated from sediments of deep-sea environments for the first report. Moreover, these ITS sequences of six isolates shared 84-92 % similarity with their closest matches in GenBank, which suggested that they might be novel phylotypes of genera Ajellomyces, Podosordaria, Torula, and Xylaria. The antimicrobial activities of these fungal isolates were explored using a double-layer technique. A relatively high proportion (56 %) of fungal isolates exhibited antimicrobial activity against at least one pathogenic bacterium or fungus among four marine pathogenic microbes (Micrococcus luteus, Pseudoaltermonas piscida, Aspergerillus versicolor, and A. sydowii). Out of these antimicrobial fungi, the genera Arthrinium, Aspergillus, and Penicillium exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activities, while genus Aureobasidium displayed only antibacterial activity, and genera Acremonium, Cladosporium, Geomyces, and Phaeosphaeriopsis displayed only antifungal activity. To our knowledge, this is the first report to investigate the diversity and antimicrobial activity of culturable deep-sea-derived fungi in the South China Sea. These results suggest that diverse deep-sea fungi from the South China Sea are a potential source for antibiotics' discovery and further increase the pool of fungi available for natural bioactive product screening.

  12. The Barbados Sea Level Record

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fairbanks, R. G.; Mortlock, R. A.; Abdul, N. A.; Wright, J. D.; Cao, L.; Mey, J. L.

    2013-12-01

    Additional offshore drill cores, nearly 100 new radiometric dates, and more than 1000 kilometers of Multibeam mapping greatly enhance the Barbados Sea Level record. Extensive Multibeam mapping around the entire island covers approximately 2650 km2 of the sea bottom and now integrates the offshore reef topography and Barbados Sea Level Record with the unparalleled onshore core collection, digital elevation maps, and Pleistocene sea level record spanning the past one million years. The reef crest coral, Acropora palmata, remains the stalwart indicator of sea level for many reasons that are validated by our redundant sea level records and redundant dating via Th/U and Pa/U analyses. Microanalysis and densitometry studies better explain why Acropora palmata is so well preserved in the Pleistocene reef records and therefore why it is the species of choice for sea level reconstructions and radiometric dating. New drill cores into reefs that formed during Marine Isotope Stage 3 lead us to a model of diagenesis that allows us to better prospect for unaltered coral samples in older reefs that may be suitable for Th/U dating. Equally important, our diagenesis model reinforces our rigorous sample quality criteria in a more quantitative manner. The Barbados Sea Level record has a sampling resolution of better than 100 years throughout much of the last deglaciation showing unprecedented detail in redundant drill cores. The Melt Water Pulses (MWP1A and MWP1B) are well resolved and the intervening interval that includes the Younger Dryas reveals sea level changes in new detail that are consistent with the terrestrial records of ice margins (see Abdul et al., this section). More than 100 paired Th/U and radiocarbon ages place the Barbados Sea Level Record unambiguously on the radiocarbon time scale for direct comparisons with the terrestrial records of ice margin changes.

  13. Calibration of sea ice dynamic parameters in an ocean-sea ice model using an ensemble Kalman filter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Massonnet, F.; Goosse, H.; Fichefet, T.; Counillon, F.

    2014-07-01

    The choice of parameter values is crucial in the course of sea ice model development, since parameters largely affect the modeled mean sea ice state. Manual tuning of parameters will soon become impractical, as sea ice models will likely include more parameters to calibrate, leading to an exponential increase of the number of possible combinations to test. Objective and automatic methods for parameter calibration are thus progressively called on to replace the traditional heuristic, "trial-and-error" recipes. Here a method for calibration of parameters based on the ensemble Kalman filter is implemented, tested and validated in the ocean-sea ice model NEMO-LIM3. Three dynamic parameters are calibrated: the ice strength parameter P*, the ocean-sea ice drag parameter Cw, and the atmosphere-sea ice drag parameter Ca. In twin, perfect-model experiments, the default parameter values are retrieved within 1 year of simulation. Using 2007-2012 real sea ice drift data, the calibration of the ice strength parameter P* and the oceanic drag parameter Cw improves clearly the Arctic sea ice drift properties. It is found that the estimation of the atmospheric drag Ca is not necessary if P* and Cw are already estimated. The large reduction in the sea ice speed bias with calibrated parameters comes with a slight overestimation of the winter sea ice areal export through Fram Strait and a slight improvement in the sea ice thickness distribution. Overall, the estimation of parameters with the ensemble Kalman filter represents an encouraging alternative to manual tuning for ocean-sea ice models.

  14. Contemporary sea level rise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cazenave, Anny; Llovel, William

    2010-01-01

    Measuring sea level change and understanding its causes has considerably improved in the recent years, essentially because new in situ and remote sensing observations have become available. Here we report on most recent results on contemporary sea level rise. We first present sea level observations from tide gauges over the twentieth century and from satellite altimetry since the early 1990s. We next discuss the most recent progress made in quantifying the processes causing sea level change on timescales ranging from years to decades, i.e., thermal expansion of the oceans, land ice mass loss, and land water-storage change. We show that for the 1993-2007 time span, the sum of climate-related contributions (2.85 +/- 0.35 mm year(-1)) is only slightly less than altimetry-based sea level rise (3.3 +/- 0.4 mm year(-1)): approximately 30% of the observed rate of rise is due to ocean thermal expansion and approximately 55% results from land ice melt. Recent acceleration in glacier melting and ice mass loss from the ice sheets increases the latter contribution up to 80% for the past five years. We also review the main causes of regional variability in sea level trends: The dominant contribution results from nonuniform changes in ocean thermal expansion.

  15. The Irminger Sea and the Iceland Sea time series measurements of sea water carbon and nutrient chemistry 1983–2008

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Olafsson

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes the ways and means of assembling and quality controling the Irminger Sea and Iceland Sea time-series biogeochemical data which are included in the CARINA data set. The Irminger Sea and the Iceland Sea are hydrographically different regions where measurements of sea water carbon and nutrient chemistry were started in 1983. The sampling is seasonal, four times a year. The carbon chemistry is studied with measurements of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in seawater, pCO2, and total dissolved inorganic carbon, TCO2. The carbon chemistry data are for surface waters only until 1991 when water column sampling was initiated. Other measured parameters are salinity, dissolved oxygen and the inorganic nutrients nitrate, phosphate and silicate. Because of the CARINA criteria for secondary quality control, depth >1500 m, the IRM-TS could not be included in the routine QC and the IS-TS only in a limited way. However, with the information provided here, the quality of the data can be assessed, e.g. on the basis of the results obtained with the use of reference materials.

  16. Operational SAR-based sea ice drift monitoring over the Baltic Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Karvonen

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available An algorithm for computing ice drift from pairs of synthetic aperture radar (SAR images covering a common area has been developed at FMI. The algorithm has been developed based on the C-band SAR data over the Baltic Sea. It is based on phase correlation in two scales (coarse and fine with some additional constraints. The algorithm has been running operationally in the Baltic Sea from the beginning of 2011, using Radarsat-1 ScanSAR wide mode and Envisat ASAR wide swath mode data. The resulting ice drift fields are publicly available as part of the MyOcean EC project. The SAR-based ice drift vectors have been compared to the drift vectors from drifter buoys in the Baltic Sea during the first operational season, and also these validation results are shown in this paper. Also some navigationally useful sea ice quantities, which can be derived from ice drift vector fields, are presented.

  17. Estimation of directional sea wave spectra from radar images. A Mediterranean Sea case study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Corsini, G.; Grasso, R.; Manara, G.; Monorchio, A.

    2001-01-01

    An inversion technique for estimating sea wave directional spectra from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images is applied to a set of ERS-1 data relevant to selected Mediterranean areas. The approach followed is based on the analytical definition of the transform which maps the sea wave spectrum onto the corresponding SAR image spectrum. The solution of the inverse problem is determined through a numerical procedure which minimises a proper functional. A suitable iterative scheme is adopted, involving the use of the above transform. Although widely applied to the ocean case, the method has not been yet extensively tested widely applied to the ocean case, the method has not been yet extensively tested in smaller scale basins, as for instance the Mediterranean sea. The results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of the numerical procedure discussed for retrieving the sea wave spectrum from SAR images. This work provides new experimental data relevant to the Mediterranean Sea, discusses the results obtained by the above inversion technique and compares them with buoy derived sea truth measurements

  18. Neoplasia of captive yellow sea horses (Hippocampus kuda) and weedy sea dragons (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus).

    Science.gov (United States)

    LePage, Véronique; Dutton, Christopher J; Kummrow, Maya; McLelland, David J; Young, Karrie; Lumsden, John S

    2012-03-01

    Syngnathidae is the family of fish that includes sea horses, pipefish, and sea dragons. To date, only a single publication has described neoplasia in syngnathids, a fibrosarcoma of the brood pouch in an aquarium-reared lined sea horse (Hippocampus erectus). From 1998 until 2010, the Toronto Zoo submitted 172 syngnathids for postmortem; species included the spotted or yellow sea horse (Hippocampus kuda), the pot-bellied sea horse (Hippocampus abdominalis) and the weedy sea dragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus). Seven neoplasms and two neoplastic-like lesions were identified from these cases. Under light microscopy, the neoplasms had morphological characteristics of a cardiac rhabdomyosarcoma, renal adenocarcinoma, renal adenoma, renal round cell tumors, which were likely lymphomas, exocrine pancreatic carcinoma, and intestinal carcinoma. Of these neoplasms, four had clear evidence of metastasis: the pancreatic and intestinal carcinomas and both round cell tumors. As syngnathids are highly fastidious animals, they can be difficult to maintain in captivity. In order to improve their husbandry, preventative and palliative care, as well as treatment, it is important to investigate and document the types of diseases affecting syngnathids.

  19. Filling regulatory gaps in high seas fisheries: discrete high seas fish stocks, deep-sea fisheries and vulnerable marine ecosystems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Takei, Y.

    2008-01-01

    The present study examines the legal regime of high seas fisheries with a view to identifying regulatory gaps. The main research questions are as follows: 1. What general principles are applicable to high seas fisheries?; 2. What implications do these general principles have for new challenges in

  20. Alien seas oceans in space

    CERN Document Server

    Lopes, Rosaly

    2013-01-01

    In the early days of planetary observation, oceans were thought to exist in all corners of the Solar System. Carbonated seas percolated beneath the clouds of Venus. Features on the Moon's surface were given names such as "the Bay of Rainbows” and the "Ocean of Storms." With the advent of modern telescopes and spacecraft exploration these ancient concepts of planetary seas have been replaced by the reality of something even more exotic. Alien Seas serves up the current research, past beliefs, and new theories to offer a rich array of the "seas" on other worlds. It is organized by location and by the material composing the oceans under discussion, with expert authors penning chapters on their  specialty. Each chapter features new original art depicting alien seas, as well as the latest ground-based and spacecraft images. With the contributors as guides, readers can explore the wild seas of Jupiter's watery satellite Europa, believed similar in composition to battery acid. Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan see...

  1. Atmospheric Forcing of the Winter Air–Sea Heat Fluxes over the Northern Red Sea

    KAUST Repository

    Papadopoulos, Vassilis P.; Abualnaja, Yasser; Josey, Simon A.; Bower, Amy; Raitsos, Dionysios E.; Kontoyiannis, Harilaos; Hoteit, Ibrahim

    2013-01-01

    The influence of the atmospheric circulation on the winter air–sea heat fluxes over the northern Red Sea is investigated during the period 1985–2011. The analysis based on daily heat flux values reveals that most of the net surface heat exchange variability depends on the behavior of the turbulent components of the surface flux (the sum of the latent and sensible heat). The large-scale composite sea level pressure (SLP) maps corresponding to turbulent flux minima and maxima show distinct atmospheric circulation patterns associated with each case. In general, extreme heat loss (with turbulent flux lower than −400 W m−2) over the northern Red Sea is observed when anticyclonic conditions prevail over an area extending from the Mediterranean Sea to eastern Asia along with a recession of the equatorial African lows system. Subcenters of high pressure associated with this pattern generate the required steep SLP gradient that enhances the wind magnitude and transfers cold and dry air masses from higher latitudes. Conversely, turbulent flux maxima (heat loss minimization with values from −100 to −50 W m−2) are associated with prevailing low pressures over the eastern Mediterranean and an extended equatorial African low that reaches the southern part of the Red Sea. In this case, a smooth SLP field over the northern Red Sea results in weak winds over the area that in turn reduce the surface heat loss. At the same time, southerlies blowing along the main axis of the Red Sea transfer warm and humid air northward, favoring heat flux maxima.

  2. Atmospheric Forcing of the Winter Air–Sea Heat Fluxes over the Northern Red Sea

    KAUST Repository

    Papadopoulos, Vassilis P.

    2013-03-01

    The influence of the atmospheric circulation on the winter air–sea heat fluxes over the northern Red Sea is investigated during the period 1985–2011. The analysis based on daily heat flux values reveals that most of the net surface heat exchange variability depends on the behavior of the turbulent components of the surface flux (the sum of the latent and sensible heat). The large-scale composite sea level pressure (SLP) maps corresponding to turbulent flux minima and maxima show distinct atmospheric circulation patterns associated with each case. In general, extreme heat loss (with turbulent flux lower than −400 W m−2) over the northern Red Sea is observed when anticyclonic conditions prevail over an area extending from the Mediterranean Sea to eastern Asia along with a recession of the equatorial African lows system. Subcenters of high pressure associated with this pattern generate the required steep SLP gradient that enhances the wind magnitude and transfers cold and dry air masses from higher latitudes. Conversely, turbulent flux maxima (heat loss minimization with values from −100 to −50 W m−2) are associated with prevailing low pressures over the eastern Mediterranean and an extended equatorial African low that reaches the southern part of the Red Sea. In this case, a smooth SLP field over the northern Red Sea results in weak winds over the area that in turn reduce the surface heat loss. At the same time, southerlies blowing along the main axis of the Red Sea transfer warm and humid air northward, favoring heat flux maxima.

  3. Sea Legs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macdonald, Kenneth C.

    Forty-foot, storm-swept seas, Spitzbergen polar bears roaming vast expanses of Arctic ice, furtive exchanges of forbidden manuscripts in Cold War Moscow, the New York city fashion scene, diving in mini-subs to the sea floor hot srings, life with the astronauts, romance and heartbreak, and invading the last bastions of male exclusivity: all are present in this fast-moving, non-fiction account of one woman' fascinating adventures in the world of marine geology and oceanography.

  4. Impacts of Climate Modes on Air–Sea Heat Exchange in the Red Sea

    KAUST Repository

    Abualnaja, Yasser

    2015-04-01

    The impacts of various climate modes on the Red Sea surface heat exchange are investigated using the MERRA reanalysis and the OAFlux satellite reanalysis datasets. Seasonality in the atmospheric forcing is also explored. Mode impacts peak during boreal winter [December–February (DJF)] with average anomalies of 12–18 W m−2 to be found in the northern Red Sea. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the east Atlantic–west Russia (EAWR) pattern, and the Indian monsoon index (IMI) exhibit the strongest influence on the air–sea heat exchange during the winter. In this season, the largest negative anomalies of about −30 W m−2 are associated with the EAWR pattern over the central part of the Red Sea. In other seasons, mode-related anomalies are considerably lower, especially during spring when the mode impacts are negligible. The mode impacts are strongest over the northern half of the Red Sea during winter and autumn. In summer, the southern half of the basin is strongly influenced by the multivariate ENSO index (MEI). The winter mode–related anomalies are determined mostly by the latent heat flux component, while in summer the shortwave flux is also important. The influence of the modes on the Red Sea is found to be generally weaker than on the neighboring Mediterranean basin.

  5. Eustatic and Relative Sea Level Changes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rovere, A.; Stocchi, P.; Vacchi, M.

    2016-01-01

    Sea level changes can be driven by either variationsin the masses or volume of the oceans, or bychanges of the land with respect to the sea surface. Inthe first case, a sea level change is defined ‘eustatic’;otherwise, it is defined ‘relative’. Several techniques canbe used to observe changes in sea

  6. Mechanisms of long-term mean sea level variability in the North Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dangendorf, Sönke; Calafat, Francisco; Øie Nilsen, Jan Even; Richter, Kristin; Jensen, Jürgen

    2015-04-01

    We examine mean sea level (MSL) variations in the North Sea on timescales ranging from months to decades under the consideration of different forcing factors since the late 19th century. We use multiple linear regression models, which are validated for the second half of the 20th century against the output of a state-of-the-art tide+surge model (HAMSOM), to determine the barotropic response of the ocean to fluctuations in atmospheric forcing. We demonstrate that local atmospheric forcing mainly triggers MSL variability on timescales up to a few years, with the inverted barometric effect dominating the variability along the UK and Norwegian coastlines and wind (piling up the water along the coast) controlling the MSL variability in the south from Belgium up to Denmark. However, in addition to the large inter-annual sea level variability there is also a considerable fraction of decadal scale variability. We show that on decadal timescales MSL variability in the North Sea mainly reflects steric changes, which are mostly remotely forced. A spatial correlation analysis of altimetry observations and baroclinic ocean model outputs suggests evidence for a coherent signal extending from the Norwegian shelf down to the Canary Islands. This supports the theory of longshore wind forcing along the eastern boundary of the North Atlantic causing coastally trapped waves to propagate along the continental slope. With a combination of oceanographic and meteorological measurements we demonstrate that ~80% of the decadal sea level variability in the North Sea can be explained as response of the ocean to longshore wind forcing, including boundary wave propagation in the Northeast Atlantic. These findings have important implications for (i) detecting significant accelerations in North Sea MSL, (ii) the conceptual set up of regional ocean models in terms of resolution and boundary conditions, and (iii) the development of adequate and realistic regional climate change projections.

  7. Barents Sea Monitoring with a SEA EXPLORER Glider

    OpenAIRE

    Field, Michael; Béguery, Laurent; Oziel, Laurent; Gascard, Jean-Claude

    2015-01-01

    International audience; The use of gliders in the Polar Regions offers clever and inexpensive methods for large scale monitoring and exploration. In August and September of 2014, a SEA EXPLORER glider successfully completed a 388 km mission in the central Barents Sea to monitor the physical and biological features over a transect between 72° 30' N and 74° 30' N latitude and between 32° E and 33° E longitude, as part of the European FP7 ACCESS project and in cooperation with the Institute of M...

  8. Atmospheric circulation and storm events in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Surkova, Galina V.; Arkhipkin, Victor S.; Kislov, Alexander V.

    2013-12-01

    Extreme sea storms are dangerous and a potential source of damage. In this study, we examine storm events in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, the atmosphere circulation patterns associated with the sea storm events, and their changes in the present (1961-2000) and future (2046-2065) climates. A calendar of storms for the present climate is derived from results of wave model SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore) experiments. On the basis of this calendar, a catalog of atmospheric sea level pressure (SLP) fields was prepared from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis dataset for 1961-2000. The SLP fields were subjected to a pattern recognition algorithm which employed empirical orthogonal decomposition followed by cluster analysis. The NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data is used to evaluate the occurring circulation types (CTs) within the ECHAM5-MPI/OM Atmosphere and Ocean Global Circulation Model (AOGCM) for the period 1961-2000. Our analysis shows that the ECHAM5-MPI/OM model is capable of reproducing circulation patterns for the storm events. The occurrence of present and future ECHAM5-MPI/OM CTs is investigated. It is shown that storm CTs are expected to occur noticeably less frequently in the middle of the 21st century.

  9. Sea ice draft in the Weddell Sea, measured by upward looking sonars

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Behrendt

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The presented database contains time-referenced sea ice draft values from upward looking sonar (ULS measurements in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. The sea ice draft data can be used to infer the thickness of the ice. They were collected during the period 1990–2008. In total, the database includes measurements from 13 locations in the Weddell Sea and was generated from more than 3.7 million measurements of sea ice draft. The files contain uncorrected raw drafts, corrected drafts and the basic parameters measured by the ULS. The measurement principle, the data processing procedure and the quality control are described in detail. To account for the unknown speed of sound in the water column above the ULS, two correction methods were applied to the draft data. The first method is based on defining a reference level from the identification of open water leads. The second method uses a model of sound speed in the oceanic mixed layer and is applied to ice draft in austral winter. Both methods are discussed and their accuracy is estimated. Finally, selected results of the processing are presented. The data can be downloaded from doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.785565.

  10. Estimates of ikaite export from sea ice to the underlying seawater in a sea ice-seawater mesocosm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geilfus, Nicolas-Xavier; Galley, Ryan J.; Else, Brent G. T.; Campbell, Karley; Papakyriakou, Tim; Crabeck, Odile; Lemes, Marcos; Delille, Bruno; Rysgaard, Søren

    2016-09-01

    The precipitation of ikaite and its fate within sea ice is still poorly understood. We quantify temporal inorganic carbon dynamics in sea ice from initial formation to its melt in a sea ice-seawater mesocosm pool from 11 to 29 January 2013. Based on measurements of total alkalinity (TA) and total dissolved inorganic carbon (TCO2), the main processes affecting inorganic carbon dynamics within sea ice were ikaite precipitation and CO2 exchange with the atmosphere. In the underlying seawater, the dissolution of ikaite was the main process affecting inorganic carbon dynamics. Sea ice acted as an active layer, releasing CO2 to the atmosphere during the growth phase, taking up CO2 as it melted and exporting both ikaite and TCO2 into the underlying seawater during the whole experiment. Ikaite precipitation of up to 167 µmol kg-1 within sea ice was estimated, while its export and dissolution into the underlying seawater was responsible for a TA increase of 64-66 µmol kg-1 in the water column. The export of TCO2 from sea ice to the water column increased the underlying seawater TCO2 by 43.5 µmol kg-1, suggesting that almost all of the TCO2 that left the sea ice was exported to the underlying seawater. The export of ikaite from the ice to the underlying seawater was associated with brine rejection during sea ice growth, increased vertical connectivity in sea ice due to the upward percolation of seawater and meltwater flushing during sea ice melt. Based on the change in TA in the water column around the onset of sea ice melt, more than half of the total ikaite precipitated in the ice during sea ice growth was still contained in the ice when the sea ice began to melt. Ikaite crystal dissolution in the water column kept the seawater pCO2 undersaturated with respect to the atmosphere in spite of increased salinity, TA and TCO2 associated with sea ice growth. Results indicate that ikaite export from sea ice and its dissolution in the underlying seawater can potentially hamper

  11. SeaTrack: Ground station orbit prediction and planning software for sea-viewing satellites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lambert, Kenneth S.; Gregg, Watson W.; Hoisington, Charles M.; Patt, Frederick S.

    1993-01-01

    An orbit prediction software package (Sea Track) was designed to assist High Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT) stations in the acquisition of direct broadcast data from sea-viewing spacecraft. Such spacecraft will be common in the near future, with the launch of the Sea viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) in 1994, along with the continued Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) series on NOAA platforms. The Brouwer-Lyddane model was chosen for orbit prediction because it meets the needs of HRPT tracking accuracies, provided orbital elements can be obtained frequently (up to within 1 week). Sea Track requires elements from the U.S. Space Command (NORAD Two-Line Elements) for the satellite's initial position. Updated Two-Line Elements are routinely available from many electronic sources (some are listed in the Appendix). Sea Track is a menu-driven program that allows users to alter input and output formats. The propagation period is entered by a start date and end date with times in either Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or local time. Antenna pointing information is provided in tabular form and includes azimuth/elevation pointing angles, sub-satellite longitude/latitude, acquisition of signal (AOS), loss of signal (LOS), pass orbit number, and other pertinent pointing information. One version of Sea Track (non-graphical) allows operation under DOS (for IBM-compatible personal computers) and UNIX (for Sun and Silicon Graphics workstations). A second, graphical, version displays orbit tracks, and azimuth-elevation for IBM-compatible PC's, but requires a VGA card and Microsoft FORTRAN.

  12. Effects of Sea-Surface Waves and Ocean Spray on Air-Sea Momentum Fluxes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Ting; Song, Jinbao

    2018-04-01

    The effects of sea-surface waves and ocean spray on the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) at different wind speeds and wave ages were investigated. An MABL model was developed that introduces a wave-induced component and spray force to the total surface stress. The theoretical model solution was determined assuming the eddy viscosity coefficient varied linearly with height above the sea surface. The wave-induced component was evaluated using a directional wave spectrum and growth rate. Spray force was described using interactions between ocean-spray droplets and wind-velocity shear. Wind profiles and sea-surface drag coefficients were calculated for low to high wind speeds for wind-generated sea at different wave ages to examine surface-wave and ocean-spray effects on MABL momentum distribution. The theoretical solutions were compared with model solutions neglecting wave-induced stress and/or spray stress. Surface waves strongly affected near-surface wind profiles and sea-surface drag coefficients at low to moderate wind speeds. Drag coefficients and near-surface wind speeds were lower for young than for old waves. At high wind speeds, ocean-spray droplets produced by wind-tearing breaking-wave crests affected the MABL strongly in comparison with surface waves, implying that wave age affects the MABL only negligibly. Low drag coefficients at high wind caused by ocean-spray production increased turbulent stress in the sea-spray generation layer, accelerating near-sea-surface wind. Comparing the analytical drag coefficient values with laboratory measurements and field observations indicated that surface waves and ocean spray significantly affect the MABL at different wind speeds and wave ages.

  13. Localised mixing and heterogeneity in the plankton food web in a frontal region of the Sargasso Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Richardson, Katherine; Bendtsen, Joøgen; Christensen, Jens Tang

    2014-01-01

    the diatom communities at 10 m and > 100 m (in the deep chlorophyll maximum, DCM) than in other parts of the frontal region. Thorpe displacements supported the hypothesis of elevated mixing intensities around these stations, as did vertical mixing rates inferred from stratification and vertical current shear...... influence the plankton food web, as indicated by elevated values/concentrations of (1) primary production, (2) variable fluorescence (F-v/F-m) and (3) total seston. In addition, the fraction of the total biomass of both copepods and nauplii found closest to the DCM in the frontal region correlated...

  14. Localised mixing and heterogeneity in the plankton food web in a frontal region of the Sargasso Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Richardson, Katherine; Bendtsen, Joøgen; Christensen, Jens Tang

    2014-01-01

    the diatom communities at 10 m and > 100 m (in the deep chlorophyll maximum, DCM) than in other parts of the frontal region. Thorpe displacements supported the hypothesis of elevated mixing intensities around these stations, as did vertical mixing rates inferred from stratification and vertical current shear...... with the stratification (Brunt-V is l frequency), with the greatest fractions found below 75 m at the most weakly stratified stations. While this study cannot directly link these observations to eel larvae ecology, Munk et al. (2010; Proc R Soc B 277: 3593-3599) reported that eel larvae were most abundant at locations...

  15. Biopolymers form a gelatinous microlayer at the air-sea interface when Arctic sea ice melts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galgani, Luisa; Piontek, Judith; Engel, Anja

    2016-07-20

    The interface layer between ocean and atmosphere is only a couple of micrometers thick but plays a critical role in climate relevant processes, including the air-sea exchange of gas and heat and the emission of primary organic aerosols (POA). Recent findings suggest that low-level cloud formation above the Arctic Ocean may be linked to organic polymers produced by marine microorganisms. Sea ice harbors high amounts of polymeric substances that are produced by cells growing within the sea-ice brine. Here, we report from a research cruise to the central Arctic Ocean in 2012. Our study shows that microbial polymers accumulate at the air-sea interface when the sea ice melts. Proteinaceous compounds represented the major fraction of polymers supporting the formation of a gelatinous interface microlayer and providing a hitherto unrecognized potential source of marine POA. Our study indicates a novel link between sea ice-ocean and atmosphere that may be sensitive to climate change.

  16. Sea Level Rise Data Discovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quach, N.; Huang, T.; Boening, C.; Gill, K. M.

    2016-12-01

    Research related to sea level rise crosses multiple disciplines from sea ice to land hydrology. The NASA Sea Level Change Portal (SLCP) is a one-stop source for current sea level change information and data, including interactive tools for accessing and viewing regional data, a virtual dashboard of sea level indicators, and ongoing updates through a suite of editorial products that include content articles, graphics, videos, and animations. The architecture behind the SLCP makes it possible to integrate web content and data relevant to sea level change that are archived across various data centers as well as new data generated by sea level change principal investigators. The Extensible Data Gateway Environment (EDGE) is incorporated into the SLCP architecture to provide a unified platform for web content and science data discovery. EDGE is a data integration platform designed to facilitate high-performance geospatial data discovery and access with the ability to support multi-metadata standard specifications. EDGE has the capability to retrieve data from one or more sources and package the resulting sets into a single response to the requestor. With this unified endpoint, the Data Analysis Tool that is available on the SLCP can retrieve dataset and granule level metadata as well as perform geospatial search on the data. This talk focuses on the architecture that makes it possible to seamlessly integrate and enable discovery of disparate data relevant to sea level rise.

  17. A deep sea community at the Kebrit brine pool in the Red Sea

    KAUST Repository

    Vestheim, Hege

    2015-02-26

    Approximately 25 deep sea brine pools occur along the mid axis of the Red Sea. These hypersaline, anoxic, and acidic environments have previously been reported to host diverse microbial communities. We visited the Kebrit brine pool in April 2013 and found macrofauna present just above the brine–seawater interface (~1465 m). In particular, inactive sulfur chimneys had associated epifauna of sea anemones, sabellid type polychaetes, and hydroids, and infauna consisting of capitellid polychaetes, gastropods of the genus Laeviphitus (fam. Elachisinidae), and top snails of the family Cocculinidae. The deep Red Sea generally is regarded as extremely poor in benthos. We hypothesize that the periphery along the Kebrit holds increased biomass and biodiversity that are sustained by prokaryotes associated with the brine pool or co-occurring seeps.

  18. Two centuries of extreme events over the Baltic Sea and North Sea regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stendel, Martin; den Besselaar Else, van; Abdel, Hannachi; Jaak, Jaagus; Elizabeth, Kent; Christiana, Lefebvre; Gudrun, Rosenhagen; Anna, Rutgersson; Frederik, Schenk; der Schrier Gerard, van; Tim, Woolings

    2017-04-01

    Two centuries of extreme events over the Baltic Sea and North Sea regions In the framework of the BACC 2 (for the Baltic Sea) and NOSCCA projects (for the North Sea region), studies of past and present variability and changes in atmospheric variables within the North Sea region over the instrumental period (roughly the past 200 years) have been investigated. Findings on trends in temperature and precipitation have already been presented. Here we focus on data homogeneity issues and examine how reliable reanalyses are in this context. Unlike most other regions in the world, there is a wealth of old observations available for the Baltic and North Sea regions, most of it in handwritten form in meteorological journals and other publications. These datasets need to be carefully digitised and homogenized. For this, a thorough quality control must be applied; otherwise the digitised datasets may prove useless or even counterproductive. We present evidence that this step cannot be conducted without human interference and thus cannot be fully automated. Furthermore, inhomogeneities due to e.g. instrumentation and station relocations need to be addressed. A wealth of reanalysis products is available, which can help detect such inhomogeneities in observed time series, but at the same time are prone to biases and/or spurious trends themselves e.g. introduced by changes in the availability and quality of the underlying assimilated data. It therefore in general remains unclear in how far we can simulate the pre-satellite era with respect to homogeneity with reanalyses based only on parts of the observing system. Extreme events and changes in extreme situations are more important and of greater (societal) significance than changes in mean climate. However, changes in extreme weather events are difficult to assess not only because they are, per definition, rare events, but also due to the homogeneity issues outlined above. Taking these into account, we present evidence for changes

  19. Sea Cucumber (Holothuroidea Species of Turkey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehmet AYDIN

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available There are nearly 1200 sea cucumber species in the world oceans, while only 37 species from Holothuroidea class lives in the Mediterranean Sea. This preliminary study aims identification sea cucumbers species of the Turkish waters. The sea cucumber samples used in this study were obtained from a series of different studies between the years of 2008 and 2014. Identification of the species are mainly based on the morphometric characteristics while some of species are determined from their calcareous spicules. Eight sea species were identified in this research which are; Holothuria tubulosa, Holothuria polii, Holothuria mammata, Holothuria (Platyperona sanctori, Holothuria forskali, Stichopus regalis, Synaptula reciprocans and Stereoderma kirschbergi. There are limited number of studies in the literature focusing on the identification of the sea cucumber species spread in our seas. Therefore, this study is believed to play an important role in guiding future researches.

  20. MIS 5e relative sea-level changes in the Mediterranean Sea: Contribution of isostatic disequilibrium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stocchi, Paolo; Vacchi, Matteo; Lorscheid, Thomas; de Boer, Bas; Simms, Alexander R.; van de Wal, Roderik S. W.; Vermeersen, Bert L. A.; Pappalardo, Marta; Rovere, Alessio

    2018-04-01

    Sea-level indicators dated to the Last Interglacial, or Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e, have a twofold value. First, they can be used to constrain the melting of Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets in response to global warming scenarios. Second, they can be used to calculate the vertical crustal rates at active margins. For both applications, the contribution of glacio- and hydro-isostatic adjustment (GIA) to vertical displacement of sea-level indicators must be calculated. In this paper, we re-assess MIS 5e sea-level indicators at 11 Mediterranean sites that have been generally considered tectonically stable or affected by mild tectonics. These are found within a range of elevations of 2-10 m above modern mean sea level. Four sites are characterized by two separate sea-level stands, which suggest a two-step sea-level highstand during MIS 5e. Comparing field data with numerical modeling we show that (i) GIA is an important contributor to the spatial and temporal variability of the sea-level highstand during MIS 5e, (ii) the isostatic imbalance from the melting of the MIS 6 ice sheet can produce a >2.0 m sea-level highstand, and (iii) a two-step melting phase for the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets reduces the differences between observations and predictions. Our results show that assumptions of tectonic stability on the basis of the MIS 5e records carry intrinsically large uncertainties, stemming either from uncertainties in field data and GIA models. The latter are propagated to either Holocene or Pleistocene sea-level reconstructions if tectonic rates are considered linear through time.

  1. Deep-sea biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea: the known, the unknown, and the unknowable.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberto Danovaro

    Full Text Available Deep-sea ecosystems represent the largest biome of the global biosphere, but knowledge of their biodiversity is still scant. The Mediterranean basin has been proposed as a hot spot of terrestrial and coastal marine biodiversity but has been supposed to be impoverished of deep-sea species richness. We summarized all available information on benthic biodiversity (Prokaryotes, Foraminifera, Meiofauna, Macrofauna, and Megafauna in different deep-sea ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea (200 to more than 4,000 m depth, including open slopes, deep basins, canyons, cold seeps, seamounts, deep-water corals and deep-hypersaline anoxic basins and analyzed overall longitudinal and bathymetric patterns. We show that in contrast to what was expected from the sharp decrease in organic carbon fluxes and reduced faunal abundance, the deep-sea biodiversity of both the eastern and the western basins of the Mediterranean Sea is similarly high. All of the biodiversity components, except Bacteria and Archaea, displayed a decreasing pattern with increasing water depth, but to a different extent for each component. Unlike patterns observed for faunal abundance, highest negative values of the slopes of the biodiversity patterns were observed for Meiofauna, followed by Macrofauna and Megafauna. Comparison of the biodiversity associated with open slopes, deep basins, canyons, and deep-water corals showed that the deep basins were the least diverse. Rarefaction curves allowed us to estimate the expected number of species for each benthic component in different bathymetric ranges. A large fraction of exclusive species was associated with each specific habitat or ecosystem. Thus, each deep-sea ecosystem contributes significantly to overall biodiversity. From theoretical extrapolations we estimate that the overall deep-sea Mediterranean biodiversity (excluding prokaryotes reaches approximately 2805 species of which about 66% is still undiscovered. Among the biotic components

  2. Transcriptomes and expression profiling of deep-sea corals from the Red Sea provide insight into the biology of azooxanthellate corals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yum, Lauren K; Baumgarten, Sebastian; Röthig, Till; Roder, Cornelia; Roik, Anna; Michell, Craig; Voolstra, Christian R

    2017-07-25

    Despite the importance of deep-sea corals, our current understanding of their ecology and evolution is limited due to difficulties in sampling and studying deep-sea environments. Moreover, a recent re-evaluation of habitat limitations has been suggested after characterization of deep-sea corals in the Red Sea, where they live at temperatures of above 20 °C at low oxygen concentrations. To gain further insight into the biology of deep-sea corals, we produced reference transcriptomes and studied gene expression of three deep-sea coral species from the Red Sea, i.e. Dendrophyllia sp., Eguchipsammia fistula, and Rhizotrochus typus. Our analyses suggest that deep-sea coral employ mitochondrial hypometabolism and anaerobic glycolysis to manage low oxygen conditions present in the Red Sea. Notably, we found expression of genes related to surface cilia motion that presumably enhance small particle transport rates in the oligotrophic deep-sea environment. This is the first study to characterize transcriptomes and in situ gene expression for deep-sea corals. Our work offers several mechanisms by which deep-sea corals might cope with the distinct environmental conditions present in the Red Sea As such, our data provide direction for future research and further insight to organismal response of deep-sea coral to environmental change and ocean warming.

  3. Transcriptomes and expression profiling of deep-sea corals from the Red Sea provide insight into the biology of azooxanthellate corals

    KAUST Repository

    Yum, Lauren

    2017-07-19

    Despite the importance of deep-sea corals, our current understanding of their ecology and evolution is limited due to difficulties in sampling and studying deep-sea environments. Moreover, a recent re-evaluation of habitat limitations has been suggested after characterization of deep-sea corals in the Red Sea, where they live at temperatures of above 20 °C at low oxygen concentrations. To gain further insight into the biology of deep-sea corals, we produced reference transcriptomes and studied gene expression of three deep-sea coral species from the Red Sea, i.e. Dendrophyllia sp., Eguchipsammia fistula, and Rhizotrochus typus. Our analyses suggest that deep-sea coral employ mitochondrial hypometabolism and anaerobic glycolysis to manage low oxygen conditions present in the Red Sea. Notably, we found expression of genes related to surface cilia motion that presumably enhance small particle transport rates in the oligotrophic deep-sea environment. This is the first study to characterize transcriptomes and in situ gene expression for deep-sea corals. Our work offers several mechanisms by which deep-sea corals might cope with the distinct environmental conditions present in the Red Sea As such, our data provide direction for future research and further insight to organismal response of deep-sea coral to environmental change and ocean warming.

  4. Transcriptomes and expression profiling of deep-sea corals from the Red Sea provide insight into the biology of azooxanthellate corals

    KAUST Repository

    Yum, Lauren; Baumgarten, Sebastian; Rö thig, Till; Roder, Cornelia; Roik, Anna Krystyna; Michell, Craig; Voolstra, Christian R.

    2017-01-01

    Despite the importance of deep-sea corals, our current understanding of their ecology and evolution is limited due to difficulties in sampling and studying deep-sea environments. Moreover, a recent re-evaluation of habitat limitations has been suggested after characterization of deep-sea corals in the Red Sea, where they live at temperatures of above 20 °C at low oxygen concentrations. To gain further insight into the biology of deep-sea corals, we produced reference transcriptomes and studied gene expression of three deep-sea coral species from the Red Sea, i.e. Dendrophyllia sp., Eguchipsammia fistula, and Rhizotrochus typus. Our analyses suggest that deep-sea coral employ mitochondrial hypometabolism and anaerobic glycolysis to manage low oxygen conditions present in the Red Sea. Notably, we found expression of genes related to surface cilia motion that presumably enhance small particle transport rates in the oligotrophic deep-sea environment. This is the first study to characterize transcriptomes and in situ gene expression for deep-sea corals. Our work offers several mechanisms by which deep-sea corals might cope with the distinct environmental conditions present in the Red Sea As such, our data provide direction for future research and further insight to organismal response of deep-sea coral to environmental change and ocean warming.

  5. Atmospheric forcing of sea ice leads in the Beaufort Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, B. J.; Hutchings, J.; Mahoney, A. R.; Shapiro, L. H.

    2016-12-01

    Leads in sea ice play an important role in the polar marine environment where they allow heat and moisture transfer between the oceans and atmosphere and act as travel pathways for both marine mammals and ships. Examining AVHRR thermal imagery of the Beaufort Sea, collected between 1994 and 2010, sea ice leads appear in repeating patterns and locations (Eicken et al 2005). The leads, resolved by AVHRR, are at least 250m wide (Mahoney et al 2012), thus the patterns described are for lead systems that extend up to hundreds of kilometers across the Beaufort Sea. We describe how these patterns are associated with the location of weather systems relative to the coastline. Mean sea level pressure and 10m wind fields from ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis are used to identify if particular lead patterns can be uniquely forecast based on the location of weather systems. Ice drift data from the NSIDC's Polar Pathfinder Daily 25km EASE-Grid Sea Ice Motion Vectors indicates the role shear along leads has on the motion of ice in the Beaufort Gyre. Lead formation is driven by 4 main factors: (i) coastal features such as promontories and islands influence the origin of leads by concentrating stresses within the ice pack; (ii) direction of the wind forcing on the ice pack determines the type of fracture, (iii) the location of the anticyclone (or cyclone) center determines the length of the fracture for certain patterns; and (iv) duration of weather conditions affects the width of the ice fracture zones. Movement of the ice pack on the leeward side of leads originating at promontories and islands increases, creating shear zones that control ice transport along the Alaska coast in winter. . Understanding how atmospheric conditions influence the large-scale motion of the ice pack is needed to design models that predict variability of the gyre and export of multi-year ice to lower latitudes.

  6. Sea spray aerosol fluxes in the Baltic Sea region: Comparison of the WAM model with measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Markuszewski, Piotr; Kosecki, Szymon; Petelski, Tomasz

    2017-08-01

    Sea spray aerosol flux is an important element of sub-regional climate modeling. The majority of works related to this topic concentrate on open ocean research rather than on smaller, inland seas, e.g., the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is one of the largest brackish inland seas by area, where major inflows of oceanic waters are rare. Furthermore, surface waves in the Baltic Sea have a relatively shorter lifespan in comparison with oceanic waves. Therefore, emission of sea spray aerosol may differ greatly from what is known from oceanic research and should be investigated. This article presents a comparison of sea spray aerosol measurements carried out on-board the s/y Oceania research ship with data calculated in accordance to the WAM model. The measurements were conducted in the southern region of the Baltic Sea during four scientific cruises. The gradient method was used to determinate aerosol fluxes. The fluxes were calculated for particles of diameter in range of 0.5-47 μm. The correlation between wind speed measured and simulated has a good agreement (correlation in range of 0.8). The comparison encompasses three different sea spray generation models. First, function proposed by Massel (2006) which is based only on wave parameters, such as significant wave height and peak frequency. Second, Callaghan (2013) which is based on Gong (2003) model (wind speed relation), and a thorough experimental analysis of whitecaps. Third, Petelski et al. (2014) which is based on in-situ gradient measurements with the function dependent on wind speed. The two first models which based on whitecaps analysis are insufficient. Moreover, the research shows strong relation between aerosol emission and wind speed history.

  7. Antifouling potentials of eight deep-sea-derived fungi from the South China Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xiao-Yong; Xu, Xin-Ya; Peng, Jiang; Ma, Chun-Feng; Nong, Xu-Hua; Bao, Jie; Zhang, Guang-Zhao; Qi, Shu-Hua

    2014-04-01

    Marine-derived microbial secondary metabolites are promising potential sources of nontoxic antifouling agents. The search for environmentally friendly and low-toxic antifouling components guided us to investigate the antifouling potentials of eight novel fungal isolates from deep-sea sediments of the South China Sea. Sixteen crude ethyl acetate extracts of the eight fungal isolates showed distinct antibacterial activity against three marine bacteria (Loktanella hongkongensis UST950701-009, Micrococcus luteus UST950701-006 and Pseudoalteromonas piscida UST010620-005), or significant antilarval activity against larval settlement of bryozoan Bugula neritina. Furthermore, the extract of Aspergillus westerdijkiae DFFSCS013 displayed strong antifouling activity in a field trial lasting 4 months. By further bioassay-guided isolation, five antifouling alkaloids including brevianamide F, circumdatin F and L, notoamide C, and 5-chlorosclerotiamide were isolated from the extract of A. westerdijkiae DFFSCS013. This is the first report about the antifouling potentials of metabolites of the deep-sea-derived fungi from the South China Sea, and the first stage towards the development of non- or low-toxic antifouling agents from deep-sea-derived fungi.

  8. Diverse circovirus-like genome architectures revealed by environmental metagenomics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosario, Karyna; Duffy, Siobain; Breitbart, Mya

    2009-10-01

    Single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses with circular genomes are the smallest viruses known to infect eukaryotes. The present study identified 10 novel genomes similar to ssDNA circoviruses through data-mining of public viral metagenomes. The metagenomic libraries included samples from reclaimed water and three different marine environments (Chesapeake Bay, British Columbia coastal waters and Sargasso Sea). All the genomes have similarities to the replication (Rep) protein of circoviruses; however, only half have genomic features consistent with known circoviruses. Some of the genomes exhibit a mixture of genomic features associated with different families of ssDNA viruses (i.e. circoviruses, geminiviruses and parvoviruses). Unique genome architectures and phylogenetic analysis of the Rep protein suggest that these viruses belong to novel genera and/or families. Investigating the complex community of ssDNA viruses in the environment can lead to the discovery of divergent species and help elucidate evolutionary links between ssDNA viruses.

  9. Marine mimivirus relatives are probably large algal viruses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claverie Jean-Michel

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus is the largest known ds-DNA virus and its 1.2 Mb-genome sequence has revealed many unique features. Mimivirus occupies an independent lineage among eukaryotic viruses and its known hosts include only species from the Acanthamoeba genus. The existence of mimivirus relatives was first suggested by the analysis of the Sargasso Sea metagenomic data. Results We now further demonstrate the presence of numerous "mimivirus-like" sequences using a larger marine metagenomic data set. We also show that the DNA polymerase sequences from three algal viruses (CeV01, PpV01, PoV01 infecting different marine algal species (Chrysochromulina ericina, Phaeocystis pouchetii, Pyramimonas orientalis are very closely related to their homolog in mimivirus. Conclusion Our results suggest that the numerous mimivirus-related sequences identified in marine environments are likely to originate from diverse large DNA viruses infecting phytoplankton. Micro-algae thus constitute a new category of potential hosts in which to look for new species of Mimiviridae.

  10. SeaDataCloud - further developing the pan-European SeaDataNet infrastructure for marine and ocean data management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaap, Dick M. A.; Fichaut, Michele

    2017-04-01

    SeaDataCloud marks the third phase of developing the pan-European SeaDataNet infrastructure for marine and ocean data management. The SeaDataCloud project is funded by EU and runs for 4 years from 1st November 2016. It succeeds the successful SeaDataNet II (2011 - 2015) and SeaDataNet (2006 - 2011) projects. SeaDataNet has set up and operates a pan-European infrastructure for managing marine and ocean data and is undertaken by National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODC's) and oceanographic data focal points from 34 coastal states in Europe. The infrastructure comprises a network of interconnected data centres and central SeaDataNet portal. The portal provides users a harmonised set of metadata directories and controlled access to the large collections of datasets, managed by the interconnected data centres. The population of directories has increased considerably in cooperation with and involvement in many associated EU projects and initiatives such as EMODnet. SeaDataNet at present gives overview and access to more than 1.9 million data sets for physical oceanography, chemistry, geology, geophysics, bathymetry and biology from more than 100 connected data centres from 34 countries riparian to European seas. SeaDataNet is also active in setting and governing marine data standards, and exploring and establishing interoperability solutions to connect to other e-infrastructures on the basis of standards of ISO (19115, 19139), and OGC (WMS, WFS, CS-W and SWE). Standards and associated SeaDataNet tools are made available at the SeaDataNet portal for wide uptake by data handling and managing organisations. SeaDataCloud aims at further developing standards, innovating services & products, adopting new technologies, and giving more attention to users. Moreover, it is about implementing a cooperation between the SeaDataNet consortium of marine data centres and the EUDAT consortium of e-infrastructure service providers. SeaDataCloud aims at considerably advancing services and

  11. Integrating out the Dirac sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karbstein, Felix

    2009-01-01

    We introduce a new method for dealing with fermionic quantum field theories amenable to a mean-field-type approximation. In this work we focus on the relativistic Hartree approximation. Our aim is to integrate out the Dirac sea and derive a no-sea effective theory'' with positive energy single particle states only. As the derivation of the no-sea effective theory involves only standard Feynman diagrams, our approach is quite general and not restricted to particular space-time dimensions. We develop and illustrate the approach in the ''large N'' limit of the Gross-Neveu model family in 1+1 dimensions. As the Gross-Neveu model has been intensely studied and several analytical solutions are known for this model, it is an ideal testing ground for our no-sea effective theory approach. The chiral Gross-Neveu model, also referred to as 1+1 dimensional Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, turns out to be of particular interest. In this case, we explicitly derive a consistent effective theory featuring both elementary ''π meson'' fields and (positive energy) ''quark'' fields, starting from a purely fermionic quantum field theory. In the second part of this work, we apply our approach to the Walecka model in 1+1 and 3+1 dimensions. As the Dirac sea caused considerable difficulties in attempts to base nuclear physics on field theoretic models like the Walecka model, mean-field calculations were typically done without the sea. We confront several of these mean-field theory results with our no-sea effective theory approach. The potential of our approach is twofold. While the no-sea effective theory can be utilized to provide new analytical insights in particular parameter regimes, it also sheds new light on more fundamental issues as the explicit emergence of effective, Dirac-sea induced multi-fermion interactions in an effective theory with positive energy states only. (orig.)

  12. Caribbean Sea Level Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Hillebrandt-Andrade, C.; Crespo Jones, H.

    2012-12-01

    Over the past 500 years almost 100 tsunamis have been observed in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic, with at least 3510 people having lost their lives to this hazard since 1842. Furthermore, with the dramatic increase in population and infrastructure along the Caribbean coasts, today, millions of coastal residents, workers and visitors are vulnerable to tsunamis. The UNESCO IOC Intergovernmental Coordination Group for Tsunamis and other Coastal Hazards for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions (CARIBE EWS) was established in 2005 to coordinate and advance the regional tsunami warning system. The CARIBE EWS focuses on four areas/working groups: (1) Monitoring and Warning, (2) Hazard and Risk Assessment, (3) Communication and (4) Education, Preparedness and Readiness. The sea level monitoring component is under Working Group 1. Although in the current system, it's the seismic data and information that generate the initial tsunami bulletins, it is the data from deep ocean buoys (DARTS) and the coastal sea level gauges that are critical for the actual detection and forecasting of tsunamis impact. Despite multiple efforts and investments in the installation of sea level stations in the region, in 2004 there were only a handful of sea level stations operational in the region (Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Bahamas). Over the past 5 years there has been a steady increase in the number of stations operating in the Caribbean region. As of mid 2012 there were 7 DARTS and 37 coastal gauges with additional ones being installed or funded. In order to reach the goal of 100 operational coastal sea level stations in the Caribbean, the CARIBE EWS recognizes also the importance of maintaining the current stations. For this, a trained workforce in the region for the installation, operation and data analysis and quality control is considered to be critical. Since 2008, three training courses have been offered to the sea level station operators and data analysts. Other

  13. The Hamburg sea-ice model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stoessel, A.; Owens, W.B.

    1992-10-01

    The general purpose of the model is to simulate sea ice dynamically as well as thermodynamically. Pure sea-ice models are generally highly dependent on the specified atmospheric and oceanic forcing, especially on the winds and the vertical oceanic heat flux. In order to reduce these dependencies, the sea-ice [SI] model was extended to optionally include a prognostic oceanic mixed layer [OML], a diagnostic atmospheric surface layer [ASL] and/or a diagnostic atmospheric boundary layer [ABL], thus shifting the forcing levels further away from the surface (i.e. from the sea ice) and simultaneously providing a modification of the forcing considering boundary-layer adjustments to the instantaneous sea-ice conditions given by the SI model. A further major extension of the model is the (optional) employment of a prognostic snow layer. The special application characterising the present code was sea-ice simulation in the Southern Ocean, employing a spherical, circumpolar grid with a resolution of 2.5 in latitude and 5 in longitude, extending from 50 S to 80 S and using a daily time step. (orig.)

  14. A 500 kyr record of global sea-level oscillations in the Gulf of Lion, Mediterranean Sea: new insights into MIS 3 sea-level variability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Frigola

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Borehole PRGL1-4 drilled in the upper slope of the Gulf of Lion provides an exceptional record to investigate the impact of late Pleistocene orbitally-driven glacio-eustatic sea-level oscillations on the sedimentary outbuilding of a river fed continental margin. High-resolution grain-size and geochemical records supported by oxygen isotope chronostratigraphy allow reinterpreting the last 500 ka upper slope seismostratigraphy of the Gulf of Lion. Five main sequences, stacked during the sea-level lowering phases of the last five glacial-interglacial 100-kyr cycles, form the upper stratigraphic outbuilding of the continental margin. The high sensitivity of the grain-size record down the borehole to sea-level oscillations can be explained by the great width of the Gulf of Lion continental shelf. Sea level driven changes in accommodation space over the shelf cyclically modified the depositional mode of the entire margin. PRGL1-4 data also illustrate the imprint of sea-level oscillations at millennial time-scale, as shown for Marine Isotopic Stage 3, and provide unambiguous evidence of relative high sea-levels at the onset of each Dansgaard-Oeschger Greenland warm interstadial. The PRGL1-4 grain-size record represents the first evidence for a one-to-one coupling of millennial time-scale sea-level oscillations associated with each Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle.

  15. Impact of sea spray on the Yellow and East China Seas thermal structure during the passage of Typhoon Rammasun (2002)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Lianxin; Zhang, Xuefeng; Chu, P. C.; Guan, Changlong; Fu, Hongli; Chao, Guofang; Han, Guijun; Li, Wei

    2017-10-01

    Strong winds lead to large amounts of sea spray in the lowest part of the atmospheric boundary layer. The spray droplets affect the air-sea heat fluxes due to their evaporation and the momentum due to the change of sea surface, and in turn change the upper ocean thermal structure. In this study, impact of sea spray on upper ocean temperatures in the Yellow and East China Seas (YES) during typhoon Rammasun's passage is investigated using the POMgcs ocean model with a sea spray parameterization scheme, in which the sea spray-induced heat fluxes are based on an improved Fairall's sea spray heat fluxes algorithm, and the sea spray-induced momentum fluxes are derived from an improved COARE version 2.6 bulk model. The distribution of the sea spray mediated turbulent fluxes was primarily located at Rammasun eye-wall region, in accord with the maximal wind speeds regions. When Rammasun enters the Yellow sea, the sea spray mediated latent (sensible) heat flux maximum is enhanced by 26% (13.5%) compared to that of the interfacial latent (sensible) heat flux. The maximum of the total air-sea momentum fluxes is enhanced by 43% compared to the counterpart of the interfacial momentum flux. Furthermore, the sea spray plays a key role in enhancing the intensity of the typhoon-induced "cold suction" and "heat pump" processes. When the effect of sea spray is considered, the maximum of the sea surface cooling in the right side of Rammasun's track is increased by 0.5°C, which is closer to the available satellite observations.

  16. Sea-ice indicators of polar bear habitat

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stern, Harry L.; Laidre, Kristin L.

    2016-09-01

    Nineteen subpopulations of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are found throughout the circumpolar Arctic, and in all regions they depend on sea ice as a platform for traveling, hunting, and breeding. Therefore polar bear phenology - the cycle of biological events - is linked to the timing of sea-ice retreat in spring and advance in fall. We analyzed the dates of sea-ice retreat and advance in all 19 polar bear subpopulation regions from 1979 to 2014, using daily sea-ice concentration data from satellite passive microwave instruments. We define the dates of sea-ice retreat and advance in a region as the dates when the area of sea ice drops below a certain threshold (retreat) on its way to the summer minimum or rises above the threshold (advance) on its way to the winter maximum. The threshold is chosen to be halfway between the historical (1979-2014) mean September and mean March sea-ice areas. In all 19 regions there is a trend toward earlier sea-ice retreat and later sea-ice advance. Trends generally range from -3 to -9 days decade-1 in spring and from +3 to +9 days decade-1 in fall, with larger trends in the Barents Sea and central Arctic Basin. The trends are not sensitive to the threshold. We also calculated the number of days per year that the sea-ice area exceeded the threshold (termed ice-covered days) and the average sea-ice concentration from 1 June through 31 October. The number of ice-covered days is declining in all regions at the rate of -7 to -19 days decade-1, with larger trends in the Barents Sea and central Arctic Basin. The June-October sea-ice concentration is declining in all regions at rates ranging from -1 to -9 percent decade-1. These sea-ice metrics (or indicators of habitat change) were designed to be useful for management agencies and for comparative purposes among subpopulations. We recommend that the National Climate Assessment include the timing of sea-ice retreat and advance in future reports.

  17. Past and present Aral Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dukhovniy, Viktor; Stulina, Galina; Eshchanov, Odylbek

    2013-04-01

    The tragedy of disappearing of Aral Sea is well known to the World. Before and after collapse of Soviet Union, a huge quantity of scientific and popular editions described with grief the situation around the Aral Sea. After the NIS states became independent, World Bank, UNDP, UNEP in proper competition with each other had provided some assessment of the situation through presentation of some small and medium grants, but after 2000, the local population remained alone with own problems. Although on the eyes of the present generation a unique transformation of great water body into deserts took place, the global scientific community did not find forces and financing for real and detail investigation of the processes accompanying the Sea shrinking and land formation. We should acknowledge and give big respect to NATO, later to German Government that through GTZ (now GIZ) - German International Collaboration Agency - and GFZ (Potzdam) paid attention to this area of environment crisis and organized scientific and protective design in the so-called Priaralie - the territory around the drying Sea and delta of the two rivers - Amudarya and Syrdarya. Thank to this assistance, the local specialists in collaboration with limited a number of foreign scientists (N.Aladin, P.Zavialov, Joop de Schutter, Hans Wilps, Hedi Oberhansli) organized significant works for detail socioeconomic, ecological and hydrological assessment situation in Priaralie and on the Aral sea coast. On this base, Ministry of Agriculture and Water resources of Uzbekistan and State Committee of Water resources of Kazakhstan developed a plan of rehabilitation of Amudarya and Syrdarya deltas and started implementation of these projects. If Kazakh water authority moved ahead in wetland restoration faster, a forestation of delta and drying bed of Aral Sea got big success in Uzbek territory. 244 thousands hectares of saxsaul and tamarix were planted for protection of the Priaralie. By request of GTZ SIC, ICWC

  18. Radionuclides in the sea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1971-07-01

    Water covers a little more than two-thirds of the earth's surface. What is thrown into the sea from a ship may be washed up on a shore thousands of miles away; wastes discharged into the seas or into rivers flowing into them can affect marine life and possibly also the health of man. The study, prevention and control of pollution of the seas and oceans by radionuclides introduced as by-products of man's use of nuclear energy is thus of global interest. (author)

  19. Do pelagic grazers benefit from sea ice? Insights from the Antarctic sea ice proxy IPSO25

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Schmidt

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Sea ice affects primary production in polar regions in multiple ways. It can dampen water column productivity by reducing light or nutrient supply, provide a habitat for ice algae and condition the marginal ice zone (MIZ for phytoplankton blooms on its seasonal retreat. The relative importance of three different carbon sources (sea ice derived, sea ice conditioned, non-sea-ice associated for the polar food web is not well understood, partly due to the lack of methods that enable their unambiguous distinction. Here we analysed two highly branched isoprenoid (HBI biomarkers to trace sea-ice-derived and sea-ice-conditioned carbon in Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba and relate their concentrations to the grazers' body reserves, growth and recruitment. During our sampling in January–February 2003, the proxy for sea ice diatoms (a di-unsaturated HBI termed IPSO25, δ13C  =  −12.5 ± 3.3 ‰ occurred in open waters of the western Scotia Sea, where seasonal ice retreat was slow. In suspended matter from surface waters, IPSO25 was present at a few stations close to the ice edge, but in krill the marker was widespread. Even at stations that had been ice-free for several weeks, IPSO25 was found in krill stomachs, suggesting that they gathered the ice-derived algae from below the upper mixed layer. Peak abundances of the proxy for MIZ diatoms (a tri-unsaturated HBI termed HBI III, δ13C  =  −42.2 ± 2.4 ‰ occurred in regions of fast sea ice retreat and persistent salinity-driven stratification in the eastern Scotia Sea. Krill sampled in the area defined by the ice edge bloom likewise contained high amounts of HBI III. As indicators for the grazer's performance we used the mass–length ratio, size of digestive gland and growth rate for krill, and recruitment for the biomass-dominant calanoid copepods Calanoides acutus and Calanus propinquus. These indices consistently point to blooms in the MIZ as an important feeding

  20. Do pelagic grazers benefit from sea ice? Insights from the Antarctic sea ice proxy IPSO25

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Katrin; Brown, Thomas A.; Belt, Simon T.; Ireland, Louise C.; Taylor, Kyle W. R.; Thorpe, Sally E.; Ward, Peter; Atkinson, Angus

    2018-04-01

    Sea ice affects primary production in polar regions in multiple ways. It can dampen water column productivity by reducing light or nutrient supply, provide a habitat for ice algae and condition the marginal ice zone (MIZ) for phytoplankton blooms on its seasonal retreat. The relative importance of three different carbon sources (sea ice derived, sea ice conditioned, non-sea-ice associated) for the polar food web is not well understood, partly due to the lack of methods that enable their unambiguous distinction. Here we analysed two highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) biomarkers to trace sea-ice-derived and sea-ice-conditioned carbon in Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and relate their concentrations to the grazers' body reserves, growth and recruitment. During our sampling in January-February 2003, the proxy for sea ice diatoms (a di-unsaturated HBI termed IPSO25, δ13C = -12.5 ± 3.3 ‰) occurred in open waters of the western Scotia Sea, where seasonal ice retreat was slow. In suspended matter from surface waters, IPSO25 was present at a few stations close to the ice edge, but in krill the marker was widespread. Even at stations that had been ice-free for several weeks, IPSO25 was found in krill stomachs, suggesting that they gathered the ice-derived algae from below the upper mixed layer. Peak abundances of the proxy for MIZ diatoms (a tri-unsaturated HBI termed HBI III, δ13C = -42.2 ± 2.4 ‰) occurred in regions of fast sea ice retreat and persistent salinity-driven stratification in the eastern Scotia Sea. Krill sampled in the area defined by the ice edge bloom likewise contained high amounts of HBI III. As indicators for the grazer's performance we used the mass-length ratio, size of digestive gland and growth rate for krill, and recruitment for the biomass-dominant calanoid copepods Calanoides acutus and Calanus propinquus. These indices consistently point to blooms in the MIZ as an important feeding ground for pelagic grazers. Even though ice

  1. Japan nuclear ship sea trial

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamazaki, Hiroshi; Kitamura, Toshikatus; Mizushima, Toshihiko

    1992-01-01

    The sea trial of the first Japan nuclear Ship 'MUTSU' was conducted from the end of October to December in 1990. The purpose of the sea trial was to verify the nuclear propulsive performances and maneuverabilities. The present report describes the results of the sea trial. These results are classified into four items: 1. Speed test and engineering performance tests 2. Maneuvering performance tests 3. Vibration tests 4. Other tests. Acceptable performances were demonstrated, as expected in the original design. The experience of the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which were newly adopted for the sea trial, is also reported. (author)

  2. Thermal biology of sea snakes and sea kraits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heatwole, Harold; Grech, Alana; Monahan, John F; King, Susan; Marsh, Helene

    2012-08-01

    Temperature probably had no direct effect on the evolution of sea kraits within their center of origin, a geologically stable thermal zone straddling the equator, but may have indirectly affected expansions and contractions in distributions beyond that zone through global fluctuations that caused alternation of higher and lower sea levels. The northern limit of the Laticauda colubrina complex seems to be the 20°C isotherm; in the south, the range does not reach that isotherm because there is no land (also a habitat requirement of sea kraits) within the zone of suitable temperature. The relationship of temperature to the pattern of geographic variation in morphology supports either the hypothesis of peripheral convergence or the developmental hypothesis but does not distinguish between them. Quadratic surfaces relating cumulative scores for coloration and morphological characters to global position showed a strong latitudinal component and an even stronger longitudinal one in which the direction of the latitudinal effect was reversed between east and west. A multivariate analysis revealed that while morphological characters vary significantly by location and climate when tested separately, when the influence of location on morphology is taken into account, no residual relationship between climate and morphology remains. Most marine snakes have mean upper temperature tolerances between 39°C and 40°C and operate at temperatures much nearer their upper thermal limits than their lower limits but still avoid deleterious extremes by diving from excessively hot water to deeper, cooler strata, and by surfacing when water is cold. At the surface in still water in sunlight, Pelamis can maintain its body temperature slightly above that of the water, but whether this is significant in nature is questionable. As temperature falls below 18-20°C, survival time is progressively reduced, accompanied by the successive occurrence of cessation of feeding, cessation of swimming, and

  3. Sensitivity of the sea ice concentration over the Kara-Barents Sea in autumn to the winter temperature variability over East Asia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, K. H.; Chang, E. C.

    2017-12-01

    In this study, we performed sensitivity experiments by utilizing the Global/Regional Integrated Model system with different conditions of the sea ice concentration over the Kara-Barents (KB) Sea in autumn, which can affect winter temperature variability over East Asia. Prescribed sea ice conditions are 1) climatological autumn sea ice concentration obtained from 1982 to 2016, 2) reduced autumn sea ice concentration by 50% of the climatology, and 3) increased autumn sea ice concentration by 50% of climatology. Differently prescribed sea ice concentration changes surface albedo, which affects surface heat fluxes and near-surface air temperature. The reduced (increased) sea ice concentration over the KB sea increases (decreases) near-surface air temperature that leads the lower (higher) sea level pressure in autumn. These patterns are maintained from autumn to winter season. Furthermore, it is shown that the different sea ice concentration over the KB sea has remote effects on the sea level pressure patterns over the East Asian region. The lower (higher) sea level pressure over the KB sea by the locally decreased (increased) ice concentration is related to the higher (lower) pressure pattern over the Siberian region, which induces strengthened (weakened) cold advection over the East Asian region. From these sensitivity experiments it is clarified that the decreased (increased) sea ice concentration over the KB sea in autumn can lead the colder (warmer) surface air temperature over East Asia in winter.

  4. Sea ice and millennial-scale climate variability in the Nordic seas 90 kyr ago to present.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoff, Ulrike; Rasmussen, Tine L; Stein, Ruediger; Ezat, Mohamed M; Fahl, Kirsten

    2016-07-26

    In the light of rapidly diminishing sea ice cover in the Arctic during the present atmospheric warming, it is imperative to study the distribution of sea ice in the past in relation to rapid climate change. Here we focus on glacial millennial-scale climatic events (Dansgaard/Oeschger events) using the sea ice proxy IP25 in combination with phytoplankton proxy data and quantification of diatom species in a record from the southeast Norwegian Sea. We demonstrate that expansion and retreat of sea ice varies consistently in pace with the rapid climate changes 90 kyr ago to present. Sea ice retreats abruptly at the start of warm interstadials, but spreads rapidly during cooling phases of the interstadials and becomes near perennial and perennial during cold stadials and Heinrich events, respectively. Low-salinity surface water and the sea ice edge spreads to the Greenland-Scotland Ridge, and during the largest Heinrich events, probably far into the Atlantic Ocean.

  5. Sea Lion Diet Data

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — California sea lions pup and breed at four of the nine Channel Islands in southern California. Since 1981, SWFSC MMTD has been conducting a diet study of sea lions...

  6. Replenishment at sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bohdan Pac

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Replenishment at sea is a process which plays the key role in the contemporary naval logistics during military and crisis operations. As the last element of the supply chain, it must use specific standards within the areas of procedures, technical equipment, logistic assets and resources, as well as safety, especially in multinational operations. The methods applied enable ships to operate at sea in the long term without logistic support provided by sea ports. The paper explains all the methods of the solids and liquids replenishment, and also gives an idea how to estimate the resupply process, using the measures. The level of standardization of procedures and assets implemented by NATO, the EU and other willing states has been described.

  7. Dynamic and static elastic moduli of North Sea and deep sea chalk

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gommesen, Lars; Fabricius, Ida Lykke

    2001-01-01

    We have established an empirical relationship between the dynamic and the static mechanical properties of North Sea and deep sea chalk for a large porosity interval with respect to porosity, effective stress history and textural composition. The chalk investigated is from the Tor and Hod Formatio...

  8. Mechanisms controlling the air–sea CO2 flux in the North Sea

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Prowe, A.E.F.; Thomas, Helmuth; Pätsch, Johannes; Kühn, Wilfried; Bozec, Yann; Schiettecatte, Laure-Sophie; Borges, Alberto V.; Baar, Hein J.W. de; Paetsch, J; Kuehn, W

    2009-01-01

    The mechanisms driving the air–sea exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the North Sea are investigated using the three-dimensional coupled physical–biogeochemical model ECOHAM (ECOlogical-model, HAMburg). We validate our simulations using field data for the years 2001–2002 and identify the controls

  9. How Much Are Floridians Willing to Pay for Protecting Sea Turtles from Sea Level Rise?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamed, Ahmed; Madani, Kaveh; Von Holle, Betsy; Wright, James; Milon, J Walter; Bossick, Matthew

    2016-01-01

    Sea level rise (SLR) is posing a great inundation risk to coastal areas. Some coastal nesting species, including sea turtle species, have experienced diminished habitat from SLR. Contingent valuation method (CVM) was used in an effort to assess the economic loss impacts of SLR on sea turtle nesting habitats for Florida coasts; and to elicit values of willingness to pay (WTP) of Central Florida residents to implement certain mitigation strategies, which would protect Florida's east coast sea turtle nesting areas. Using the open-ended and dichotomous choice CVM, we sampled residents of two Florida communities: Cocoa Beach and Oviedo. We estimated the WTP of households from these two cities to protect sea turtle habitat to be between $42 and $57 per year for 5 years. Additionally, we attempted to assess the impact of the both the respondents' demographics and their perception toward various situations on their WTP value. Findings include a negative correlation between the age of a respondent and the probability of an individual willing to pay the hypothetical WTP amount. We found that WTP of an individual was not dependent on prior knowledge of the effects of SLR on sea turtle habitat. The greatest indicators of whether or not an individual was willing to pay to protect sea turtle habitat were the respondents' perception regarding the trustworthiness and efficiency of the party which will implement the conservation measures and their confidence in the conservation methods used. Respondents who perceive sea turtles having an effect on their life were also more likely to pay.

  10. Temporal variatiions of Sea ice cover in the Baltic Sea derived from operational sea ice products used in NWP.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lange, Martin; Paul, Gerhard; Potthast, Roland

    2014-05-01

    Sea ice cover is a crucial parameter for surface fluxes of heat and moisture over water areas. The isolating effect and the much higher albedo strongly reduces the turbulent exchange of heat and moisture from the surface to the atmosphere and allows for cold and dry air mass flow with strong impact on the stability of the whole boundary layer and consequently cloud formation as well as precipitation in the downstream regions. Numerical weather centers as, ECMWF, MetoFrance or DWD use external products to initialize SST and sea ice cover in their NWP models. To the knowledge of the author there are mainly two global sea ice products well established with operational availability, one from NOAA NCEP that combines measurements with satellite data, and the other from OSI-SAF derived from SSMI/S sensors. The latter one is used in the Ostia product. DWD additionally uses a regional product for the Baltic Sea provided by the national center for shipping and hydrografie which combines observations from ships (and icebreakers) for the German part of the Baltic Sea and model analysis from the hydrodynamic HIROMB model of the Swedish meteorological service for the rest of the domain. The temporal evolution of the three different products are compared for a cold period in Februar 2012. Goods and bads will be presented and suggestions for a harmonization of strong day to day jumps over large areas are suggested.

  11. OW NASA SeaWIFS Ocean Color

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The dataset contains satellite-derived sea-surface ocean color (chlorophyll-a) measurements collected by means of the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS)...

  12. Sea level change along the Black Sea coast from satellite altimetry, tide gauge and GPS observations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nevin B. Avsar

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Sea level change affects human living conditions, particularly ocean coasts. However, sea level change is still unclear along the Black Sea coast due to lack of in-situ measurements and low resolution satellite data. In this paper, sea level change along the Black Sea coast is investigated from joint satellite altimetry, tide gauge (TG and Global Positioning System (GPS observations. The linear trend and seasonal components of sea level change are estimated at 8 TG stations (Amasra, Igneada, Trabzon-II, Sinop, Sile, Poti, Tuapse, and Batumi located along the Black Sea coast, which are compared with Satellite Altimetry and GPS. At the tide gauge stations with long-term records such as Poti (about 21 years and Tuapse (about 19 years, the results obtained from the satellite altimetry and tide gauge observations show a remarkably good agreement. While some big differences are existed between Satellite Altimetry and TG at other stations, after adding vertical motion from GPS, correlation coefficients of the trend have been greatly improved from 0.37 to 0.99 at 3 co-located GPS and TG stations (Trabzon-II, Sinop and Sile.

  13. Re-initiation of bottom water formation in the East Sea (Japan Sea) in a warming world.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoon, Seung-Tae; Chang, Kyung-Il; Nam, SungHyun; Rho, TaeKeun; Kang, Dong-Jin; Lee, Tongsup; Park, Kyung-Ae; Lobanov, Vyacheslav; Kaplunenko, Dmitry; Tishchenko, Pavel; Kim, Kyung-Ryul

    2018-01-25

    The East Sea (Japan Sea), a small marginal sea in the northwestern Pacific, is ventilated deeply down to the bottom and sensitive to changing surface conditions. Addressing the response of this marginal sea to the hydrological cycle and atmospheric forcing would be helpful for better understanding present and future environmental changes in oceans at the global and regional scales. Here, we present an analysis of observations revealing a slowdown of the long-term deepening in water boundaries associated with changes of water formation rate. Our results indicate that bottom (central) water formation has been enhanced (reduced) with more (less) oxygen supply to the bottom (central) layer since the 2000s. This paper presents a new projection that allows a three-layered deep structure, which retains bottom water, at least until 2040, contrasting previous results. This projection considers recent increase of slope convections mainly due to the salt supply via air-sea freshwater exchange and sea ice formation and decrease of open-ocean convections evidenced by reduced mixed layer depth in the northern East Sea, resulting in more bottom water and less central water formations. Such vigorous changes in water formation and ventilation provide certain implications on future climate changes.

  14. Seasonal variability of the Red Sea, from GRACE time-variable gravity and altimeter sea surface height measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wahr, John; Smeed, David; Leuliette, Eric; Swenson, Sean

    2014-05-01

    Seasonal variability of sea surface height and mass within the Red Sea, occurs mostly through the exchange of heat with the atmosphere and wind-driven inflow and outflow of water through the strait of Bab el Mandab that opens into the Gulf of Aden to the south. The seasonal effects of precipitation and evaporation, of water exchange through the Suez Canal to the north, and of runoff from the adjacent land, are all small. The flow through the Bab el Mandab involves a net mass transfer into the Red Sea during the winter and a net transfer out during the summer. But that flow has a multi-layer pattern, so that in the summer there is actually an influx of cool water at intermediate (~100 m) depths. Thus, summer water in the southern Red Sea is warmer near the surface due to higher air temperatures, but cooler at intermediate depths (especially in the far south). Summer water in the northern Red Sea experiences warming by air-sea exchange only. The temperature profile affects the water density, which impacts the sea surface height but has no effect on vertically integrated mass. Here, we study this seasonal cycle by combining GRACE time-variable mass estimates, altimeter (Jason-1, Jason-2, and Envisat) measurements of sea surface height, and steric sea surface height contributions derived from depth-dependent, climatological values of temperature and salinity obtained from the World Ocean Atlas. We find good consistency, particularly in the northern Red Sea, between these three data types. Among the general characteristics of our results are: (1) the mass contributions to seasonal SSHT variations are much larger than the steric contributions; (2) the mass signal is largest in winter, consistent with winds pushing water into the Red Sea through the Strait of Bab el Mandab in winter, and out during the summer; and (3) the steric signal is largest in summer, consistent with summer sea surface warming.

  15. Modelling the atmospheric transport of trace metals from Europe to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Petersen, G; Weber, H; Grassl, H [GKSS-Forschungszentrum Geesthacht G.m.b.H., Geesthacht-Tesperhude (Germany, F.R.). Inst. fuer Physik

    1989-01-01

    Within the framework of a research contract with the German Federal Environmental Agency the long range transport of trace metals over Europe and the deposition of trace metals into the North Sea and the Baltic Sea are estimated using the EMEP- (European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme) trajectory model. The methodology for the model calculations is explained. Preliminary results for the total deposition of lead into the North Sea and the Baltic Sea show, that the calculated values are lower than previous estimates based on extrapolations from measurements at coastal sites and ship measurements in the southern Baltic Sea, respectively. (orig.).

  16. Polarimetric C-Band SAR Observations of Sea Ice in the Greenland Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Bjørn Bavnehøj; Nghiem, S.V.; Kwok, R.

    1998-01-01

    The fully polarimetric EMISAR acquired C-band radar signatures of sea ice in the Greenland Sea during a campaign in March 1995. The authors present maps of polarimetric signatures over an area containing various kinds of ice and discuss the use of polarimetric SAR for identification of ice types...

  17. Application of wet waste from shrimp ( Litopenaeus vannamei) with or without sea mud to feeding sea cucumber ( Stichopus monotuberculatus)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yanfeng; Hu, Chaoqun; Ren, Chunhua

    2015-02-01

    In the present study, the applicability of the wet waste collected from shrimp ( Litopenaeus vannamei) to the culture of sea cucumber ( Stichopus monotuberculatus) was determined. The effects of dietary wet shrimp waste on the survival, specific growth rate (SGR), fecal production rate (FPR), ammonia- and nitrite-nitrogen productions of sea cucumber were studied. The total organic matter (TOM) level in the feces of sea cucumber was compared with that in corresponding feeds. Diet C (50% wet shrimp waste and 50% sea mud mash) made sea cucumber grow faster than other diets. Sea cucumber fed with either diet D (25% wet shrimp waste and 75% sea mud mash) or sole sea mud exhibited negative growth. The average lowest total FPR of sea cucumber occurred in diet A (wet shrimp waste), and there was no significant difference in total FPR between diet C and diet E (sea mud mash) ( P > 0.05). The average ammonia-nitrogen production of sea cucumber in different diet treatments decreased gradually with the decrease of crude protein content in different diets. The average highest nitrite-nitrogen production occurred in diet E treatment, and there was no significant difference in nitrite-nitrogen production among diet A, diet B (75% wet shrimp waste and 25% sea mud mash) and diet C treatments ( P > 0.05). In each diet treatment, the total organic matter (TOM) level in feces decreased to different extent compared with that in corresponding feeds.

  18. There goes the sea ice: following Arctic sea ice parcels and their properties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tschudi, M. A.; Tooth, M.; Meier, W.; Stewart, S.

    2017-12-01

    Arctic sea ice distribution has changed considerably over the last couple of decades. Sea ice extent record minimums have been observed in recent years, the distribution of ice age now heavily favors younger ice, and sea ice is likely thinning. This new state of the Arctic sea ice cover has several impacts, including effects on marine life, feedback on the warming of the ocean and atmosphere, and on the future evolution of the ice pack. The shift in the state of the ice cover, from a pack dominated by older ice, to the current state of a pack with mostly young ice, impacts specific properties of the ice pack, and consequently the pack's response to the changing Arctic climate. For example, younger ice typically contains more numerous melt ponds during the melt season, resulting in a lower albedo. First-year ice is typically thinner and more fragile than multi-year ice, making it more susceptible to dynamic and thermodynamic forcing. To investigate the response of the ice pack to climate forcing during summertime melt, we have developed a database that tracks individual Arctic sea ice parcels along with associated properties as these parcels advect during the summer. Our database tracks parcels in the Beaufort Sea, from 1985 - present, along with variables such as ice surface temperature, albedo, ice concentration, and convergence. We are using this database to deduce how these thousands of tracked parcels fare during summer melt, i.e. what fraction of the parcels advect through the Beaufort, and what fraction melts out? The tracked variables describe the thermodynamic and dynamic forcing on these parcels during their journey. This database will also be made available to all interested investigators, after it is published in the near future. The attached image shows the ice surface temperature of all parcels (right) that advected through the Beaufort Sea region (left) in 2014.

  19. Discriminating Sea Spikes in Incoherent Radar Measurements of Sea Clutter

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-03-01

    het detecteren echter niet te verwachten dat bet gebruik van sea spikes te onderzoeken. Een van deze modellen zal leiden tot een Auteur (s) dergelijk...report I TNO-DV 2008 A067 6/33 Abbreviations CFAR Constant False-Alarm Rate CST Composite Surface Theory FFT Fast Fourier Transform PDF Probability Density...described by the composite surface theory (CST). This theory describes the sea surface as small Bragg-resonant capillary waves riding on top of

  20. Sea-ice indicators of polar bear habitat

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. L. Stern

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Nineteen subpopulations of polar bears (Ursus maritimus are found throughout the circumpolar Arctic, and in all regions they depend on sea ice as a platform for traveling, hunting, and breeding. Therefore polar bear phenology – the cycle of biological events – is linked to the timing of sea-ice retreat in spring and advance in fall. We analyzed the dates of sea-ice retreat and advance in all 19 polar bear subpopulation regions from 1979 to 2014, using daily sea-ice concentration data from satellite passive microwave instruments. We define the dates of sea-ice retreat and advance in a region as the dates when the area of sea ice drops below a certain threshold (retreat on its way to the summer minimum or rises above the threshold (advance on its way to the winter maximum. The threshold is chosen to be halfway between the historical (1979–2014 mean September and mean March sea-ice areas. In all 19 regions there is a trend toward earlier sea-ice retreat and later sea-ice advance. Trends generally range from −3 to −9 days decade−1 in spring and from +3 to +9 days decade−1 in fall, with larger trends in the Barents Sea and central Arctic Basin. The trends are not sensitive to the threshold. We also calculated the number of days per year that the sea-ice area exceeded the threshold (termed ice-covered days and the average sea-ice concentration from 1 June through 31 October. The number of ice-covered days is declining in all regions at the rate of −7 to −19 days decade−1, with larger trends in the Barents Sea and central Arctic Basin. The June–October sea-ice concentration is declining in all regions at rates ranging from −1 to −9 percent decade−1. These sea-ice metrics (or indicators of habitat change were designed to be useful for management agencies and for comparative purposes among subpopulations. We recommend that the National Climate Assessment include the timing of sea-ice retreat and advance in

  1. [Reflectance of sea ice in Liaodong Bay].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Zhan-tang; Yang, Yue-zhong; Wang, Gui-fen; Cao, Wen-xi; Kong, Xiang-peng

    2010-07-01

    In the present study, the relationships between sea ice albedo and the bidirectional reflectance distribution in Liaodong Bay were investigated. The results indicate that: (1) sea ice albedo alpha(lambda) is closely related to the components of sea ice, the higher the particulate concentration in sea ice surface is, the lower the sea ice albedo alpha(lambda) is. On the contrary, the higher the bubble concentration in sea ice is, the higher sea ice albedo alpha(lambda) is. (2) Sea ice albedo alpha(lambda) is similar to the bidirectional reflectance factor R(f) when the probe locates at nadir. The R(f) would increase with the increase in detector zenith theta, and the correlation between R(f) and the detector azimuth would gradually increase. When the theta is located at solar zenith 63 degrees, the R(f) would reach the maximum, and the strongest correlation is also shown between the R(f) and the detector azimuth. (3) Different types of sea ice would have the different anisotropic reflectance factors.

  2. Improving SMOS Sea Surface Salinity in the Western Mediterranean Sea through Multivariate and Multifractal Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Estrella Olmedo

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available A new methodology using a combination of debiased non-Bayesian retrieval, DINEOF (Data Interpolating Empirical Orthogonal Functions and multifractal fusion has been used to obtain Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS Sea Surface Salinity (SSS fields over the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The debiased non-Bayesian retrieval mitigates the systematic errors produced by the contamination of the land over the sea. In addition, this retrieval improves the coverage by means of multiyear statistical filtering criteria. This methodology allows obtaining SMOS SSS fields in the Mediterranean Sea. However, the resulting SSS suffers from a seasonal (and other time-dependent bias. This time-dependent bias has been characterized by means of specific Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs. Finally, high resolution Sea Surface Temperature (OSTIA SST maps have been used for improving the spatial and temporal resolution of the SMOS SSS maps. The presented methodology practically reduces the error of the SMOS SSS in the Mediterranean Sea by half. As a result, the SSS dynamics described by the new SMOS maps in the Algerian Basin and the Balearic Front agrees with the one described by in situ SSS, and the mesoscale structures described by SMOS in the Alboran Sea and in the Gulf of Lion coincide with the ones described by the high resolution remotely-sensed SST images (AVHRR.

  3. Sea ice-albedo climate feedback mechanism

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schramm, J.L.; Curry, J.A. [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Ebert, E.E. [Bureau of Meterology Research Center, Melbourne (Australia)

    1995-02-01

    The sea ice-albedo feedback mechanism over the Arctic Ocean multiyear sea ice is investigated by conducting a series of experiments using several one-dimensional models of the coupled sea ice-atmosphere system. In its simplest form, ice-albedo feedback is thought to be associated with a decrease in the areal cover of snow and ice and a corresponding increase in the surface temperature, further decreasing the area cover of snow and ice. It is shown that the sea ice-albedo feedback can operate even in multiyear pack ice, without the disappearance of this ice, associated with internal processes occurring within the multiyear ice pack (e.g., duration of the snow cover, ice thickness, ice distribution, lead fraction, and melt pond characteristics). The strength of the ice-albedo feedback mechanism is compared for several different thermodynamic sea ice models: a new model that includes ice thickness distribution., the Ebert and Curry model, the Mayjut and Untersteiner model, and the Semtner level-3 and level-0 models. The climate forcing is chosen to be a perturbation of the surface heat flux, and cloud and water vapor feedbacks are inoperative so that the effects of the sea ice-albedo feedback mechanism can be isolated. The inclusion of melt ponds significantly strengthens the ice-albedo feedback, while the ice thickness distribution decreases the strength of the modeled sea ice-albedo feedback. It is emphasized that accurately modeling present-day sea ice thickness is not adequate for a sea ice parameterization; the correct physical processes must be included so that the sea ice parameterization yields correct sensitivities to external forcing. 22 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

  4. Fin whales and microplastics: The Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Cortez scenarios.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fossi, Maria Cristina; Marsili, Letizia; Baini, Matteo; Giannetti, Matteo; Coppola, Daniele; Guerranti, Cristiana; Caliani, Ilaria; Minutoli, Roberta; Lauriano, Giancarlo; Finoia, Maria Grazia; Rubegni, Fabrizio; Panigada, Simone; Bérubé, Martine; Urbán Ramírez, Jorge; Panti, Cristina

    2016-02-01

    The impact that microplastics have on baleen whales is a question that remains largely unexplored. This study examined the interaction between free-ranging fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and microplastics by comparing populations living in two semi-enclosed basins, the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California, Mexico). The results indicate that a considerable abundance of microplastics and plastic additives exists in the neustonic samples from Pelagos Sanctuary of the Mediterranean Sea, and that pelagic areas containing high densities of microplastics overlap with whale feeding grounds, suggesting that whales are exposed to microplastics during foraging; this was confirmed by the observation of a temporal increase in toxicological stress in whales. Given the abundance of microplastics in the Mediterranean environment, along with the high concentrations of Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) chemicals, plastic additives and biomarker responses detected in the biopsies of Mediterranean whales as compared to those in whales inhabiting the Sea of Cortez, we believe that exposure to microplastics because of direct ingestion and consumption of contaminated prey poses a major threat to the health of fin whales in the Mediterranean Sea. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Sea Level Changes: Determination and Effects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woodworth, P. L.; Pugh, D. T.; DeRonde, J. G.; Warrick, R. G.; Hannah, J.

    The measurement of sea level is of fundamental importance to a wide range of research in climatology, oceanography, geology and geodesy. This volume attempts to cover many aspects of the field. The volume opens with a description by Bolduc and Murty of one of the products stemming from the development of tide gauge networks in the northern and tropical Atlantic. This work is relevant to the growth of the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS), the main goal of which is to provide the world with an efficient, coherent sea level monitoring system for océanographie and climatological research. The subsequent four papers present results from the analysis of existing tide gauge data, including those datasets available from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level and the TOGA Sea Level Center. Two of the four, by Wroblewski and by Pasaric and Orlic, are concerned with European sea level changes, while Yu Jiye et al. discuss inter-annual changes in the Pacific, and Wang Baocan et al. describe variability in the Changjiang estuary in China. The papers by El- Abd and A wad, on Red Sea levels, are the only contributions to the volume from the large research community of geologists concerned with sea level changes.

  6. Interannual Variability of the Sea-Ice-Induced Salt Flux in the Greenland Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Leif Toudal; Coon, M.D.

    2001-01-01

    The Greenland Sea is one of the few places in the World Ocean where deep convection takes place. The convection process is initiated by a density increase originating from rapid cooling and/or a salt flux to the upper layer of the ocean due to brine rejection from ice formation (Rudels, 1990......; Visbeck and others, 1995). The predominant ice types in the Greenland Sea arc frazil/grease ice and pancake ice. A numerical model has been developed relating ice formation and decay of these ice types as observed by the SMMR and SSM/I microwave radiometers and evaluating their contribution to salt...... redistribution in the Greenland Sea. The model has been used to calculate spatial distribution of the annual integrated net salt flux to the Greenland Sea from ice production and advection for the period 1979-97....

  7. A deep sea community at the Kebrit brine pool in the Red Sea

    KAUST Repository

    Vestheim, Hege; Kaartvedt, Stein

    2015-01-01

    Approximately 25 deep sea brine pools occur along the mid axis of the Red Sea. These hypersaline, anoxic, and acidic environments have previously been reported to host diverse microbial communities. We visited the Kebrit brine pool in April 2013

  8. Waste disposal into the sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ehlers, P.; Kunig, P.

    1987-01-01

    The waste disposal at sea is regulated for the most part by national administrative law, which mainly is based on international law rules supplemented by EC-law. The dumping of low-level radioactive waste into the sea is more and more called into question. The disposal of high-level radioactive waste into the subsoil of the sea does not correspond to the London Convention. (WG) [de

  9. Sea-level trend in the South China Sea observed from 20 years of along-track satellite altimetric data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cheng, Yongcun; Xu, Qing; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

    2014-01-01

    The sea-level trend in the South China Sea (SCS) is investigated based on 20 years of along-track data from TOPEX and Jason-1/2 satellite altimetry. The average sea-level rise over all the regions in the study area is observed to have a rate of 5.1 ± 0.8 mm year-1 for the period from 1993 to 2012....... The steric sea level contributes 45% to the observed sea-level trend. These results are consistent with previous studies. In addition, the results demonstrate that the maximum sea-level rise rate of 8.4 mm year-1 is occurring off the east coast of Vietnam and eastern part of SCS. During 2010-2011, the La...... Niña event was highly correlated with the dramatic sea-level rise in the SCS; La Niña events were also associated with the maximum rate of sea rise off the east coast of Vietnam, which occurred during 1993 and 2012. We also evaluated the trends in the geophysical (e.g. dynamical atmospheric correction...

  10. Roles of Sea Level and Climate Change in the Development of Holocene Deltaic Sequences in the Yellow Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, J.; Milliman, J. D.

    2002-12-01

    Both post-glacial sea-level and climatic changes are preserved in the the shallow, low gradient, sediment-dominated Yellow Sea. As a result of rapid flooding during melt-water pulse (MWP) 1A, 14.3-14.1 ka BP, sea level reached the southern edge of the North Yellow Sea (NYS), and after MWP-1B (11.6-11.4 ka BP) sea level entered the Bohai Sea. The first major Yellow River-derived deltaic deposit formed in the NYS during decelerated transgression following MWP-1B and increased river discharge in response to re-intensification of the summer monsoon about 11 ka cal BP. A second subaqueous delta formed in the South Yellow Sea about 9-7 ka BP during decelerated transgression after MWP-1C flooding and in response to the southern shift of the Yellow River mouth. The modern subaqueous and subaerial deltas in the west Bahai Gulf and (to a lesser extent) along the Jiangus coast have formed during the modern sea-level highstand. These changing Holocene patterns are most clearly illustrated by a short film clip.

  11. An overview of sea otter studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ballachey, Brenda E.; Bodkin, James L.; DeGange, Anthony R.; Loughlin, Thomas R.

    1994-01-01

    The Exxron Valdez oil spill (EVOS) on 24 March 1989 threatened extensive areas of prime sea otter (Enhydra lutris) habitat along the coasts of south-central Alaska. The spill occurred in northeastern Prince William Sound (PWS), and oil moved rapidly south and west through PWS into the Gulf of Alaska. Much of the coastline of western PWS was heavily oiled, and the slick eventually spread as far southwest as Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula (Galt and Payton 1990; Morris and Loughlin, Chapter 1). All coastal waters affected by the spill were inhabited by sea otters.Concern for the survival of sea otters following the oil spill was immediate and well founded. Sea otters are particularly vulnerable to oil contamination because they rely on pelage rather than blubber for insulation, and oiling drastically reduces the insulative value of the fur (Costa and Kooyman 1982; Siniff et al. 1982; Geraci and Williams 1990). Within days of the spill, recovery of oiled live otters and carcasses began. During the several months following the spill, sea otters became symbolic of the mortality associated with the spilled oil, and of the hope for rescue and recovery of injured wildlife (Batten 1990).An extensive sea otter rescue and rehabilitation effort was mounted in the weeks and months following the spill. Handling and treatment of the captive sea otters posed an enormous and difficult challenge, given the large number of otters held at the facilities and minimal prior experience in caring for oiled sea otters. Rehabilitation of sea otters was a separate effort from the postspill studies designed to evaluate injury to the otter populations and is not addressed in this chapter only as it relates to evaluation of damage assessment studies. Detailed information on the rehabilitation effort is presented in Bayha and Kormendy (1990) and Williams and Davis (1990).Sea otters retained a high profile in the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) studies largely because the initial

  12. Integrating out the Dirac sea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Karbstein, Felix

    2009-07-08

    We introduce a new method for dealing with fermionic quantum field theories amenable to a mean-field-type approximation. In this work we focus on the relativistic Hartree approximation. Our aim is to integrate out the Dirac sea and derive a no-sea effective theory'' with positive energy single particle states only. As the derivation of the no-sea effective theory involves only standard Feynman diagrams, our approach is quite general and not restricted to particular space-time dimensions. We develop and illustrate the approach in the ''large N'' limit of the Gross-Neveu model family in 1+1 dimensions. As the Gross-Neveu model has been intensely studied and several analytical solutions are known for this model, it is an ideal testing ground for our no-sea effective theory approach. The chiral Gross-Neveu model, also referred to as 1+1 dimensional Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, turns out to be of particular interest. In this case, we explicitly derive a consistent effective theory featuring both elementary ''{pi} meson'' fields and (positive energy) ''quark'' fields, starting from a purely fermionic quantum field theory. In the second part of this work, we apply our approach to the Walecka model in 1+1 and 3+1 dimensions. As the Dirac sea caused considerable difficulties in attempts to base nuclear physics on field theoretic models like the Walecka model, mean-field calculations were typically done without the sea. We confront several of these mean-field theory results with our no-sea effective theory approach. The potential of our approach is twofold. While the no-sea effective theory can be utilized to provide new analytical insights in particular parameter regimes, it also sheds new light on more fundamental issues as the explicit emergence of effective, Dirac-sea induced multi-fermion interactions in an effective theory with positive energy states only. (orig.)

  13. The radon-222 transfer coefficients across air-sea interface determined in the Bering Sea, the Okhotsk Sea and the North Pacific Ocean

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kholujskij, S.N.; Anikiev, V.V.; Popov, N.I.

    1995-01-01

    Determination of velocity coefficient for gas flow transfer across the natural sea surface into the atmosphere (K v ) was attempted by means of radon method on board the SRS Academician Alexander Nesmeyanov (July-August 1992). The measurements were conducted in the Bering Sea, the Okhotsk Sea and in the North Pacific Ocean. It is shown that the total range of the K v observed values equaled from 1.8 up to 5.4 m.day, which is within the known limits for other regions of the world ocean. 9 refs., 1 fig

  14. IInvestigations of space-time variability of the sea level in the Barents Sea and the White Sea by satellite altimetry data and results of hydrodynamic modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lebedev, S. A.; Zilberstein, O. I.; Popov, S. K.; Tikhonova, O. V.

    2003-04-01

    The problem of retrieving of the sea level anomalies in the Barents and White Seas from satellite can be considered as two different problems. The first one is to calculate the anomalies of sea level along the trek taking into account all amendments including tidal heights. The second one is to obtain of fields of the sea level anomalies on the grid over one cycle of the exact repeat altimetry mission. Experience results show that there is preferable to use the regional tidal model for calculating tidal heights. To construct of the anomalies fields of the sea level during the exact repeat mission (cycle 35 days for ERS-1 and ERS-2), when a density of the coverage of the area of water of the Barents and White Seas by satellite measurements achieves maximum. It is necessary to solve the problem of the error minimum. This error is based by the temporal difference of the measurements over one cycle and by the specific of the hydrodynamic regime of the both seas (tidal, storm surge variations, tidal currents). To solve this problem it is assumed to use the results of the hydrodynamic modeling. The error minimum is preformed by the regression of the model results and satellite measurements. As a version it is considered the possibility of the utilizing of the neuronet obtained by the model results to construct maps of the sea level anomalies. The comparison of the model results and the calculation of the satellite altimetry variability of the sea level of Barents and White Seas shows a good coincidence between them. The satellite altimetry data of ERS-1/2 and TOPEX/POSEIDON of Ocean Altimeter Pathfinder Project (NASA/GSFC) has been used in this study. Results of the regional tidal model computations and three dimensional baroclinic model created in the Hydrometeocenter have been used as well. This study also exploited the atmosphere date of the Project REANALYSIS. The research was undertaken with partial support from the Russian Basic Research Foundation (Project No. 01-07-90106).

  15. Past sea level changes along the western continental margins of India: Evidences from morphology of the sea bed

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Vora, K.H.

    -wide have been affected to a considerable extent by Pleistocene glaciations (Emery, 1968). The rate of sea-level rise has varied frequently and the sea-level still stands produced wave-cut terraces and platforms. In other words, the surface of a terrace... Merh (1992) while reviewing Quaternary sea level changes along India’s coasts observed that the Last Glacial Stage was a period of regression when the sea level went down to almost -150 m. With the advent of the Holocene, the sea started rising...

  16. On The Black Sea Surozhian

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caraivan, Glicherie; Corneliu, Cerchia

    2016-04-01

    Some Black Sea researchers still support the idea of no other connection to the Mediterranean Sea between LGM and Karangatian Stage (Riss - Wurm). We try to clarify the source of these disagreements. C14 AMS age data (HERAS Project) made on undisturbed samples from a new Mamaia drilling hole where compared with the classical Black Sea stratigraphic schemes. A first transgressive event (Zone D) is found between 38.00 - 20.20 m depth. Zone D4 shows a fairly rapid rise of sea level, about 10 m below the present one indicating an inner shelf marine polyhaline environment. AMS age data show 14C ages between 53690 - 47359 y (MIS 1), corresponding to the "Surozhian Beds" of Popov. The "beach rock" from Zone E marks the decrease of the sea level after the maximum reached in Zone D4. Zone E mollusc shells AMS data, indicate 14C ages of 48724 - 44604 y, suggesting a long-time reworked material from the previous D4 zone sediments, and represents the beginning of the "regressive Tarkankutian" sequence.The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) led to the retreat of the sea level down to about 100 m below the current one (27-17 ky BP), followed by an retreat of the shoreline to the present position. At the beginning of the Holocene - MIS 1 (8408-8132 cal. y BP), Black Sea brackish water level grew rapidly, up to -14 m below the present one (Zone F: 22, 57-20, 20 m). Zone F deposits could be correlated with the Bugazian strata. Then, a continuous rising of the Black Sea level is recorded up to a maximum of -2 m under the present one, about 6789 - 7063 cal. y BP, when a transgressive spurt ("Neolithic transgression") may have taken place. After that, given a weak Danubian sedimentary input, coastal erosion intensified. The coarse sandy sediments were reworked and pushed over the previous peat deposits, and suggest a classical "sedimentary regression", not a sea-level decrease. During the last 1.5 ky, sea level has risen towards the current one. Previous C14 dates from "Karangatian

  17. The origin of sea salt in snow on Arctic sea ice and in coastal regions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Domine

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Snow, through its trace constituents, can have a major impact on lower tropospheric chemistry, as evidenced by ozone depletion events (ODEs in oceanic polar areas. These ODEs are caused by the chemistry of bromine compounds that originate from sea salt bromide. Bromide may be supplied to the snow surface by upward migration from sea ice, by frost flowers being wind-blown to the snow surface, or by wind-transported aerosol generated by sea spray. We investigate here the relative importance of these processes by analyzing ions in snow near Alert and Ny-Ålesund (Canadian and European high Arctic in winter and spring. Vertical ionic profiles in the snowpack on sea ice are measured to test upward migration of sea salt ions and to seek evidence for ion fractionation processes. Time series of the ionic composition of surface snow layers are investigated to quantify wind-transported ions. Upward migration of unfractionated sea salt to heights of at least 17cm was observed in winter snow, leading to Cl- concentration of several hundred µM. Upward migration thus has the potential to supply ions to surface snow layers. Time series show that wind can deposit aerosols to the top few cm of the snow, leading also to Cl- concentrations of several hundred µM, so that both diffusion from sea ice and wind transport can significantly contribute ions to snow. At Ny-Ålesund, sea salt transported by wind was unfractionated, implying that it comes from sea spray rather than frost flowers. Estimations based on our results suggest that the marine snowpack contains about 10 times more Na+ than the frost flowers, so that both the marine snowpack and frost flowers need to be considered as sea salt sources. Our data suggest that ozone depletion chemistry can significantly enhance the Br- content of snow. We speculate that this can also take place in coastal regions and contribute to propagate ODEs inland. Finally, we stress the need to measure snow physical parameters

  18. Air-Sea Interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Csanady, G. T.

    2001-03-01

    In recent years air-sea interaction has emerged as a subject in its own right, encompassing small-scale and large-scale processes in both air and sea. Air-Sea Interaction: Laws and Mechanisms is a comprehensive account of how the atmosphere and the ocean interact to control the global climate, what physical laws govern this interaction, and its prominent mechanisms. The topics covered range from evaporation in the oceans, to hurricanes, and on to poleward heat transport by the oceans. By developing the subject from basic physical (thermodynamic) principles, the book is accessible to graduate students and research scientists in meteorology, oceanography, and environmental engineering. It will also be of interest to the broader physics community involved in the treatment of transfer laws, and thermodynamics of the atmosphere and ocean.

  19. Understanding the Steric Height Long Term Variability at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study (BATS) Site with a Neutral Density Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goncalves Neto, A.; Johnson, R. J.; Bates, N. R.

    2016-02-01

    Rising sea level is one of the main concerns for human life in a scenario with global atmosphere and ocean warming, which is of particular concern for oceanic islands. Bermuda, located in the center of the Sargasso Sea, provides an ideal location to investigate sea level rise since it has a long term tide gauge (1933-present) and is in close proximity to deep ocean time-series sites, namely, Hydrostation `S' (1954-present) and the Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study site (1988-present). In this study, we use the monthly CTD deep casts at BATS to compute the contribution of steric height (SH) to the local sea surface height (SSH) for the past 24 years. To determine the relative contribution from the various water masses we first define 8 layers (Surface Layer, Upper Thermocline, Subtropical Mode-Water, Lower Thermocline, Antarctic Intermediate Water, Labrador Sea Water, Iceland-Scotland Overflow Water, Denmark Strait Overflow Water) based on neutral density criteria for which SH is computed. Additionally, we calculate the thermosteric and halosteric components for each of the defined neutral density layers. Surprisingly, the results show that, despite a 3.3mm/yr sea level rise observed at the Bermuda tide gauge, the steric contribution to the SSH at BATS has decreased at a rate of -1.1mm/yr during the same period. The thermal component is found to account for the negative trend in the steric height (-4.4mm/yr), whereas the halosteric component (3.3mm/yr) partially compensates the thermal signal and can be explained by an overall cooling and freshening at the BATS site. Although the surface layer and the upper thermocline waters are warming, all the subtropical and polar water masses, which represent most of the local water column, are cooling and therefore drive the overall SH contribution to the local SSH. Hence, it suggests that the mass contribution to the local SSH plays an important role in the sea level rise, for which we investigate with GRACE data.

  20. The North Sea field development guide. V.1: Northern North Sea. V.2: Southern North Sea. 6. ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1996-08-01

    The 1997/8, sixth edition is the first to be divided into two volumes. Volume 1 covers the central and northern North Sea areas; volume 2 contains the southern North Sea as well as the Irish and German sectors. The pages are numbered consecutively over the two volumes, with page numbers greater than 702 contained in the second volume. There are three index sections. Main index. Arranged by national sector (UK, Norway etc.) Within each sector the entries are alphabetical by operator name. This index contains page numbers for the book entries: the other two index sections should be used with the main index to find the exact location of an entry; Index by field. If the reader knows a field name (e.g. Kittiwake) but not the operator or the national sector, this index will reference them; Index by installation. Each installation (''Fulmar SALM'', ''Togi'') is named, giving the operator, field and national sector where it is located. This index is also useful for locating particular kinds of installations, such as subsea completions; The book is intended to provide a factual overview of field development activity in the North Sea (a term loosely used to include the Irish Sea and the Baltic Sea). The aim is therefore to provide some background, specifications and history on every offshore installation in that area. Speculative or evaluative commentary is avoided where possible. No attempt has been made to forecast the form or probability of future developments, except in those few instances where announcements have been made by the oil company itself, and these are, clearly indicated. (UK)

  1. The effects of additional black carbon on Arctic sea ice surface albedo: variation with sea ice type and snow cover

    OpenAIRE

    A. A. Marks; M. D. King

    2013-01-01

    Black carbon in sea ice will decrease sea ice surface albedo through increased absorption of incident solar radiation, exacerbating sea ice melting. Previous literature has reported different albedo responses to additions of black carbon in sea ice and has not considered how a snow cover may mitigate the effect of black carbon in sea ice. Sea ice is predominately snow covered. Visible light absorption and light scattering coefficients are calculated for a typical first year and multi-y...

  2. First report of the planktonic copepod Oithona davisae in the northern Wadden Sea (North Sea): Evidence for recent invasion?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cornils, Astrid; Wend-Heckmann, Britta

    2015-06-01

    In October 2010, specimens of Oithona were taken from the List Tidal Basin in the northern Wadden Sea (North Sea) for a biogeographic study on Oithona similis. These specimens could not be assigned to O. similis or any of the other Oithona species known from the North Sea genetically. These specimens were identified as Oithona davisae Ferrari and Orsi 1984, a Northwest Pacific species, known as an invasive species from the Black Sea and the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Recent sampling provided evidence that O. davisae is still present in the northern Wadden Sea and may thus now be a permanent plankton species.

  3. Caspian sea: petroleum challenges

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    The Caspian sea is one of the world areas the most promising in terms of investments and petroleum development. This study presents the petroleum challenges generated by this hydrocarbons reserve. The first part discusses the juridical status (sea or lake), the petroleum and the gas reserves, the ecosystem and the today environment (fishing and caviar), the geostrategic situation and the transport of gas and oil. It provides also a chronology from 1729 to 2005, a selection of Internet sites, books and reports on the subject and identity sheets of the countries around the Caspian sea. (A.L.B.)

  4. Release strategies for rehabilitated sea otters

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeGange, Anthony R.; Ballachey, Brenda E.; Bayha, Keith; Williams, Terrie M.; Davis, Randall W.

    1995-01-01

    According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ (USFWS) Response Plan for sea otters (USFWS, in preparation), in the event of an oil spill, the decision to release sea otters from rehabilitation centers following treatment will be linked to the decision on whether to capture sea otters for treatment. Assuming a scenario similar to the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS), once the decision to capture sea otters is made, the ultimate goal is to return as many sea otters to the wild as possible, even though the rescue may not be expected to produce results significant at the population level. The decision by the USFWS to proceed with capture, rehabilitation, and release will be made on a case-by-case basis (USFWS, in preparation). Many factors will influence the decision. Perhaps the most important factors in deciding when and where to release sea otters are the location and availability of suitable release sites and verification that the otters are free of diseases that might be transmitted to the wild population.Alternative release strategies for sea otters will be contained in the sea otter response portion of the USFWS’s oil spill contingency plans for Alaska and California that are being developed as required by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Public review of these plans before they are implemented will help to reduce public concern about the survival of rehabilitated otters, their biological effect on the release area, and the potential introduction or spread of disease into the wild sea otter population.The objective of this chapter is to review alternative strategies for the disposition of rehabilitated sea otters. Our assumption is that returning as many animals to the wild as possible, whether it be for humanitarian or biological reasons, is the ultimate goal of this effort (Figure 10.1).

  5. Checking contamination of the sea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1972-07-01

    In July, 133 scientists from 15 countries attended an IAEA symposium on the Interaction of Radioactive Contaminants with the Constituents of the Marine Environment. It was held at the University of Washington, with the USAEC acting as host. Representatives from five international organisations, the CEC, OECD-NEA, WFUNA, WHO and the IAEA attended. The symposium was primarily aimed at elucidating the influence of radioactivity on the marine ecosystem and providing some background material for estimation of the capacity of the sea to accept radioactive waste without any significant harmful effects on man and the ecosystem. At the U. N. Conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm in June this year, a special concern was expressed regarding the international waters, such as the seas and oceans, and the need to conserve the resources of the sea. For the past 14 years the Agency has conducted an intensive programme on the discharge of radioactive waste into the sea, and the behaviour of radionuclides in the sea. (author)

  6. Organic Matter Contents and Paleoproductivity Variation Within Late Pleistocene Japan Sea/East Sea Sediments: Results from IODP Expedition 346

    Science.gov (United States)

    Black, H. D.; Anderson, W. T., Jr.

    2017-12-01

    Inorganic and organic matter concentrations as well as the stable isotopes of nitrogen and organic carbon are presented for continuous sedimentary sequences collected during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 346 in the Japan Sea/East Sea in 2013. During major glacioeustatic sea level changes, the paleoceanographic conditions within the Japan Sea/East Sea widely vary due to the shallow, narrow straights connecting the sea to surrounding waters limiting an influx of oceanic currents. During glacial sea level low-stands the sea can be nearly isolated, creating a highly-stratified water column and hypoxic to anoxic bottom water conditions. Meanwhile during sea level high-stands, the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) flows into the sea bringing warmer, nutrient-rich inputs, leading to vertical mixing and oxic conditions. This study aims to better understand the role of orbital cycling within the organic matter and stable isotope contents of these Late Pleistocene sediments. A total of 192 samples were analyzed each for %CaCO3, %TOC, δ13C, %N, and δ15N from two Expedition 346 sampling sites (U1426 and U1427) during the last 430,000 years and statistical analyses were completed using wavelet and time series analyses. Carbonate concentration ranges from 0-44.3%, total organic carbon 0.2 to 6.4%, δ13C -25.8 to -19.6‰, %N 0.04 to 0.4%, and δ15N 3.8 to 13.1‰. These results are well correlated with b* color values of the sediment and generally show increased productivity during interglacial periods, likely through increased vertical mixing and deepwater ventilation, when compared to glacial periods within the Japan Sea/East Sea when the sea may be partially isolated.

  7. Salish Sea Genetics - Salish Sea genetic inventory

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Salish Sea comprises most of the Puget Sound water area. Marine species are generally assemblages of discrete populations occupying various ecological niches....

  8. Flavor Structure of Intrinsic Nucleon Sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peng, Jen-Chieh; Chang, Wen-Chen; Cheng, Hai-Yang; Liu, Keh-Fei

    2015-01-01

    The concept of intrinsic charm suggested by Brodsky et al. is extended to lighter quarks. Extraction of the intrinsic ū, d-macron, and s-macron seas is obtained from an analysis of the d-macron − ū, s + s-macron, and ū + d-macron − s −s-macron distributions. The connection between the intrinsic/extrinsic seas and the connected/disconnected seas in lattice QCD is also examined. It is shown that the connected and disconnected components for the ū(x) + d-macron(x) sea can be separated. The striking x-dependence of the [s(x) + s-macron(x)]/[ū(x) + d-macron(x)] ratio is interpreted as an interplay between the connected and disconnected seas. (author)

  9. 33 CFR 2.20 - Territorial sea baseline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Territorial sea baseline. 2.20... JURISDICTION Jurisdictional Terms § 2.20 Territorial sea baseline. Territorial sea baseline means the line.... Normally, the territorial sea baseline is the mean low water line along the coast of the United States...

  10. Modeling the buoyancy-driven Black Sea Water outflow into the North Aegean Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikolaos Kokkos

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available A three-dimensional numerical model was applied to simulate the Black Sea Water (BSW outflux and spreading over the North Aegean Sea, and its impact on circulation and stratification–mixing dynamics. Model results were validated against satellite-derived sea surface temperature and in-situ temperature and salinity profiles. Further, the model results were post-processed in terms of the potential energy anomaly, ϕ, analyzing the factors contributing to its change. It occurs that BSW contributes significantly on the Thracian Sea water column stratification, but its signal reduces in the rest of the North Aegean Sea. The BSW buoyancy flux contributed to the change of ϕ in the Thracian Sea by 1.23 × 10−3 W m−3 in the winter and 7.9 × 10−4 W m−3 in the summer, significantly higher than the corresponding solar heat flux contribution (1.41 × 10−5 W m−3 and 7.4 × 10−5 W m−3, respectively. Quantification of the ϕ-advective term crossing the north-western BSW branch (to the north of Lemnos Island, depicted a strong non-linear relation to the relative vorticity of Samothraki Anticyclone. Similar analysis for the south-western branch illustrated a relationship between the ϕ-advective term sign and the relative vorticity in the Sporades system. The ϕ-mixing term increases its significance under strong winds (>15 m s−1, tending to destroy surface meso-scale eddies.

  11. Sea Ice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perovich, D.; Gerland, S.; Hendricks, S.; Meier, Walter N.; Nicolaus, M.; Richter-Menge, J.; Tschudi, M.

    2013-01-01

    During 2013, Arctic sea ice extent remained well below normal, but the September 2013 minimum extent was substantially higher than the record-breaking minimum in 2012. Nonetheless, the minimum was still much lower than normal and the long-term trend Arctic September extent is -13.7 per decade relative to the 1981-2010 average. The less extreme conditions this year compared to 2012 were due to cooler temperatures and wind patterns that favored retention of ice through the summer. Sea ice thickness and volume remained near record-low levels, though indications are of slightly thicker ice compared to the record low of 2012.

  12. Deep-sea coral research and technology program: Alaska deep-sea coral and sponge initiative final report

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rooper, Chris; Stone, Robert P.; Etnoyer, Peter; Conrath, Christina; Reynolds, Jennifer; Greene, H. Gary; Williams, Branwen; Salgado, Enrique; Morrison, Cheryl L.; Waller, Rhian G.; Demopoulos, Amanda W.J.

    2017-01-01

    Deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems are widespread throughout most of Alaska’s marine waters. In some places, such as the central and western Aleutian Islands, deep-sea coral and sponge resources can be extremely diverse and may rank among the most abundant deep-sea coral and sponge communities in the world. Many different species of fishes and invertebrates are associated with deep-sea coral and sponge communities in Alaska. Because of their biology, these benthic invertebrates are potentially impacted by climate change and ocean acidification. Deepsea coral and sponge ecosystems are also vulnerable to the effects of commercial fishing activities. Because of the size and scope of Alaska’s continental shelf and slope, the vast majority of the area has not been visually surveyed for deep-sea corals and sponges. NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP) sponsored a field research program in the Alaska region between 2012–2015, referred to hereafter as the Alaska Initiative. The priorities for Alaska were derived from ongoing data needs and objectives identified by the DSCRTP, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), and Essential Fish Habitat-Environmental Impact Statement (EFH-EIS) process.This report presents the results of 15 projects conducted using DSCRTP funds from 2012-2015. Three of the projects conducted as part of the Alaska deep-sea coral and sponge initiative included dedicated at-sea cruises and fieldwork spread across multiple years. These projects were the eastern Gulf of Alaska Primnoa pacifica study, the Aleutian Islands mapping study, and the Gulf of Alaska fish productivity study. In all, there were nine separate research cruises carried out with a total of 109 at-sea days conducting research. The remaining projects either used data and samples collected by the three major fieldwork projects or were piggy-backed onto existing research programs at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC).

  13. Radioactivity levels in some sediment samples from Red Sea and Baltic Sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salahel Din, K.; Vesterbacka, P.

    2012-01-01

    Levels of 226, 228 Ra, 232 Th, 210 Pb, 210 Po and 40 K in sediments from four monitoring areas, El Hamraween and Ras El Behar (Red Sea (Egypt)) and LL3A and JML (Baltic Sea (Finland)), have been investigated using alpha and gamma spectrometry. The average activity concentrations were 238±4 Bq kg -1 ( 226 Ra), 215±11 Bq kg -1 ( 210 Pb) and 311±18 Bq kg -1 ( 210 Po) for El Hamraween area. In Ras El Behar area, the corresponding values were 16±0.4, 18±1 and 20±5 Bq kg -1 , respectively. The activity concentrations for 226 Ra, 210 Pb and 210 Po (uranium series) in El Hamraween bottom sediment are much high compared with those in Ras El Behar area, which indicates the enhanced levels due to the activities of phosphate mining and shipment operations in El Hamraween area. Excluding the influence of phosphate mining activities, it can be concluded that the levels of radioactivity in Baltic Sea sediments are higher than those in Red Sea sediments. (authors)

  14. Distribution and sea-to-air flux of isoprene in the East China Sea and the South Yellow Sea during summer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jian-Long; Zhang, Hong-Hai; Yang, Gui-Peng

    2017-07-01

    Spatial distribution and sea-to-air flux of isoprene in the East China Sea and the South Yellow Sea in July 2013 were investigated. This study is the first to report the concentrations of isoprene in the China marginal seas. Isoprene concentrations in the surface seawater during summer ranged from 32.46 to 173.5 pM, with an average of 83.62 ± 29.22 pM. Distribution of isoprene in the study area was influenced by the diluted water from the Yangtze River, which stimulated higher in-situ phytoplankton production of isoprene rather than direct freshwater input. Variations in isoprene concentrations were found to be diurnal, with high values observed during daytime. A significant correlation was observed between isoprene and chlorophyll a in the study area. Relatively higher isoprene concentrations were recorded at stations where the phytoplankton biomass was dominated by Chaetoceros, Skeletonema, Pennate-nitzschia, and Thalassiosira. Positive correlation was observed between isoprene and methyl iodide. In addition, sea-to-air fluxes of isoprene approximately ranged from 22.17 nmol m -2  d -1 -537.2 nmol m -2  d -1 , with an average of 161.5 ± 133.3 nmol m -2  d -1 . These results indicate that the coastal and shelf areas may be important sources of atmospheric isoprene. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Definition of water exchange zone between the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea and the effect of winter gale on it

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    SONG Jun; GUO Junru; LI Jing; MU Lin; LIU Yulong; WANG Guosong; LI Yan; LI Huan

    2017-01-01

    The marine dynamic environment of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea in the winter of 2006 is simulated by the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) marine numerical model. Using the simulated temperature and salinity, the water exchange zone between the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea is defined through the Spectral Mixture Model (SMM). The influence of winter gales on the water exchange is also discussed. It is found that the Yellow Sea water masses in winter are distributed in a “tongue” shape in the Bohai Strait region, the water exchange zone presents a zonal distribution along the margin of the “tongue”, with a tendency of running from northwest to southeast, and the water exchange is intensified at the tip of the “tongue”. Besides, the coastal area in the northernmost Yellow Sea does not participate in the water exchange between the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea. The result shows that the winter gale events play a role in enhancing the water exchange. It is specifically shown by the facts: the Yellow Sea warm current is enhanced to intrude the Bohai Sea by the gale process; the water exchange zone extends into the Bohai Sea; the water exchange belt in the southern part becomes wider; the mixture zone of river runoff with the Bohai Sea water upon its entry is enlarged and shifts northwards. Within two days after the gale process, the exchange zone retreats toward the Yellow Sea and the exchange zone resulted from the Huanghe River (Yellow River) runoff also shrinks back shoreward.

  16. Inland sea as a unit for environmental history: East Asian inland seas from prehistory to future.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindstrom, Kati; Uchiyama, Junzo

    2012-04-01

    The boundaries of landscape policies often coincide with political or economic boundaries, thus creating a situation where a unit of landscape protection or management reflects more its present political status than its historico-geographical situation, its historical function and formation. At the same time, it is evident that no unit can exist independently of the context that has given birth to it and that environmental protection in isolated units cannot be very effective. The present paper will discuss inland sea as a landscape unit from prehistory to modern days and its implications for future landscape planning, using EastAsian inland sea (Japan Sea and East China Sea) rim as an example. Historically an area of active communication, EastAsian inland sea rim has become a politically very sharply divided area. The authors will bring examples to demonstrate how cultural communication on the inland sea level has influenced the formation of several landscape features that are now targets for local or national landscape protection programs, and how a unified view could benefit the future of landscape policies in the whole region.

  17. Zooplankton incidence in abnormally high sea surface temperature in the Eastern Arabian Sea

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Goswami, S.C.

    Zooplankton in an abnormally high sea surface temperature (33.1 to 33.8 degrees C) and alternate bands of slick formation were studied in the Eastern Arabian Sea during 26 and 29 April 1981. The phenomenon which may be due to intense diurnal heating...

  18. Recent sea surface temperature trends and future scenarios for the Mediterranean Sea:

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohamed Shaltout

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available We analyse recent Mediterranean Sea surface temperatures (SSTs and their response to global change using 1/4-degree gridded advanced very-high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR daily SST data, 1982-2012. These data indicate significant annual warming (from 0.24°C decade-1 west of the Strait of Gibraltar to 0.51°C decade-1 over the Black Sea and significant spatial variation in annual average SST (from 15ºC over the Black Sea to 21°C over the Levantine sub-basin. Ensemble mean scenarios indicate that the study area SST may experience significant warming, peaking at 2.6°C century-1 in the Representative Concentration Pathways 85 (RCP85 scenario.

  19. Sea ice production and transport of pollutants in Laptev Sea, 1979 to 1992

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rigor, I.; Colony, R.

    1995-01-01

    About 900,000 km 2 of the polar pack ice is transferred annually from the Arctic Basin to the North Atlantic. The largest portion of this exported ice cover is created by the large scale divergence within the ice pack, but a significant portion of the ice cover originates in the marginal seas, either by fall freezing of the seasonally ice free waters or by wintertime advection away from the coast. The main objective of this study was to estimate the annual production of ice in the Laptev Sea and to determine its ultimate fate. The study was motivated by the possibility that ice formed in the Laptev Sea may be an agent for the long range transport of pollutants such as radionuclides. The authors have attempted to characterize the mean and interannual variability of ice production by investigating the winter production and subsequent melt of ice in the Laptev Sea from 1979 through 1992. The general approach was to associate pollution transport with the net exchange of ice area from the Laptev Sea to the perennial ice pack. The primary data sets supporting the study were ice charts, ice motion and geostrophic wind. 3 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab

  20. Improved measurements of mean sea surface velocity in the Nordic Seas from synthetic aperture radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wergeland Hansen, Morten; Johnsen, Harald; Engen, Geir; Øie Nilsen, Jan Even

    2017-04-01

    The warm and saline surface Atlantic Water (AW) flowing into the Nordic Seas across the Greenland-Scotland ridge transports heat into the Arctic, maintaining the ice-free oceans and regulating sea-ice extent. The AW influences the region's relatively mild climate and is the northern branch of the global thermohaline overturning circulation. Heat loss in the Norwegian Sea is key for both heat transport and deep water formation. In general, the ocean currents in the Nordic Seas and the North Atlantic Ocean is a complex system of topographically steered barotropic and baroclinic currents of which the wind stress and its variability is a driver of major importance. The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Doppler centroid shift has been demonstrated to contain geophysical information about sea surface wind, waves and current at an accuracy of 5 Hz and pixel spacing of 3.5 - 9 × 8 km2. This corresponds to a horizontal surface velocity of about 20 cm/s at 35° incidence angle. The ESA Prodex ISAR project aims to implement new and improved SAR Doppler shift processing routines to enable reprocessing of the wide swath acquisitions available from the Envisat ASAR archive (2002-2012) at higher resolution and better accuracy than previously obtained, allowing combined use with Sentinel-1 and Radarsat-2 retrievals to build timeseries of the sea surface velocity in the Nordic Seas. Estimation of the geophysical Doppler shift from new SAR Doppler centroid shift retrievals will be demonstrated, addressing key issues relating to geometric (satellite orbit and attitude) and electronic (antenna mis-pointing) contributions and corrections. Geophysical Doppler shift retrievals from one month of data in January 2010 and the inverted surface velocity in the Nordic Seas are then addressed and compared to other direct and indirect estimates of the upper ocean current, in particular those obtained in the ESA GlobCurrent project.

  1. Early Winter Sea Ice Dynamics in the Ross Sea from In Situ and Satellite Observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maksym, T.; Ackley, S. F.; Stammerjohn, S. E.; Tison, J. L.; Hoeppner, K.

    2017-12-01

    The Ross Sea sea ice cover is one of the few regions of the cryosphere that have been expanding in recent decades. However, 2017 saw a significantly delayed autumn ice advance and record low early winter sea ice extent. Understanding the causes and impacts of this variability has been hampered by a lack of in situ observations. A winter cruise into the Ross Sea in April-June 2017 provided some of the only in situ winter observations of sea ice processes in this region in almost 20 years. We present a first look at data from arrays of drifting buoys deployed in the ice pack and outflow from these polynyas, supplemented by a suite of high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. Additional observations included high-resolution sonar imagery of ice deformation features from an autonomous underwater vehicle, shipboard visual observations of sea ice properties, and in situ measurements of snow and thickness and structural properties. These data show that the delay in ice advance led to a thin, highly dynamic sea ice pack, with substantial ice production and export from the Ross Ice Shelf and Terra Nova Bay polynyas. Despite these high rates of ice production, the pack ice remained thin due to rapid export and northward drift. Compared to the only prior winter observations made in 1995 and 1998, the ice was thinner, with less ridging and snow cover, reflecting a younger ice cover. Granular ice was less prevalent than in these prior cruises, particularly in the outer pack, likely due to less snow ice formation and less pancake ice formation at the advancing ice edge. Despite rapid basal ice growth, the buoy data suggest that deformation may be the dominant mechanism for sea ice thickening in the pack once an initial ice cover forms.

  2. Estimates of ikaite export from sea ice to the underlying seawater in a sea ice–seawater mesocosm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N.-X. Geilfus

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The precipitation of ikaite and its fate within sea ice is still poorly understood. We quantify temporal inorganic carbon dynamics in sea ice from initial formation to its melt in a sea ice–seawater mesocosm pool from 11 to 29 January 2013. Based on measurements of total alkalinity (TA and total dissolved inorganic carbon (TCO2, the main processes affecting inorganic carbon dynamics within sea ice were ikaite precipitation and CO2 exchange with the atmosphere. In the underlying seawater, the dissolution of ikaite was the main process affecting inorganic carbon dynamics. Sea ice acted as an active layer, releasing CO2 to the atmosphere during the growth phase, taking up CO2 as it melted and exporting both ikaite and TCO2 into the underlying seawater during the whole experiment. Ikaite precipitation of up to 167 µmolkg−1 within sea ice was estimated, while its export and dissolution into the underlying seawater was responsible for a TA increase of 64–66 µmolkg−1 in the water column. The export of TCO2 from sea ice to the water column increased the underlying seawater TCO2 by 43.5 µmolkg−1, suggesting that almost all of the TCO2 that left the sea ice was exported to the underlying seawater. The export of ikaite from the ice to the underlying seawater was associated with brine rejection during sea ice growth, increased vertical connectivity in sea ice due to the upward percolation of seawater and meltwater flushing during sea ice melt. Based on the change in TA in the water column around the onset of sea ice melt, more than half of the total ikaite precipitated in the ice during sea ice growth was still contained in the ice when the sea ice began to melt. Ikaite crystal dissolution in the water column kept the seawater pCO2 undersaturated with respect to the atmosphere in spite of increased salinity, TA and TCO2 associated with sea ice growth. Results indicate that ikaite export from sea ice and its dissolution in the underlying

  3. Collaborations for Arctic Sea Ice Information and Tools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheffield Guy, L.; Wiggins, H. V.; Turner-Bogren, E. J.; Rich, R. H.

    2017-12-01

    The dramatic and rapid changes in Arctic sea ice require collaboration across boundaries, including between disciplines, sectors, institutions, and between scientists and decision-makers. This poster will highlight several projects that provide knowledge to advance the development and use of sea ice knowledge. Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO: https://www.arcus.org/search-program/siwo) - SIWO is a resource for Alaskan Native subsistence hunters and other interested stakeholders. SIWO provides weekly reports, during April-June, of sea ice conditions relevant to walrus in the northern Bering and southern Chukchi seas. Collaboration among scientists, Alaskan Native sea-ice experts, and the Eskimo Walrus Commission is fundamental to this project's success. Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN: https://www.arcus.org/sipn) - A collaborative, multi-agency-funded project focused on seasonal Arctic sea ice predictions. The goals of SIPN include: coordinate and evaluate Arctic sea ice predictions; integrate, assess, and guide observations; synthesize predictions and observations; and disseminate predictions and engage key stakeholders. The Sea Ice Outlook—a key activity of SIPN—is an open process to share and synthesize predictions of the September minimum Arctic sea ice extent and other variables. Other SIPN activities include workshops, webinars, and communications across the network. Directory of Sea Ice Experts (https://www.arcus.org/researchers) - ARCUS has undertaken a pilot project to develop a web-based directory of sea ice experts across institutions, countries, and sectors. The goal of the project is to catalyze networking between individual investigators, institutions, funding agencies, and other stakeholders interested in Arctic sea ice. Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH: https://www.arcus.org/search-program) - SEARCH is a collaborative program that advances research, synthesizes research findings, and broadly communicates the results to support

  4. Sea Spray Aerosols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Butcher, Andrew Charles

    emissions produced directly from bubble bursting as the result of air entrainment from breaking waves and particles generated from secondary emissions of volatile organic compounds. In the first paper, we study the chemical properties of particles produced from several sea water proxies with the use...... of a cloud condensation nuclei ounter. Proxy solutions with high inorganic salt concentrations and some organics produce sea spray aerosol particles with little change in cloud condensation activity relative to pure salts. Comparison is made between a frit based method for bubble production and a plunging...... a relationship between plunging jet particle ux, oceanic particle ux, and energy dissipation rate in both systems. Previous sea spray aerosol studies dissipate an order of magnitude more energy for the same particle ux production as the open ocean. A scaling factor related to the energy expended in air...

  5. Baltic Sea: Radionuclides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Sven Poul; Lüning, Maria; Ilus, Erkki

    2011-01-01

    The most significant source of anthropogenic radioactivity in the Baltic Sea is fallout from the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The second most important source is global fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests carried out during the late 1950s and early 1960s...... about 14%. For 90Sr in the Baltic Sea, input from atmospheric fallout from nuclear weapons tests has contributed about 81%, while the contribution from Chernobyl fallout was about 13%. Cesium-137 is the main indicator of Baltic seawater with respect to anthropogenic radioactivity. The highest...... concentrations in seawater during 1999–2006 were found in the Baltic Proper and the Bothnian Sea. The general trend is steadily decreasing. Concentrations of anthropogenic radioactivity in fish generally show decreasing trends in agreement with concentrations in seawater. Among freshwater fish, pike showed large...

  6. Baltic Sea: Radionuclides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Sven Poul; Lüning, Maria; Ilus, Erkki

    2010-01-01

    The most significant source of anthropogenic radioactivity in the Baltic Sea is fallout from the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The second most important source is global fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests carried out during the late 1950s and early 1960s...... about 14%. For 90Sr in the Baltic Sea, input from atmospheric fallout from nuclear weapons tests has contributed about 81%, while the contribution from Chernobyl fallout was about 13%. Cesium-137 is the main indicator of Baltic seawater with respect to anthropogenic radioactivity. The highest...... concentrations in seawater during 1999–2006 were found in the Baltic Proper and the Bothnian Sea. The general trend is steadily decreasing. Concentrations of anthropogenic radioactivity in fish generally show decreasing trends in agreement with concentrations in seawater. Among freshwater fish, pike showed large...

  7. Dilemmas in SEA application

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lyhne, Ivar

    Dilemmas in SEA Application: The DK Energy SectorIvar Lyhne - lyhne@plan.aau.dk. Based on three years of collaborative research, this paper outlines dilemmas in the application of SEA in the strategic development of the Danish energy sector. The dilemmas are based on concrete examples from practice...

  8. The effects of additional black carbon on the albedo of Arctic sea ice: variation with sea ice type and snow cover

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. A. Marks

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The response of the albedo of bare sea ice and snow-covered sea ice to the addition of black carbon is calculated. Visible light absorption and light-scattering cross-sections are derived for a typical first-year and multi-year sea ice with both "dry" and "wet" snow types. The cross-sections are derived using data from a 1970s field study that recorded both reflectivity and light penetration in Arctic sea ice and snow overlying sea ice. The variation of absorption cross-section over the visible wavelengths suggests black carbon is the dominating light-absorbing impurity. The response of first-year and multi-year sea ice albedo to increasing black carbon, from 1 to 1024 ng g−1, in a top 5 cm layer of a 155 cm-thick sea ice was calculated using a radiative-transfer model. The albedo of the first-year sea ice is more sensitive to additional loadings of black carbon than the multi-year sea ice. An addition of 8 ng g−1 of black carbon causes a decrease to 98.7% of the original albedo for first-year sea ice compared to a decrease to 99.7% for the albedo of multi-year sea ice, at a wavelength of 500 nm. The albedo of sea ice is surprisingly unresponsive to additional black carbon up to 100 ng g−1 . Snow layers on sea ice may mitigate the effects of black carbon in sea ice. Wet and dry snow layers of 0.5, 1, 2, 5 and 10 cm depth were added onto the sea ice surface. The albedo of the snow surface was calculated whilst the black carbon in the underlying sea ice was increased. A layer of snow 0.5 cm thick greatly diminishes the effect of black carbon in sea ice on the surface albedo. The albedo of a 2–5 cm snow layer (less than the e-folding depth of snow is still influenced by the underlying sea ice, but the effect of additional black carbon in the sea ice is masked.

  9. Sea Ice Retreat and its Impact on the Intensity of Open-Ocean Convection in the Greenland and Iceland Seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, K.; Våge, K.; Pickart, R. S.; Renfrew, I.

    2016-12-01

    The air-sea transfer of heat and freshwater plays a critical role in the global climate system. This is particularly true for the Greenland and Iceland Seas, where these fluxes drive ocean convection that contributes to Denmark Strait Overflow Water, the densest component of the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This buoyancy transfer is most pronounced during the winter downstream of the ice edge, where the cold and dry Arctic air first comes in contact with the relatively warm ocean surface. Here we show that the wintertime retreat of sea ice in the region, combined with different rates of warming for the atmosphere and sea surface of the Greenland and Iceland Seas, has resulted in statistically significant reductions of approximately 20% in the magnitude of the winter air-sea heat fluxes since 1979. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that modes of climate variability other than the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are required to fully characterize the regional air-sea interaction in this region. Mixed-layer model simulations imply that a continued decrease in atmospheric forcing will exceed a threshold for the Greenland Sea whereby convection will become depth limited, reducing the ventilation of mid-depth waters in the Nordic Seas. In the Iceland Sea, further reductions have the potential to decrease the supply of the densest overflow waters to the AMOC.

  10. Evaporation of boric acid from sea water

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gast, J A; Thompson, T G

    1959-01-01

    Previous investigators have shown that the boron-chlorinity ratios of rain waters are many times greater than the boron-chlorinity ratio of sea water. The presence of boron in the atmosphere has been attributed to sea spray, volcanic activity, accumulation in dust, evaporation from plants, and industrial pollution. In this paper data are presented to demonstrate that boric acid in sea water has a vapor pressure at ordinary temperatures of the sea and, when sea water evaporates, boric acid occurs in the condensate of the water vapor. It is postulated that, while some of the boron in the atmosphere can be attributed to the sources mentioned above, most of the boric acid results from evaporation from the sea.

  11. Do Indicators Influence Communication in SEA?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gao, Jingjing; Kørnøv, Lone; Christensen, Per

    2013-01-01

    Indicators have become one of the primary tools for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in the Chinese context, but what does this use of indicators mean for communication within the SEA processes? This article explores how the selection and use of indicators influence the communication...... between different stakeholders involved in SEA. The article provides a conceptual communication model covering directions and level of communication. Using this model on empirical findings from interviews with two specific SEA cases and from general experience collected through an online survey...

  12. Impact of sea breeze of the sea off Goa, west coast of India

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Neetu, S.; Shetye, S.R.; Chandramohan, P.

    After withdrawal of the Indian Summer Monsoon and until onset of the next monsoon, i.e. roughly during November-May, winds in the coastal region of India are dominated by sea breeze. Impact of daily cycle of the breeze on the sea near the coast can...

  13. A scattering approach to sea wave diffraction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Corradini, M. L., E-mail: letizia.corradini@unicam.it; Garbuglia, M., E-mail: milena.garbuglia@unicam.it; Maponi, P., E-mail: pierluigi.maponi@unicam.it [University of Camerino, via Madonna delle Carceri, 9, 62032, Camerino (Italy); Ruggeri, M., E-mail: ru.marco@faggiolatipumps.it [Faggiolati Pumps S.p.A., Z.Ind Sforzacosta, 62100, Macerata (Italy)

    2016-06-08

    This paper intends to show a model for the diffraction of sea waves approaching an OWC device, which converts the sea waves motion into mechanical energy and then electrical energy. This is a preliminary study to the optimisation of the device, in fact the computation of sea waves diffraction around the device allows the estimation of the sea waves energy which enters into the device. The computation of the diffraction phenomenon is the result of a sea waves scattering problem, solved with an integral equation method.

  14. Modal recovery of sea-level variability in the South China Sea using merged altimeter data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Haoyu; Chen, Ge

    2015-09-01

    Using 20 years (1993-2012) of merged data recorded by contemporary multi-altimeter missions, a variety of sea-level variability modes are recovered in the South China Sea employing three-dimensional harmonic extraction. In terms of the long-term variation, the South China Sea is estimated to have a rising sea-level linear trend of 5.39 mm/a over these 20 years. Among the modes extracted, the seven most statistically significant periodic or quasi-periodic modes are identified as principal modes. The geographical distributions of the magnitudes and phases of the modes are displayed. In terms of intraannual and annual regimes, two principal modes with strict semiannual and annual periods are found, with the annual variability having the largest amplitudes among the seven modes. For interannual and decadal regimes, five principal modes at approximately 18, 21, 23, 28, and 112 months are found with the most mode-active region being to the east of Vietnam. For the phase distributions, a series of amphidromes are observed as twins, termed "amphidrome twins", comprising rotating dipole systems. The stability of periodic modes is investigated employing joint spatiotemporal analysis of latitude/longitude sections. Results show that all periodic modes are robust, revealing the richness and complexity of sea-level modes in the South China Sea.

  15. Experimental sea slicks: Their practical applications and utilization for basic studies of air-sea interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hühnerfuss, Heinrich; Garrett, W. D.

    1981-01-01

    Practical applications of organic surface films added to the sea surface date back to ancient times. Aristotle, Plutarch, and Pliny the Elder describe the seaman's practice of calming waves in a storm by pouring oil onto the sea [Scott, 1977]. It was also noted that divers released oil beneath the water surface so that it could rise and spread over the sea surface, thereby suppressing the irritating flicker associated with the passage of light through a rippled surface. From a scientific point of view, Benjamin Franklin was the first to perform experiments with oils on natural waters. His experiment with a `teaspoonful of oil' on Clapham pond in 1773 inspired many investigators to consider sea surface phenomena or to conduct experiments with oil films. This early research has been reviewed by Giles [1969], Giles and Forrester [1970], and Scott [1977]. Franklin's studies with experimental slicks can be regarded as the beginning of surface film chemistry. His speculations on the wave damping influence of oil induced him to perform the first qualitative experiment with artificial sea slicks at Portsmouth (England) in October of 1773. Although the sea was calmed and very few white caps appeared in the oil-covered area, the swell continued through the oiled area to Franklin's great disappointment.

  16. Nearshore, seasonally persistent fronts in sea surface temperature on Red Sea tropical reefs

    KAUST Repository

    Blythe, J. N.

    2011-07-08

    Temperature variability was studied on tropical reefs off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea using remote sensing from Aqua and Terra satellites. Cross-shore gradients in sea surface temperature (SST) were observed, including cold fronts (colder inshore) during winter and warm fronts (warmer inshore) during summer. Fronts persisted over synoptic and seasonal time-scales and had a periodic annual cycle over a 10-year time-series. Measurements of cross-shore SST variability were conducted at the scale of tens of kilometres, which encompassed temperature over shallow tropical reef complexes and the continental slope. Two tropical reefs that had similar reef geomorphology and offshore continental slope topography had identical cold fronts, although they were separated by 100 km along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. Satellite SST gradients across contours of topography of tropical reefs can be used as an index to flag areas potentially exposed to temperature stress. © 2011 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.

  17. Nearshore, seasonally persistent fronts in sea surface temperature on Red Sea tropical reefs

    KAUST Repository

    Blythe, J. N.; da Silva, J. C. B.; Pineda, J.

    2011-01-01

    Temperature variability was studied on tropical reefs off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea using remote sensing from Aqua and Terra satellites. Cross-shore gradients in sea surface temperature (SST) were observed, including cold fronts (colder inshore) during winter and warm fronts (warmer inshore) during summer. Fronts persisted over synoptic and seasonal time-scales and had a periodic annual cycle over a 10-year time-series. Measurements of cross-shore SST variability were conducted at the scale of tens of kilometres, which encompassed temperature over shallow tropical reef complexes and the continental slope. Two tropical reefs that had similar reef geomorphology and offshore continental slope topography had identical cold fronts, although they were separated by 100 km along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. Satellite SST gradients across contours of topography of tropical reefs can be used as an index to flag areas potentially exposed to temperature stress. © 2011 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.

  18. The economics of fishing the high seas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sala, Enric; Mayorga, Juan; Costello, Christopher; Kroodsma, David; Palomares, Maria L D; Pauly, Daniel; Sumaila, U Rashid; Zeller, Dirk

    2018-06-01

    While the ecological impacts of fishing the waters beyond national jurisdiction (the "high seas") have been widely studied, the economic rationale is more difficult to ascertain because of scarce data on the costs and revenues of the fleets that fish there. Newly compiled satellite data and machine learning now allow us to track individual fishing vessels on the high seas in near real time. These technological advances help us quantify high-seas fishing effort, costs, and benefits, and assess whether, where, and when high-seas fishing makes economic sense. We characterize the global high-seas fishing fleet and report the economic benefits of fishing the high seas globally, nationally, and at the scale of individual fleets. Our results suggest that fishing at the current scale is enabled by large government subsidies, without which as much as 54% of the present high-seas fishing grounds would be unprofitable at current fishing rates. The patterns of fishing profitability vary widely between countries, types of fishing, and distance to port. Deep-sea bottom trawling often produces net economic benefits only thanks to subsidies, and much fishing by the world's largest fishing fleets would largely be unprofitable without subsidies and low labor costs. These results support recent calls for subsidy and fishery management reforms on the high seas.

  19. Air-sea exchange over Black Sea estimated from high resolution regional climate simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Velea, Liliana; Bojariu, Roxana; Cica, Roxana

    2013-04-01

    Black Sea is an important influencing factor for the climate of bordering countries, showing cyclogenetic activity (Trigo et al, 1999) and influencing Mediterranean cyclones passing over. As for other seas, standard observations of the atmosphere are limited in time and space and available observation-based estimations of air-sea exchange terms present quite large ranges of uncertainty. The reanalysis datasets (e.g. ERA produced by ECMWF) provide promising validation estimates of climatic characteristics against the ones in available climatic data (Schrum et al, 2001), while cannot reproduce some local features due to relatively coarse horizontal resolution. Detailed and realistic information on smaller-scale processes are foreseen to be provided by regional climate models, due to continuous improvements of physical parameterizations and numerical solutions and thus affording simulations at high spatial resolution. The aim of the study is to assess the potential of three regional climate models in reproducing known climatological characteristics of air-sea exchange over Black Sea, as well as to explore the added value of the model compared to the input (reanalysis) data. We employ results of long-term (1961-2000) simulations performed within ENSEMBLE project (http://ensemblesrt3.dmi.dk/) using models ETHZ-CLM, CNRM-ALADIN, METO-HadCM, for which the integration domain covers the whole area of interest. The analysis is performed for the entire basin for several variables entering the heat and water budget terms and available as direct output from the models, at seasonal and annual scale. A comparison with independent data (ERA-INTERIM) and findings from other studies (e.g. Schrum et al, 2001) is also presented. References: Schrum, C., Staneva, J., Stanev, E. and Ozsoy, E., 2001: Air-sea exchange in the Black Sea estimated from atmospheric analysis for the period 1979-1993, J. Marine Systems, 31, 3-19 Trigo, I. F., T. D. Davies, and G. R. Bigg (1999): Objective

  20. Countermeasure Study on Deep-sea Oil Exploitation in the South China Sea——A Comparison between Deep-sea Oil Exploitation in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Hui; Qiu, Weiting; Qu, Weilu

    2018-02-01

    The unpromising situation of terrestrial oil resources makes the deep-sea oil industry become an important development strategy. The South China Sea has a vast sea area with a wide distribution of oil and gas resources, but there is a phenomenon that exploration and census rates and oil exploitation are low. In order to solve the above problems, this article analyzes the geology, oil and gas exploration and exploration equipment in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Comparing the political environment of China and the United States energy industry and the economic environment of oil companies, this article points out China’s deep-sea oil exploration and mining problems that may exist. Finally, the feasibility of oil exploration and exploitation in the South China Sea is put forward, which will provide reference to improve the conditions of oil exploration in the South China Sea and promoting the stable development of China’s oil industry.

  1. Mesoscale Eddies in the Solomon Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hristova, H. G.; Kessler, W. S.; McWilliams, J. C.; Molemaker, M. J.

    2011-12-01

    Water mass transformation in the strong equatorward flows through the Solomon Sea influences the properties of the Equatorial Undercurrent and subsequent cold tongue upwelling. High eddy activity in the interior Solomon Sea seen in altimetric sea surface height (SSH) and in several models may provide a mechanism for these transformations. We investigate these effects using a mesoscale (4-km resolution) sigma-coordinate (ROMS) model of the Solomon Sea nested in a basin solution, forced by a repeating seasonal cycle, and evaluated against observational data. The model generates a vigorous upper layer eddy field; some of these are apparently shed as the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent threads through the complex topography of the region, others are independent of the strong western boundary current. We diagnose the scales and vertical structure of the eddies in different parts of the Solomon Sea to illuminate their generation processes and propagation characteristics, and compare these to observed eddy statistics. Hypotheses tested are that the Solomon Sea mesoscale eddies are generated locally by baroclinic instability, that the eddies are shed as the South Equatorial Current passes around and through the Solomon Island chain, that eddies are generated by the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent, or that eddies occurring outside of the Solomon Sea propagate into the Solomon Sea. These different mechanisms have different implications for the resulting mixing and property fluxes. They also provide different interpretations for SSH signals observed from satellites (e.g., that will be observed by the upcoming SWOT satellite).

  2. Metagenomic studies of the Red Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Behzad, Hayedeh; Ibarra, Martin Augusto; Mineta, Katsuhiko; Gojobori, Takashi

    2016-02-01

    Metagenomics has significantly advanced the field of marine microbial ecology, revealing the vast diversity of previously unknown microbial life forms in different marine niches. The tremendous amount of data generated has enabled identification of a large number of microbial genes (metagenomes), their community interactions, adaptation mechanisms, and their potential applications in pharmaceutical and biotechnology-based industries. Comparative metagenomics reveals that microbial diversity is a function of the local environment, meaning that unique or unusual environments typically harbor novel microbial species with unique genes and metabolic pathways. The Red Sea has an abundance of unique characteristics; however, its microbiota is one of the least studied among marine environments. The Red Sea harbors approximately 25 hot anoxic brine pools, plus a vibrant coral reef ecosystem. Physiochemical studies describe the Red Sea as an oligotrophic environment that contains one of the warmest and saltiest waters in the world with year-round high UV radiations. These characteristics are believed to have shaped the evolution of microbial communities in the Red Sea. Over-representation of genes involved in DNA repair, high-intensity light responses, and osmoregulation were found in the Red Sea metagenomic databases suggesting acquisition of specific environmental adaptation by the Red Sea microbiota. The Red Sea brine pools harbor a diverse range of halophilic and thermophilic bacterial and archaeal communities, which are potential sources of enzymes for pharmaceutical and biotechnology-based application. Understanding the mechanisms of these adaptations and their function within the larger ecosystem could also prove useful in light of predicted global warming scenarios where global ocean temperatures are expected to rise by 1-3°C in the next few decades. In this review, we provide an overview of the published metagenomic studies that were conducted in the Red Sea, and

  3. Ice and AIS: ship speed data and sea ice forecasts in the Baltic Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    U. Löptien

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The Baltic Sea is a seasonally ice-covered marginal sea located in a densely populated area in northern Europe. Severe sea ice conditions have the potential to hinder the intense ship traffic considerably. Thus, sea ice fore- and nowcasts are regularly provided by the national weather services. Typically, the forecast comprises several ice properties that are distributed as prognostic variables, but their actual usefulness is difficult to measure, and the ship captains must determine their relative importance and relevance for optimal ship speed and safety ad hoc. The present study provides a more objective approach by comparing the ship speeds, obtained by the automatic identification system (AIS, with the respective forecasted ice conditions. We find that, despite an unavoidable random component, this information is useful to constrain and rate fore- and nowcasts. More precisely, 62–67% of ship speed variations can be explained by the forecasted ice properties when fitting a mixed-effect model. This statistical fit is based on a test region in the Bothnian Sea during the severe winter 2011 and employs 15 to 25 min averages of ship speed.

  4. Quarter-Century Offshore Winds from SSM/I and WRF in the North Sea and South China Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hasager, Charlotte Bay; Astrup, Poul; Zhu, Rong

    2016-01-01

    We study the wind climate and its long-term variability in the North Sea and South China Sea, areas relevant for offshore wind energy development, using satellite-based wind data, because very few reliable long-term in-situ sea surface wind observations are available. The Special Sensor Microwave...

  5. Oxygen isotopic composition and its application to the study of tracing oceanographical process in Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    尹明端; 曾宪章; 曾文义; 吴世炎; 施纯坦

    2002-01-01

    In this paper, the 18O distribution of surface water from the central sea areas of the Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea was studied. The δ18O value of surface water from the Bering Sea is averagely -0.5‰; the δ18O contents of the Chukchi Sea are distributionally lower in northeast and higher in southwest; the δ18O value at the margin of Canadian Basin is -2.8‰, and averagely -0.8‰ in the southern area of the Chukchi Sea. The δ18O vertical distribution in some deep water stations from the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea is also studied. In the southern margin of Canadian Basin, the δ18O value is -2‰ -3‰ for surface layer and rises to 0 at 100 m depth layer. In the Bering Sea, the δ18O is about -0.5‰ for surface layer and increases to 0 at the depth of 300 m. The NO tracer can reflect obviously three water masses vertically distributed in the central Bering Sea: the upper Bering water mass, the middle Bering water mass and the deep Pacific water mass. The distributive ranges of NO and temperature for the various water masses are T780 μmol/dm3 and T≥7℃, NO>650 μmol/dm3 for upper Bering water mass, T<4℃, 550sea bottom. Its isotopic characteristics are the same as the Atlantic water, showing that the sea water comes from the north Atlantic. The freshwater end-member of the Chukchi Sea in the survey period is also explored.

  6. Linking Regional Winter Sea Ice Thickness and Surface Roughness to Spring Melt Pond Fraction on Landfast Arctic Sea Ice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sasha Nasonova

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The Arctic sea ice cover has decreased strongly in extent, thickness, volume and age in recent decades. The melt season presents a significant challenge for sea ice forecasting due to uncertainty associated with the role of surface melt ponds in ice decay at regional scales. This study quantifies the relationships of spring melt pond fraction (fp with both winter sea ice roughness and thickness, for landfast first-year sea ice (FYI and multiyear sea ice (MYI. In 2015, airborne measurements of winter sea ice thickness and roughness, as well as high-resolution optical data of melt pond covered sea ice, were collected along two ~5.2 km long profiles over FYI- and MYI-dominated regions in the Canadian Arctic. Statistics of winter sea ice thickness and roughness were compared to spring fp using three data aggregation approaches, termed object and hybrid-object (based on image segments, and regularly spaced grid-cells. The hybrid-based aggregation approach showed strongest associations because it considers the morphology of the ice as well as footprints of the sensors used to measure winter sea ice thickness and roughness. Using the hybrid-based data aggregation approach it was found that winter sea ice thickness and roughness are related to spring fp. A stronger negative correlation was observed between FYI thickness and fp (Spearman rs = −0.85 compared to FYI roughness and fp (rs = −0.52. The association between MYI thickness and fp was also negative (rs = −0.56, whereas there was no association between MYI roughness and fp. 47% of spring fp variation for FYI and MYI can be explained by mean thickness. Thin sea ice is characterized by low surface roughness allowing for widespread ponding in the spring (high fp whereas thick sea ice has undergone dynamic thickening and roughening with topographic features constraining melt water into deeper channels (low fp. This work provides an important contribution towards the parameterizations of fp in

  7. Seitse paika, mis peidavad mõistatusi / Till Hein

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Hein, Till

    2009-01-01

    Kayaikhtiyo stuupa Birmas, Nazca Peruus, püramiidid Egiptuses, Meoto-Iwa Jaapanis, Stonehenge Inglismaal, Machu Picchu Peruus ja Bermuda kolmnurk Sargasso meres on paigad, mille lahtiseletamise üle on murdnud pead mitu põlvkonda inimesi

  8. Decadal Stability of Red Sea Mangroves

    KAUST Repository

    Almahasheer, Hanan; Aljowair, Abdulaziz; Duarte, Carlos M.; Irigoien, Xabier

    2015-01-01

    Across the Earth, mangroves play an important role in coastal protection, both as nurseries and carbon sinks. However, due to various human and environmental impacts, the coverage of mangroves is declining on a global scale. The Red Sea is in the northern-most area of the distribution range of mangroves. Little is known about the surface covered by mangroves at this northern limit or about the changes experienced by Red Sea mangroves. We sought to study changes in the coverage of Red Sea mangroves by using multi-temporal Landsat data (1972, 2000 and 2013). Interestingly, our results show that there has been no decline in mangrove stands in the Red Sea but rather a slight increase. The area covered by mangroves is about 69 Km2 along the African shore and 51 Km2 along the Arabian Peninsula shore. From 1972 to 2013, the area covered by mangroves increased by about 0.29% y-1. We conclude that the trend exhibited by Red Sea mangroves departs from the general global decline of mangroves. Along the Red Sea, mangroves expanded by 12% over the 41 years from 1972 to 2013. Losses to Red Sea mangroves, mostly due to coastal development, have been compensated by afforestation projects.

  9. Decadal Stability of Red Sea Mangroves

    KAUST Repository

    Almahasheer, Hanan

    2015-12-15

    Across the Earth, mangroves play an important role in coastal protection, both as nurseries and carbon sinks. However, due to various human and environmental impacts, the coverage of mangroves is declining on a global scale. The Red Sea is in the northern-most area of the distribution range of mangroves. Little is known about the surface covered by mangroves at this northern limit or about the changes experienced by Red Sea mangroves. We sought to study changes in the coverage of Red Sea mangroves by using multi-temporal Landsat data (1972, 2000 and 2013). Interestingly, our results show that there has been no decline in mangrove stands in the Red Sea but rather a slight increase. The area covered by mangroves is about 69 Km2 along the African shore and 51 Km2 along the Arabian Peninsula shore. From 1972 to 2013, the area covered by mangroves increased by about 0.29% y-1. We conclude that the trend exhibited by Red Sea mangroves departs from the general global decline of mangroves. Along the Red Sea, mangroves expanded by 12% over the 41 years from 1972 to 2013. Losses to Red Sea mangroves, mostly due to coastal development, have been compensated by afforestation projects.

  10. Introduction for the SI "Understanding the Baltic Sea"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikauniece, Anda; Markus Meier, H. E.; Kalniņa, Laimdota

    2017-08-01

    The Baltic Sea is a semi-enclosed sea with a low salinity, slow water exchange and distinguished stratification. Natural properties of the Baltic thus promote development of anoxic areas at the deepest parts of the sea. In addition, the coasts of the Baltic Sea are heavily populated - 85 million inhabitants living in the drainage basin and 9 countries surrounding the sea, most of them highly industrially developed. Anthropogenic activities consequently add considerable pressure on the already vulnerable environment of the sea. Eutrophication, over-fishing and changed food-web, oil pollution, occurrence of hazardous substances, damage of seafloor by trawling and construction works are all present in the Baltic Sea.

  11. Improved Chlorophyll-a Algorithm for the Satellite Ocean Color Data in the Northern Bering Sea and Southern Chukchi Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Sang Heon; Ryu, Jongseong; Park, Jung-woo; Lee, Dabin; Kwon, Jae-Il; Zhao, Jingping; Son, SeungHyun

    2018-03-01

    The Bering and Chukchi seas are an important conduit to the Arctic Ocean and are reported to be one of the most productive regions in the world's oceans in terms of high primary productivity that sustains large numbers of fishes, marine mammals, and sea birds as well as benthic animals. Climate-induced changes in primary production and production at higher trophic levels also have been observed in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas. Satellite ocean color observations could enable the monitoring of relatively long term patterns in chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations that would serve as an indicator of phytoplankton biomass. The performance of existing global and regional Chl-a algorithms for satellite ocean color data was investigated in the northeastern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea using in situ optical measurements from the Healy 2007 cruise. The model-derived Chl-a data using the previous Chl-a algorithms present striking uncertainties regarding Chl-a concentrations-for example, overestimation in lower Chl-a concentrations or systematic overestimation in the northeastern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea. Accordingly, a simple two band ratio (R rs(443)/R rs(555)) algorithm of Chl-a for the satellite ocean color data was devised for the northeastern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea. The MODIS-derived Chl-a data from July 2002 to December 2014 were produced using the new Chl-a algorithm to investigate the seasonal and interannual variations of Chl-a in the northern Bering Sea and the southern Chukchi Sea. The seasonal distribution of Chl-a shows that the highest (spring bloom) Chl-a concentrations are in May and the lowest are in July in the overall area. Chl-a concentrations relatively decreased in June, particularly in the open ocean waters of the Bering Sea. The Chl-a concentrations start to increase again in August and become quite high in September. In October, Chl-a concentrations decreased in the western area of the Study area and the Alaskan

  12. Recent sea surface temperature trends and future scenarios for the Mediterranean Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohamed Shaltout

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available We analyse recent Mediterranean Sea surface temperatures (SSTs and their response to global change using 1/4-degree gridded advanced very-high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR daily SST data, 1982–2012. These data indicate significant annual warming (from 0.24 °C decade−1 west of the Strait of Gibraltar to 0.51 °C decade−1 over the Black Sea and significant spatial variation in annual average SST (from 15 °C over the Black Sea to 21 °C over the Levantine sub-basin. Ensemble mean scenarios indicate that the study area SST may experience significant warming, peaking at 2.6 °C century−1 in the Representative Concentration Pathways 85 (RCP85 scenario.

  13. Sea-level variability over five glacial cycles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grant, K M; Rohling, E J; Ramsey, C Bronk; Cheng, H; Edwards, R L; Florindo, F; Heslop, D; Marra, F; Roberts, A P; Tamisiea, M E; Williams, F

    2014-09-25

    Research on global ice-volume changes during Pleistocene glacial cycles is hindered by a lack of detailed sea-level records for time intervals older than the last interglacial. Here we present the first robustly dated, continuous and highly resolved records of Red Sea sea level and rates of sea-level change over the last 500,000 years, based on tight synchronization to an Asian monsoon record. We observe maximum 'natural' (pre-anthropogenic forcing) sea-level rise rates below 2 m per century following periods with up to twice present-day ice volumes, and substantially higher rise rates for greater ice volumes. We also find that maximum sea-level rise rates were attained within 2 kyr of the onset of deglaciations, for 85% of such events. Finally, multivariate regressions of orbital parameters, sea-level and monsoon records suggest that major meltwater pulses account for millennial-scale variability and insolation-lagged responses in Asian monsoon records.

  14. Precession and atmospheric CO2 modulated variability of sea ice in the central Okhotsk Sea since 130,000 years ago

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo, Li; Belt, Simon T.; Lattaud, Julie; Friedrich, Tobias; Zeeden, Christian; Schouten, Stefan; Smik, Lukas; Timmermann, Axel; Cabedo-Sanz, Patricia; Huang, Jyh-Jaan; Zhou, Liping; Ou, Tsong-Hua; Chang, Yuan-Pin; Wang, Liang-Chi; Chou, Yu-Min; Shen, Chuan-Chou; Chen, Min-Te; Wei, Kuo-Yen; Song, Sheng-Rong; Fang, Tien-Hsi; Gorbarenko, Sergey A.; Wang, Wei-Lung; Lee, Teh-Quei; Elderfield, Henry; Hodell, David A.

    2018-04-01

    Recent reduction in high-latitude sea ice extent demonstrates that sea ice is highly sensitive to external and internal radiative forcings. In order to better understand sea ice system responses to external orbital forcing and internal oscillations on orbital timescales, here we reconstruct changes in sea ice extent and summer sea surface temperature (SSST) over the past 130,000 yrs in the central Okhotsk Sea. We applied novel organic geochemical proxies of sea ice (IP25), SSST (TEX86L) and open water marine productivity (a tri-unsaturated highly branched isoprenoid and biogenic opal) to marine sediment core MD01-2414 (53°11.77‧N, 149°34.80‧E, water depth 1123 m). To complement the proxy data, we also carried out transient Earth system model simulations and sensitivity tests to identify contributions of different climatic forcing factors. Our results show that the central Okhotsk Sea was ice-free during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e and the early-mid Holocene, but experienced variable sea ice cover during MIS 2-4, consistent with intervals of relatively high and low SSST, respectively. Our data also show that the sea ice extent was governed by precession-dominated insolation changes during intervals of atmospheric CO2 concentrations ranging from 190 to 260 ppm. However, the proxy record and the model simulation data show that the central Okhotsk Sea was near ice-free regardless of insolation forcing throughout the penultimate interglacial, and during the Holocene, when atmospheric CO2 was above ∼260 ppm. Past sea ice conditions in the central Okhotsk Sea were therefore strongly modulated by both orbital-driven insolation and CO2-induced radiative forcing during the past glacial/interglacial cycle.

  15. New Coccolithophore Bloom in Bering Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    2002-01-01

    For the fourth year in a row it appears as if there is a bloom of coccolithophores-marine single-celled plants with calcite scales-in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. Similar blooms were rare before 1997, but they have appeared every year since then. Scientists believe the coccolithophore blooms are the result of changing wind patterns in the region. Weaker than normal winds fail to mix the water of the Bering Sea, resulting in the growth of coccolithophores instead of other types of phytoplankton. Seabird populations have also been changing as a result of this climate change. The Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS), flying aboard the OrbView-2 satellite, saw the coccolith-brightened waters of the Bering Sea in 1997, 1998, and 1999. The waters have looked fairly bright again this winter and spring, as seen in this SeaWiFS image acquired April 29, 2000. But scientists are unsure whether this year's phenomenon is caused by living coccolithophorids, re-suspended coccoliths, or something else. Like all phytoplankton, coccolithophores contain chlorophyll and have the tendency to multiply rapidly near the surface. Yet, in large numbers, coccolithophores periodically shed their tiny scales, called 'coccoliths,' by the bucketful into the surrounding waters. The calcium-rich coccoliths turn the normally dark water a bright, milky aquamarine, making coccolithophore blooms easy to spot in satellite imagery. The edge of the whitish cloud in the water seen in this image is roughly 50 kilometers off the West Coast of Alaska. For more information see: SeaWiFS home page Changing Currents Color the Bering Sea a New Shade of Blue Image courtesy SeaWiFS project

  16. Causes for contemporary regional sea level changes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stammer, Detlef; Cazenave, Anny; Ponte, Rui M; Tamisiea, Mark E

    2013-01-01

    Regional sea level changes can deviate substantially from those of the global mean, can vary on a broad range of timescales, and in some regions can even lead to a reversal of long-term global mean sea level trends. The underlying causes are associated with dynamic variations in the ocean circulation as part of climate modes of variability and with an isostatic adjustment of Earth's crust to past and ongoing changes in polar ice masses and continental water storage. Relative to the coastline, sea level is also affected by processes such as earthquakes and anthropogenically induced subsidence. Present-day regional sea level changes appear to be caused primarily by natural climate variability. However, the imprint of anthropogenic effects on regional sea level-whether due to changes in the atmospheric forcing or to mass variations in the system-will grow with time as climate change progresses, and toward the end of the twenty-first century, regional sea level patterns will be a superposition of climate variability modes and natural and anthropogenically induced static sea level patterns. Attribution and predictions of ongoing and future sea level changes require an expanded and sustained climate observing system.

  17. Air sea ratio reduction initiative

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Oberle, Jean

    2010-09-15

    Airfreight is the most expensive mode of transportation as well as the most impacting in terms of CO{sup 2} emissions. It is 7 times more expensive on average to ship by air than shipping by sea 1. Airfreight transportation mode emits 30 times more CO{sup 2} than sea freight mode 2. These elements provided a compelling platform to design a global logistics program to initiate a modal shift from air to sea freight without compromising service to customers.

  18. The Black Sea one decade after the Bucharest Convention an overview of the international activities in the Black Sea region

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goektepe, G.

    2002-01-01

    The catastrophic degradation of the Black Sea in a period of four decade has been the major concern of the Black Sea countries and international communities since Bucharest Convention signed in 1992. The Black Sea Region has became a challenging international arena for political scientific and socio-economic activities. Intensive international programmes and establishment of governmental and Non Governmental Organizational structures of the 1990s including Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), Black Sea Environmental Programme(BSEP), Environmental Programme for the Danube River Basin, Marine Environmental Assessment of the Black Sea Region Technical Cooperation Programme by the IAEA and establishment of the Black Sea Commission Permanent Secretariat are some of the major international efforts of the past decade that emphasizes the multi-nationality and large dimension of the Black Sea environmental management issues. The environmental degradation of the Black Sea is briefly reviewed based on the BSEP reports and data available for land based pollution sources. The environmental risk of marine vessel accidents are indicated and environmental safety concern is emphasized under the current conditions of intense energy transportation projects in the Black Sea and Caspian regions. The international policy actions, co-operation issues and scientific programmes of the past decade are overviewed with emphasis on the international achievements. Concluding remarks include the vital importance of continuation of the international commitments and sharing the political, scientific and socio-economic responsibility on the transboundary environmental pollution, rehabilitation and the safety issues of the Black Sea

  19. Characterization of the lipid fraction of wild sea urchin from the Sardinian Sea (western Mediterranean).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angioni, Alberto; Addis, Pierantonio

    2014-02-01

    The fatty acid (FA) composition of Spatangus purpureus, Echinus melo, Sphaerechinus granularis, and Paracentrotus lividus, sea urchins, has been studied. Sea urchins were collected at different depth along Sardinia coast in the Mediterranean sea, and their gonad was measured, separated, and analyzed for FA composition by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A total of 53 FAs were detected, 16 saturated (SFA), 10 monounsaturated (MUFA), 9 polyunsaturated (PUFA), and 13 highly unsaturated (HUFA). Moreover, 5 furan FAs (FFAs) were revealed for the first time in sea urchin. The HUFA and PUFA classes were the most represented accounting for almost 80% of total FAs. Among these compounds, C20:4 n6 (19.64, 20.52, 23.37, and 8.48 mg/g, respectively) and C22:6 n3 (19.68, 20.05, 3.83, and 1.78 mg/g, respectively) were the most abundant. The results of principal component analysis indicated that the sea urchin samples could be clearly discriminated with respect to their FAs composition. © 2014 Institute of Food Technologists®

  20. Survival and breeding of polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea in relation to sea ice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Regehr, Eric V; Hunter, Christine M; Caswell, Hal; Amstrup, Steven C; Stirling, Ian

    2010-01-01

    1. Observed and predicted declines in Arctic sea ice have raised concerns about marine mammals. In May 2008, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed polar bears (Ursus maritimus) - one of the most ice-dependent marine mammals - as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act. 2. We evaluated the effects of sea ice conditions on vital rates (survival and breeding probabilities) for polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea. Although sea ice declines in this and other regions of the polar basin have been among the greatest in the Arctic, to date population-level effects of sea ice loss on polar bears have only been identified in western Hudson Bay, near the southern limit of the species' range. 3. We estimated vital rates using multistate capture-recapture models that classified individuals by sex, age and reproductive category. We used multimodel inference to evaluate a range of statistical models, all of which were structurally based on the polar bear life cycle. We estimated parameters by model averaging, and developed a parametric bootstrap procedure to quantify parameter uncertainty. 4. In the most supported models, polar bear survival declined with an increasing number of days per year that waters over the continental shelf were ice free. In 2001-2003, the ice-free period was relatively short (mean 101 days) and adult female survival was high (0.96-0.99, depending on reproductive state). In 2004 and 2005, the ice-free period was longer (mean 135 days) and adult female survival was low (0.73-0.79, depending on reproductive state). Breeding rates and cub litter survival also declined with increasing duration of the ice-free period. Confidence intervals on vital rate estimates were wide. 5. The effects of sea ice loss on polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea may apply to polar bear populations in other portions of the polar basin that have similar sea ice dynamics and have experienced similar, or more severe, sea ice declines. Our findings therefore are

  1. GHRSST Level 4 EUR Mediterranean Sea Regional Foundation Sea Surface Temperature Analysis (GDS version 2)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Level 4 sea surface temperature analysis produced daily by Ifremer/CERSAT (France) using optimal...

  2. Regional characteristics of the effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation on the sea level in the China Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Hui; Liu, Kexiu; Wang, Aimei; Feng, Jianlong; Fan, Wenjing; Liu, Qiulin; Xu, Yao; Zhang, Zengjian

    2018-05-01

    Based on coastal tide level, satellite altimetry, and sea surface temperature (SST) data of offshore areas of China's coast and the equatorial Pacific Ocean, the regional characteristics of the effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the sea level in the China Sea were investigated. Singular value decomposition results show a significant teleconnection between the sea level in the China Sea and the SST of the tropical Pacific Ocean; the correlation coefficient decreases from south to north. Data from tide gauges along China's coast show that the seasonal sea-level variations are significantly correlated with the ENSO. In addition, China's coast was divided into three regions based on distinctive regional characteristics. Results obtained show that the annual amplitude of sea level was low during El Niño developing years, and especially so during the El Niño year. The ENSO intensity determined the response intensity of the annual amplitude of the sea level. The response region (amplitude) was relatively large for strong ENSO intensities. Significant oscillation periods at a timescale of 4-7 years existed in the sea level of the three regions. The largest amplitude of oscillation was 1.5 cm, which was the fluctuation with the 7-year period in the South China Sea. The largest amplitude of oscillation in the East China Sea was about 1.3 cm. The amplitude of oscillation with the 6-year period in the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea was the smallest (less than 1 cm).

  3. 50 CFR 223.205 - Sea turtles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Sea turtles. 223.205 Section 223.205... Threatened Marine and Anadromous Species § 223.205 Sea turtles. (a) The prohibitions of section 9 of the Act (16 U.S.C. 1538) relating to endangered species apply to threatened species of sea turtle, except as...

  4. Effects of the surface waves on air-sea interactions of the sea spray

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Francius, M.J.; Eijk, A.M.J. van

    2006-01-01

    Aerosols are important to a large number of processes in the marine boundary layer. On a micro-meteorological scale, they influence the heat and moisture budgets near the sea surface. Since the ocean acts both as a source and a sink for aerosols, the sea spray droplets may transfer water vapour and

  5. Synoptic conditions of fine-particle transport to the last interglacial Red Sea-Dead Sea from Nd-Sr compositions of sediment cores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palchan, Daniel; Stein, Mordechai; Goldstein, Steven L.; Almogi-Labin, Ahuva; Tirosh, Ofir; Erel, Yigal

    2018-01-01

    The sediments deposited at the depocenter of the Dead Sea comprise high-resolution archive of hydrological changes in the lake's watershed and record the desert dust transport to the region. This paper reconstructs the dust transport to the region during the termination of glacial Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS 6; ∼135-129 ka) and the last interglacial peak period (MIS5e, ∼129-116 ka). We use chemical and Nd and Sr isotope compositions of fine detritus material recovered from sediment core drilled at the deepest floor of the Dead Sea. The data is integrated with data achieved from cores drilled at the floor of the Red Sea, thus, forming a Red Sea-Dead Sea transect extending from the desert belt to the Mediterranean climate zone. The Dead Sea accumulated flood sediments derived from three regional surface cover types: settled desert dust, mountain loess-soils and loess-soils filling valleys in the Dead Sea watershed termed here "Valley Loess". The Valley Loess shows a distinct 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7081 ± 1, inherited from dissolved detrital calcites that originate from dried waterbodies in the Sahara and are transported with the dust to the entire transect. Our hydro-climate and synoptic conditions reconstruction illustrates the following history: During glacial period MIS6, Mediterranean cyclones governed the transport of Saharan dust and rains to the Dead Sea watershed, driving the development of both mountain soils and Valley Loess. Then, at Heinrich event 11, dry western winds blew Saharan dust over the entire Red Sea - Dead Sea transect marking latitudinal expansion of the desert belt. Later, when global sea-level rose, the Dead Sea watershed went through extreme aridity, the lake retreated, depositing salt and accumulating fine detritus of the Valley Loess. During peak interglacial MIS 5e, enhanced flooding activity flushed the mountain soils and fine detritus from all around the Dead Sea and Red Sea, marking a significant "contraction" of the desert belt

  6. Transcriptomes and expression profiling of deep-sea corals from the Red Sea provide insight into the biology of azooxanthellate corals

    OpenAIRE

    Yum, L. K.; Baumgarten, S.; Röthig, T.; Roder, C.; Roik, Anna; Michell, C.; Voolstra, C. R.

    2017-01-01

    Despite the importance of deep-sea corals, our current understanding of their ecology and evolution is limited due to difficulties in sampling and studying deep-sea environments. Moreover, a recent re-evaluation of habitat limitations has been suggested after characterization of deep-sea corals in the Red Sea, where they live at temperatures of above 20??C at low oxygen concentrations. To gain further insight into the biology of deep-sea corals, we produced reference transcriptomes and studie...

  7. GHRSST Level 4 ODYSSEA Mediterranean Sea Regional Foundation Sea Surface Temperature Analysis (GDS version 1)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Level 4 sea surface temperature analysis produced daily on an operational basis at Ifremer/CERSAT...

  8. Oceanographic cruise: Coral Sea, Arafura Sea, and Java Trench, April - May 1969 (NODC Accession 7100914)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This report contains oceanographic data which was obtained aboard HMAS DIAMANTINA during an oceanographic cruise in the Coral Sea, Arafura Sea, and Java Trench...

  9. 50 CFR Figure 20 to Part 679 - Steller sea lion conservation area (SCA) of the Bering Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 9 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Steller sea lion conservation area (SCA) of the Bering Sea 20 Figure 20 to Part 679 Wildlife and Fisheries FISHERY CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT... EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE OFF ALASKA Pt. 679, Fig. 20 Figure 20 to Part 679—Steller sea lion conservation area...

  10. Assessing Flood Risk Under Sea Level Rise and Extreme Sea Levels Scenarios: Application to the Ebro Delta (Spain)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sayol, J. M.; Marcos, M.

    2018-02-01

    This study presents a novel methodology to estimate the impact of local sea level rise and extreme surges and waves in coastal areas under climate change scenarios. The methodology is applied to the Ebro Delta, a valuable and vulnerable low-lying wetland located in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Projections of local sea level accounting for all contributions to mean sea level changes, including thermal expansion, dynamic changes, fresh water addition and glacial isostatic adjustment, have been obtained from regionalized sea level projections during the 21st century. Particular attention has been paid to the uncertainties, which have been derived from the spread of the multi-model ensemble combined with seasonal/inter-annual sea level variability from local tide gauge observations. Besides vertical land movements have also been integrated to estimate local relative sea level rise. On the other hand, regional projections over the Mediterranean basin of storm surges and wind-waves have been used to evaluate changes in extreme events. The compound effects of surges and extreme waves have been quantified using their joint probability distributions. Finally, offshore sea level projections from extreme events superimposed to mean sea level have been propagated onto a high resolution digital elevation model of the study region in order to construct flood hazards maps for mid and end of the 21st century and under two different climate change scenarios. The effect of each contribution has been evaluated in terms of percentage of the area exposed to coastal hazards, which will help to design more efficient protection and adaptation measures.

  11. Biopolymers form a gelatinous microlayer at the air-sea interface when Arctic sea ice melts

    OpenAIRE

    Galgani, Luisa; Piontek, Judith; Engel, Anja

    2016-01-01

    The interface layer between ocean and atmosphere is only a couple of micrometers thick but plays a critical role in climate relevant processes, including the air-sea exchange of gas and heat and the emission of primary organic aerosols (POA). Recent findings suggest that low-level cloud formation above the Arctic Ocean may be linked to organic polymers produced by marine microorganisms. Sea ice harbors high amounts of polymeric substances that are produced by cells growing within the sea-ice ...

  12. Deep-sea pennatulaceans (sea pens) - recent discoveries, morphological adaptations, and responses to benthic oceanographic parameters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, G. C.

    2015-12-01

    Pennatulaceans are sessile, benthic marine organisms that are bathymetrically wide-ranging, from the intertidal to approximately 6300 m in depth, and are conspicuous constituents of deep-sea environments. The vast majority of species are adapted for anchoring in soft sediments by the cylindrical peduncle - a muscular hydrostatic skeleton. However, in the past decade a few species ("Rockpens") have been discovered and described that can attach to hard substratum such as exposed rocky outcrops at depths between 669 and 1969 m, by a plunger-like adaptation of the base of the peduncle. Of the thirty-six known genera, eleven (or 30%) have been recorded from depths greater than 1000 m. The pennatulacean depth record holders are an unidentified species of Umbellula from 6260 m in the Peru-Chile Trench and a recently-discovered and described genus and species, Porcupinella profunda, from 5300 m the Porcupine Abyssal Plain of the northeastern Atlantic. A morphologically-differentiated type of polyp (acrozooid) have recently been discovered and described in two genera of shallow-water coral reef sea pens. Acrozooids apparently represent asexual buds and presumably can detach from the adult to start clonal colonies through asexual budding. Acrozooids are to be expected in deep-sea pennatulaceans, but so far have not been observed below 24 m in depth. Morphological responses at depths greater than 1000 m in deep-sea pennatulaceas include: fewer polyps, larger polyps, elongated stalks, and clustering of polyps along the rachis. Responses to deep-ocean physical parameters and anthropogenic changes that could affect the abundance and distribution of deep-sea pennatulaceans include changes in bottom current flow and food availability, changes in seawater temperature and pH, habitat destruction by fish trawling, and sunken refuse pollution. No evidence of the effects of ocean acidification or other effects of anthropogenic climate change in sea pens of the deep-sea has been

  13. Temperature measurement in the sea

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Krishnamacharyulu, R.J.; Rao, L.V.G.

    The importance of measuring sea temperature is explained and the various methods employed for this purpose are reviewed. Instruments used for spot measurement of water temperature at the sea surface and at discrete depths (bucket thermometer...

  14. Sea-ice habitat preference of the Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) in the Bering Sea: A multiscaled approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sacco, Alexander Edward

    The goal of this thesis is to define specific parameters of mesoscale sea-ice seascapes for which walruses show preference during important periods of their natural history. This research thesis incorporates sea-ice geophysics, marine-mammal ecology, remote sensing, computer vision techniques, and traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous subsistence hunters in order to quantitatively study walrus preference of sea ice during the spring migration in the Bering Sea. Using an approach that applies seascape ecology, or landscape ecology to the marine environment, our goal is to define specific parameters of ice patch descriptors, or mesoscale seascapes in order to evaluate and describe potential walrus preference for such ice and the ecological services it provides during an important period of their life-cycle. The importance of specific sea-ice properties to walrus occupation motivates an investigation into how walruses use sea ice at multiple spatial scales when previous research suggests that walruses do not show preference for particular floes. Analysis of aerial imagery, using image processing techniques and digital geomorphometric measurements (floe size, shape, and arrangement), demonstrated that while a particular floe may not be preferred, at larger scales a collection of floes, specifically an ice patch (cross-cultural sea-ice observations, knowledge and science to determine sea ice importance to marine mammals in a changing Arctic.

  15. Continuous sea-level reconstructions beyond the Pleistocene: improving the Mediterranean sea-level method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grant, K.; Rohling, E. J.; Amies, J.

    2017-12-01

    Sea-level (SL) reconstructions over glacial-interglacial timeframes are critical for understanding the equilibrium response of ice sheets to sustained warming. In particular, continuous and high-resolution SL records are essential for accurately quantifying `natural' rates of SL rise. Global SL changes are well-constrained since the last glacial maximum ( 20,000 years ago, ky) by radiometrically-dated corals and paleoshoreline data, and fairly well-constrained over the last glacial cycle ( 150 ky). Prior to that, however, studies of ice-volume:SL relationships tend to rely on benthic δ18O, as geomorphological evidence is far more sparse and less reliably dated. An alternative SL reconstruction method (the `marginal basin' approach) was developed for the Red Sea over 500 ky, and recently attempted for the Mediterranean over 5 My (Rohling et al., 2014, Nature). This method exploits the strong sensitivity of seawater δ18O in these basins to SL changes in the relatively narrow and shallow straits which connect the basins with the open ocean. However, the initial Mediterranean SL method did not resolve sea-level highstands during Northern Hemisphere insolation maxima, when African monsoon run-off - strongly depleted in δ18O - reached the Mediterranean. Here, we present improvements to the `marginal basin' sea-level reconstruction method. These include a new `Med-Red SL stack', which combines new probabilistic Mediterranean and Red Sea sea-level stacks spanning the last 500 ky. We also show how a box model-data comparison of water-column δ18O changes over a monsoon interval allows us to quantify the monsoon versus SL δ18O imprint on Mediterranean foraminiferal carbonate δ18O records. This paves the way for a more accurate and fully continuous SL reconstruction extending back through the Pliocene.

  16. Potential impacts of climate change on the primary production of regional seas: A comparative analysis of five European seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holt, Jason; Schrum, Corinna; Cannaby, Heather; Daewel, Ute; Allen, Icarus; Artioli, Yuri; Bopp, Laurent; Butenschon, Momme; Fach, Bettina A.; Harle, James; Pushpadas, Dhanya; Salihoglu, Baris; Wakelin, Sarah

    2016-01-01

    Regional seas are potentially highly vulnerable to climate change, yet are the most directly societally important regions of the marine environment. The combination of widely varying conditions of mixing, forcing, geography (coastline and bathymetry) and exposure to the open-ocean makes these seas subject to a wide range of physical processes that mediates how large scale climate change impacts on these seas' ecosystems. In this paper we explore the response of five regional sea areas to potential future climate change, acting via atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial vectors. These include the Barents Sea, Black Sea, Baltic Sea, North Sea, Celtic Seas, and are contrasted with a region of the Northeast Atlantic. Our aim is to elucidate the controlling dynamical processes and how these vary between and within these seas. We focus on primary production and consider the potential climatic impacts on: long term changes in elemental budgets, seasonal and mesoscale processes that control phytoplankton's exposure to light and nutrients, and briefly direct temperature response. We draw examples from the MEECE FP7 project and five regional model systems each using a common global Earth System Model as forcing. We consider a common analysis approach, and additional sensitivity experiments. Comparing projections for the end of the 21st century with mean present day conditions, these simulations generally show an increase in seasonal and permanent stratification (where present). However, the first order (low- and mid-latitude) effect in the open ocean projections of increased permanent stratification leading to reduced nutrient levels, and so to reduced primary production, is largely absent, except in the NE Atlantic. Even in the two highly stratified, deep water seas we consider (Black and Baltic Seas) the increase in stratification is not seen as a first order control on primary production. Instead, results show a highly heterogeneous picture of positive and negative change

  17. Estimating sea-level allowances for Atlantic Canada under conditions of uncertain sea-level rise

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. Greenan

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper documents the methodology of computing sea-level rise allowances for Atlantic Canada in the 21st century under conditions of uncertain sea-level rise. The sea-level rise allowances are defined as the amount by which an asset needs to be raised in order to maintain the same likelihood of future flooding events as that site has experienced in the recent past. The allowances are determined by combination of the statistics of present tides and storm surges (storm tides and the regional projections of sea-level rise and associated uncertainty. Tide-gauge data for nine sites from the Canadian Atlantic coast are used to derive the scale parameters of present sea-level extremes using the Gumbel distribution function. The allowances in the 21st century, with respect to the year 1990, were computed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC A1FI emission scenario. For Atlantic Canada, the allowances are regionally variable and, for the period 1990–2050, range between –13 and 38 cm while, for the period 1990–2100, they range between 7 and 108 cm. The negative allowances in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence region are caused by land uplift due to glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA.

  18. Black Sea challenges

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drevet, J.F.

    2008-01-01

    In this month's European column, Jean-Francois Drevet examines the issues that arise for Europe from the Black Sea region. The Black Sea is increasingly becoming a crucial place of transit for hydrocarbon imports from the Caspian and Russia into the European Union. The considerable increase in this traffic raises both environmental problems (the risk of oil slicks) and issues of security of supply, on account of the economic and political fragility of some of the bordering or neighbouring states (Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia/Chechnya etc.). This is why, as Jean-Francois Drevet stresses, the European Union has been trying since the mid-1990's to claim a role in the management of the affairs of the region. With two bordering states (Rumania and Bulgaria) joining the EU in 2007, cooperation in the Black Sea has become a priority within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy, and this column delineates a number of the obstacles that still have to be surmounted. (author)

  19. On the Predictability of Sea Ice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, Edward

    We investigate the persistence and predictability of sea ice in numerical models and observations. We first use the 3rd generation Community Climate System Model (CCSM3) General Circulation Model (GCM) to investigate the inherent persistence of sea-ice area and thickness. We find that sea-ice area anomalies have a seasonal decay timescale, exhibiting an initial decorrelation similar to a first order auto-regressive (AR1, or red noise) process. Beyond this initial loss of memory, there is a re-emergence of memory at certain times of the year. There are two distinct modes of re-emergence in the model, one driven by the seasonal coupling of area and thickness anomalies in the summer, the other by the persistence of upper ocean temperature anomalies that originate from ice anomalies in the melt season and then influence ice anomalies in the growth season. Comparison with satellite observations where available indicate these processes appear in nature. We then use the 4th generation CCSM (CCSM4) to investigate the partition of Arctic sea-ice predictability into its initial-value and boundary forced components under present day forcing conditions. We find that initial-value predictability lasts for 1-2 years for sea-ice area, and 3-4 years for sea-ice volume. Forced predictability arises after just 4-5 years for both area and volume. Initial-value predictability of sea-ice area during the summer hinges on the coupling between thickness and area anomalies during that season. We find that the loss of initial-value predictability with time is not uniform --- there is a rapid loss of predictability of sea-ice volume during the late spring early summer associated with snow melt and albedo feedbacks. At the same time, loss of predictability is not uniform across different regions. Given the usefulness of ice thickness as a predictor of summer sea-ice area, we obtain a hindcast of September sea-ice area initializing the GCM on May 1with an estimate of observed sea-ice thickness

  20. Characteristics of the Japanese sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus's population in the Sea of Japan (Kievka Bay)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gavrilova, G. S.; Sukhin, I. Yu.

    2011-06-01

    In Kievka Bay of the Sea of Japan, the population of the Japanese sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus inhabits the areas of coarse sediments and complex bottom topography. These distributional patterns are closely related to the species' ecology, i.e., to the demand for protection against the wave turbulence. The aggregationing coverage of the sea cucumber population is about 80 hectares, where ˜200 thousand animals were accounted for in the last years. The aggregation's area varies during the year, which is closely related to the species' biological peculiarities, such as their behavioral patterns and the redistribution of their food resources. A significant increase of the juvenile population occurred after the farm-reared sea cucumber spat were released in 2003.

  1. Insights into particle cycling in the Sargasso Sea from lipid biomarkers in suspended particles: Seasonality and physical forcing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedrosa Pàmies, R.; Conte, M. H.; Weber, J.

    2017-12-01

    Lipid biomarkers elucidate organic material (OM) sources and cycling within the water column. Biomarker composition and bulk properties (organic carbon (OC), nitrogen (N), OC/N ratio, CaCO3 and stable isotopes) were determined in suspended particles (30-4400 m, 100 mab) collected at Oceanic Flux Program site offshore Bermuda in April/November 2015 and October 2016, three periods of contrasting oceanographic conditions. Key lipid biomarkers were used to evaluate the relative importance of phytoplankton-, bacterial- and zooplankton-OM sources, diagenetic reprocessing, and the impact of upper ocean environmental forcing on the carbon pump. Additionally, we assessed benthic remineralization by comparing particles above and within the nepheloid layer (4400 m). N-fatty acids, n-alcohols and sterols comprise up to 85%, 12% and 7%, respectively, of total extractable lipids. Higher lipid concentrations in April vs November 2015 mirror seasonality in primary production, while change in sterol composition reflect shifts in phytoplankton community structure. In the mesopelagic zone, increased cholesterol/phytosterol ratios and percentages of C16 and C18 n-alcohols, odd-chain and branched n-fatty acids document a transition from algal to animal OM sources as well as bacterial reprocessing of labile OM. The impact of Hurricane Nicole (October 2016) on the mixed layer and subsequent increases in production/flux was evident in higher concentrations as well as greater depth penetration of particulate N and fresh/labile algal biomarkers (e.g. 18:5 ω3 and 22:6 ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acids) in the upper 1000 m. Suspended particles in the nepheloid layer had higher concentrations of OC and N and were more depleted in d13C than particles at 4200 m for all dates. While nepheloid lipid composition was similar for all dates, lipid concentrations in April 2015 (seasonal production peak) and October 2016 (hurricane physical forcing) were higher than in November 2015, consistent with the increases observed in the mesopelagic layer. Our results demonstrate that episodic physical forcing of the upper ocean, such as observed during Hurricane Nicole, can trigger an episodic export of labile materials and have a large effect on the OM composition throughout the water column.

  2. Sea ice biogeochemistry: a guide for modellers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Letizia Tedesco

    Full Text Available Sea ice is a fundamental component of the climate system and plays a key role in polar trophic food webs. Nonetheless sea ice biogeochemical dynamics at large temporal and spatial scales are still rarely described. Numerical models may potentially contribute integrating among sparse observations, but available models of sea ice biogeochemistry are still scarce, whether their relevance for properly describing the current and future state of the polar oceans has been recently addressed. A general methodology to develop a sea ice biogeochemical model is presented, deriving it from an existing validated model application by extension of generic pelagic biogeochemistry model parameterizations. The described methodology is flexible and considers different levels of ecosystem complexity and vertical representation, while adopting a strategy of coupling that ensures mass conservation. We show how to apply this methodology step by step by building an intermediate complexity model from a published realistic application and applying it to analyze theoretically a typical season of first-year sea ice in the Arctic, the one currently needing the most urgent understanding. The aim is to (1 introduce sea ice biogeochemistry and address its relevance to ocean modelers of polar regions, supporting them in adding a new sea ice component to their modelling framework for a more adequate representation of the sea ice-covered ocean ecosystem as a whole, and (2 extend our knowledge on the relevant controlling factors of sea ice algal production, showing that beyond the light and nutrient availability, the duration of the sea ice season may play a key-role shaping the algal production during the on going and upcoming projected changes.

  3. Context awareness and sensitivity in SEA implementation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hilding-Rydevik, Tuija; Bjarnadottir, Holmfridur

    2007-01-01

    The Impact Assessment research community repeatedly asserts that the implementation of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) should take the issue of context into consideration. The primary aim of this paper then is to attempt to give substance to the concept of 'context' in relation to the implementation of SEA. The second aim is to discuss the relevance of context consciousness and sensitivity in relation to one of the main aims given to SEA implementation i.e. to contribute to the 'integration' of environmental perspectives in planning processes. Context must be defined in relation to a certain question. In this paper the question in focus is the assumption that SEA implementation will contribute to integration of environmental issues in planning processes. Research results relating to the use of environmental tools, like for example SEA, and experiences of integration efforts, strongly indicate that the use of a single tool like SEA is not enough to achieve this integration. The current 'context free' normative and procedural assumptions concerning the aim of SEA implementation and 'best practice' in term of SEA can be criticised on the same grounds as normative and procedural planning theories, as being context free. The assumptions behind the current formulations of the aim and best practice of SEA need to be revisited. A firm empirical and theoretical knowledge and discussion is needed, especially in relation to the issue of context and integration. This paper provides a starting point in this direction

  4. Sea-level Variation Along the Suez Canal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eid, F. M.; Sharaf El-Din, S. H.; Alam El-Din, K. A.

    1997-05-01

    The variation of sea level at 11 stations distributed along the Suez Canal was studied during the period from 1980 to 1986. The ranges of variation in daily mean sea level at Port Said and Port Tawfik are about 60 and 120 cm, respectively. The minimum range of daily variation is at Kantara (47 cm). The fluctuations of the monthly mean sea level between the two ends of the Suez Canal vary from one season to another. From July to December, the sea level at Port Said is higher than that at Port Tawfik, with the maximum difference (10·5 cm) in September. During the rest of the year, the mean sea level at Port Tawfik is higher than that at Port Said, with the maximum difference (31·5 cm) in March. The long-term variations of the annual mean sea level at both Port Said and Port Tawfik for the period from 1923 to 1986 showed a positive trend. The sea level at Port Said increased by about 27·8 cm century -1while it increased by only 9·1 cm century -1at Port Tawfik. This indicates that the difference between sea level at Port Said and Port Tawfik has decreased with time.

  5. Barrier response to Holocene sea-level rise

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pejrup, Morten; Andersen, Thorbjørn Joest; Johannessen, Peter N

    Normally it is believed that sea-level rise causes coastal barrier retreat. However, sea-level is only one of the parameters determining the long term coastal development of barrier coasts. Sediment supply is an equally important determinant and may overshadow the effects of sea-level rise....... Conceptually this has been known for a long time but for the first time we can show the relative effect of these two parameters. We have studied three neighboring barrier islands in the Wadden Sea, and described their 3D morphological evolution during the last 8000 years. It appears that the barrier islands...... a much stronger component of sea-level control. The distance between the islands is only 50 km, and therefore our study shows that prediction of barrier development during a period of rising sea level may be more complicated than formerly believed....

  6. Reduced near-surface thermal inversions in 2005-06 in the southeastern Arabian Sea (Lakshadweep Sea)

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Nisha, K.; Rao, S.A.; Gopalakrishna, V.V.; Rao, R.R.; GirishKumar, M.S.; Pankajakshan, T.; Ravichandran, M.; Rajesh, S.; Girish, K.; Johnson, Z.; Anuradha, M.; Gavaskar, S.S.M.; Suneel, V.; Krishna, S.M.

    Repeat XBT transects made at near-fortnightly intervals in the Lakshadweep Sea (southeastern Arabian Sea) and ocean data assimilation products are examined to describe the year-to-year variability in the observed near-surface thermal inversions...

  7. Theory versus practice in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lobos, Víctor, E-mail: vlobosg@gmail.com [CEG-IST, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Research Group on Strategic Approaches to Environment and Sustainability (SENSU), 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal); Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo, San Crescente 551, Las Condes, Santiago (Chile); Partidario, Maria [CEG-IST, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Research Group on Strategic Approaches to Environment and Sustainability (SENSU), 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal)

    2014-09-15

    Could the theory of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) be ahead of its time and decoupled from its practice? This paper evolved in search for this leading research question. Over the years the discourse on SEA experienced a gradual shift from the technocratic and rationalist thinking that supported its origin to more strategic approaches and integrated concepts, suggested since the mid 1990's. In this paper we share the results of our analysis of international thinking and practical experience with SEA. Results reveal that SEA practice changes very slowly when compared to advanced thinking supporting the noted shift. Current SEA practice shows to be still predominantly rooted in the logic of projects' environmental impact assessment (EIA). It is strongly bound to legal and regulatory requirements, and the motivation for its application persists being the delivery of environmental (or final) reports to meet legal obligations. Even though advanced SEA theoretical thinking claim its potential to help decisions to look forward, change mind-sets and the rationale of decision-making to meet sustainability challenges and enhance societal values, we note a weak relationship between the theoretical development of SEA and its practice. Why is this happening? Which factors explain this apparent inertia, resistance to change, in the SEA practice? Results appear to demonstrate the influence of assumptions, understandings, concepts, and beliefs in the use of SEA, which in turn suggest the political sensitivity of the instrument. - Highlights: • Theoretical thinking in SEA is ahead of its time. • SEA international practice reveals inertia to move out of project’ EIA comfort zone. • World current SEA practice show similar understandings of 30 years ago. • 100 world reports and survey of practitioners supported world review. • SEA great challenge is to change paradigms into new scientific complexity theories.

  8. Theory versus practice in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lobos, Víctor; Partidario, Maria

    2014-01-01

    Could the theory of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) be ahead of its time and decoupled from its practice? This paper evolved in search for this leading research question. Over the years the discourse on SEA experienced a gradual shift from the technocratic and rationalist thinking that supported its origin to more strategic approaches and integrated concepts, suggested since the mid 1990's. In this paper we share the results of our analysis of international thinking and practical experience with SEA. Results reveal that SEA practice changes very slowly when compared to advanced thinking supporting the noted shift. Current SEA practice shows to be still predominantly rooted in the logic of projects' environmental impact assessment (EIA). It is strongly bound to legal and regulatory requirements, and the motivation for its application persists being the delivery of environmental (or final) reports to meet legal obligations. Even though advanced SEA theoretical thinking claim its potential to help decisions to look forward, change mind-sets and the rationale of decision-making to meet sustainability challenges and enhance societal values, we note a weak relationship between the theoretical development of SEA and its practice. Why is this happening? Which factors explain this apparent inertia, resistance to change, in the SEA practice? Results appear to demonstrate the influence of assumptions, understandings, concepts, and beliefs in the use of SEA, which in turn suggest the political sensitivity of the instrument. - Highlights: • Theoretical thinking in SEA is ahead of its time. • SEA international practice reveals inertia to move out of project’ EIA comfort zone. • World current SEA practice show similar understandings of 30 years ago. • 100 world reports and survey of practitioners supported world review. • SEA great challenge is to change paradigms into new scientific complexity theories

  9. Modulation of Sea Ice Melt Onset and Retreat in the Laptev Sea by the Timing of Snow Retreat in the West Siberian Plain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crawford, A. D.; Stroeve, J.; Serreze, M. C.; Rajagopalan, B.; Horvath, S.

    2017-12-01

    As much of the Arctic Ocean transitions to ice-free conditions in summer, efforts have increased to improve seasonal forecasts of not only sea ice extent, but also the timing of melt onset and retreat. This research investigates the potential of regional terrestrial snow retreat in spring as a predictor for subsequent sea ice melt onset and retreat in Arctic seas. One pathway involves earlier snow retreat enhancing atmospheric moisture content, which increases downwelling longwave radiation over sea ice cover downstream. Another pathway involves manipulation of jet stream behavior, which may affect the sea ice pack via both dynamic and thermodynamic processes. Although several possible connections between snow and sea ice regions are identified using a mutual information criterion, the physical mechanisms linking snow retreat and sea ice phenology are most clearly exemplified by variability of snow retreat in the West Siberian Plain impacting melt onset and sea ice retreat in the Laptev Sea. The detrended time series of snow retreat in the West Siberian Plain explains 26% of the detrended variance in Laptev Sea melt onset (29% for sea ice retreat). With modest predictive skill and an average time lag of 53 (88) days between snow retreat and sea ice melt onset (retreat), West Siberian Plains snow retreat is useful for refining seasonal sea ice predictions in the Laptev Sea.

  10. On the relationship between atmospheric circulation and the fluctuations in the sea ice extents of the Bering and Okhotsk Seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cavalieri, D. J.; Parkinson, C. L.

    1987-01-01

    The influence of the hemispheric atmospheric circulation on the sea ice covers of the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk is examined using data obtained with the Nimbus 5 electrically scanning microwave radiometer for the four winters of the 1973-1976 period. The 3-day averaged sea ice extent data were used to establish periods for which there is an out-of-phase relationship between fluctuations of the two ice covers. A comparison of the sea-level atmospheric pressure field with the seasonal, interannual, and short-term sea ice fluctuations reveal an association between changes in the phase and the amplitude of the long waves in the atmosphere and advance and retreat of Arctic ice covers.

  11. Inter-annual sea level variability in the southern South China Sea

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Soumya, M.; Vethamony, P.; Tkalich, P.

    (SCS) is one of the western marginal seas of the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by South China, Indo China Peninsula, Malaysian Peninsula, Philippines and Borneo Island. The SCS is a semi- enclosed basin connected to the western Pacific Ocean through Taiwan.... Sea level trend and variability in the Singapore Strait. Ocean Science, 9(2). Torrence, C. and Compo, G.P., 1998. A practical guide to wavelet analysis. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 79(1): 61-78. Vargas‐Hernandez, J.M., Wijffels...

  12. Captive sea turtle rearing inventory, feeding, and water chemistry in sea turtle rearing tanks at NOAA Galveston 1995-present

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The database contains daily records of sea turtle inventories by species feeding rates type of food fed sick sea turtles sea turtles that have died log of tanks...

  13. How reversible is sea ice loss?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. K. Ridley

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available It is well accepted that increasing atmospheric CO2 results in global warming, leading to a decline in polar sea ice area. Here, the specific question of whether there is a tipping point in the sea ice cover is investigated. The global climate model HadCM3 is used to map the trajectory of sea ice area under idealised scenarios. The atmospheric CO2 is first ramped up to four times pre-industrial levels (4 × CO2, then ramped down to pre-industrial levels. We also examine the impact of stabilising climate at 4 × CO2 prior to ramping CO2 down to pre-industrial levels. Against global mean temperature, Arctic sea ice area is reversible, while the Antarctic sea ice shows some asymmetric behaviour – its rate of change slower, with falling temperatures, than its rate of change with rising temperatures. However, we show that the asymmetric behaviour is driven by hemispherical differences in temperature change between transient and stabilisation periods. We find no irreversible behaviour in the sea ice cover.

  14. Black Sea Traffic and European Integration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Veselina Urucu

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available The Black Sea is a major component of the MeditetmneanSea. It is a bridge between two continents and a factor of cohesionamong ancient neighbouring spaces of civilisation. Someof its geographical peculiatities make of it a half-closed sea betweenEurope and Asia. Its link with the Mediterranean is securedby the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles Straits and thencewith the planetaty ocean. So, the Black Sea ports represent actualgateways to the world for its tiverain countries. These portsboomed or waned in terms of the riverain regions' hist01y. After1990, and moreover after the Soviet Union fell apatt and newsovereign states came into being, the Pontic space has been undergoingmajor geopolitical changes. Traffic suffered radicalchanges, being governed by fresh criteria and directions. Thereis growing competition among the city-ports and, under the1992 Black Sea Economic Co-operation Treaty, new regionaldevelopment opportunities have been cropping up for the individualstates. Viewed at global scale, the Black Sea might play,if integrated into an adequate programme, an essential role ofcohesion and stability in a complex European zone with a histOtyfull of turmoil.

  15. Strange sea quark effects for low lying baryons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Upadhyay, A.; Batra, Meenakshi

    2013-01-01

    Assuming hadrons as an ensemble of quark-gluon Fock states, contributions from sea quarks and gluons can be studied in detail for ground state baryons. Spin crisis of nucleons say that only a small fraction of proton spin is carried by valence quarks. Rest part is distributed among gluons and sea which includes both strange and non-strange quark-anti-quark pairs. This necessitates the study of strange sea quark contribution for other baryons too due to higher mass and presence of strange quark in valence part. Recent studies have also studied strange sea contribution for baryons using different models. We implement the statistical modeling techniques to compute strange sea quark content for baryon octet. Statistical model has already been applied to study sea quark content for nucleons in the form of scalar, vector and tensor sea. In our present work the same idea has been extended for strange sea to probe the structure in more detail. (author)

  16. Evaluation of the sea ice proxy IP against observational and diatom proxy data in the SW Labrador Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Weckström, K.; Andersen, M.L.; Kuijpers, A.

    2013-01-01

    The recent rapid decline in Arctic sea ice cover has increased the need to improve the accuracy of the sea ice component in climate models and to provide detailed long-term sea ice concentration records, which are only available via proxy data. Recently, the highly branched isoprenoid IP25...

  17. Sea Dragon

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    1997-01-01

    .... In preparation for these changes, the Navy is exploring new command and control relationships, and the Marine Corps established Sea Dragon to experiment with emerging technologies, operational...

  18. Regulation of CO2 Air Sea Fluxes by Sediments in the North Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burt, William; Thomas, Helmuth; Hagens, Mathilde; Brenner, Heiko; Pätsch, Johannes; Clargo, Nicola; Salt, Lesley

    2016-04-01

    A multi-tracer approach is applied to assess the impact of boundary fluxes (e.g. benthic input from sediments or lateral inputs from the coastline) on the acid-base buffering capacity, and overall biogeochemistry, of the North Sea. Analyses of both basin-wide observations in the North Sea and transects through tidal basins at the North-Frisian coastline, reveal that surface distributions of the δ13C signature of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) are predominantly controlled by a balance between biological production and respiration. In particular, variability in metabolic DIC throughout stations in the well-mixed southern North Sea indicates the presence of an external carbon source, which is traced to the European continental coastline using naturally-occurring radium isotopes (224Ra and 228Ra). 228Ra is also shown to be a highly effective tracer of North Sea total alkalinity (AT) compared to the more conventional use of salinity. Coastal inputs of metabolic DIC and AT are calculated on a basin-wide scale, and ratios of these inputs suggest denitrification as a primary metabolic pathway for their formation. The AT input paralleling the metabolic DIC release prevents a significant decline in pH as compared to aerobic (i.e. unbuffered) release of metabolic DIC. Finally, long-term pH trends mimic those of riverine nitrate loading, highlighting the importance of coastal AT production via denitrification in regulating pH in the southern North Sea.

  19. RNA deep sequencing reveals differential microRNA expression during development of sea urchin and sea star.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabah Kadri

    Full Text Available microRNAs (miRNAs are small (20-23 nt, non-coding single stranded RNA molecules that act as post-transcriptional regulators of mRNA gene expression. They have been implicated in regulation of developmental processes in diverse organisms. The echinoderms, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (sea urchin and Patiria miniata (sea star are excellent model organisms for studying development with well-characterized transcriptional networks. However, to date, nothing is known about the role of miRNAs during development in these organisms, except that the genes that are involved in the miRNA biogenesis pathway are expressed during their developmental stages. In this paper, we used Illumina Genome Analyzer (Illumina, Inc. to sequence small RNA libraries in mixed stage population of embryos from one to three days after fertilization of sea urchin and sea star (total of 22,670,000 reads. Analysis of these data revealed the miRNA populations in these two species. We found that 47 and 38 known miRNAs are expressed in sea urchin and sea star, respectively, during early development (32 in common. We also found 13 potentially novel miRNAs in the sea urchin embryonic library. miRNA expression is generally conserved between the two species during development, but 7 miRNAs are highly expressed in only one species. We expect that our two datasets will be a valuable resource for everyone working in the field of developmental biology and the regulatory networks that affect it. The computational pipeline to analyze Illumina reads is available at http://www.benoslab.pitt.edu/services.html.

  20. RNA Deep Sequencing Reveals Differential MicroRNA Expression during Development of Sea Urchin and Sea Star

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kadri, Sabah; Hinman, Veronica F.; Benos, Panayiotis V.

    2011-01-01

    microRNAs (miRNAs) are small (20–23 nt), non-coding single stranded RNA molecules that act as post-transcriptional regulators of mRNA gene expression. They have been implicated in regulation of developmental processes in diverse organisms. The echinoderms, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (sea urchin) and Patiria miniata (sea star) are excellent model organisms for studying development with well-characterized transcriptional networks. However, to date, nothing is known about the role of miRNAs during development in these organisms, except that the genes that are involved in the miRNA biogenesis pathway are expressed during their developmental stages. In this paper, we used Illumina Genome Analyzer (Illumina, Inc.) to sequence small RNA libraries in mixed stage population of embryos from one to three days after fertilization of sea urchin and sea star (total of 22,670,000 reads). Analysis of these data revealed the miRNA populations in these two species. We found that 47 and 38 known miRNAs are expressed in sea urchin and sea star, respectively, during early development (32 in common). We also found 13 potentially novel miRNAs in the sea urchin embryonic library. miRNA expression is generally conserved between the two species during development, but 7 miRNAs are highly expressed in only one species. We expect that our two datasets will be a valuable resource for everyone working in the field of developmental biology and the regulatory networks that affect it. The computational pipeline to analyze Illumina reads is available at http://www.benoslab.pitt.edu/services.html. PMID:22216218

  1. Polar bear population dynamics in the southern Beaufort Sea during a period of sea ice decline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bromaghin, Jeffrey F; Mcdonald, Trent L; Stirling, Ian; Derocher, Andrew E; Richardson, Evan S; Regehr, Eric V; Douglas, David C; Durner, George M; Atwood, Todd; Amstrup, Steven C

    2015-04-01

    In the southern Beaufort Sea of the United States and Canada, prior investigations have linked declines in summer sea ice to reduced physical condition, growth, and survival of polar bears (Ursus maritimus). Combined with projections of population decline due to continued climate warming and the ensuing loss of sea ice habitat, those findings contributed to the 2008 decision to list the species as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Here, we used mark-recapture models to investigate the population dynamics of polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea from 2001 to 2010, years during which the spatial and temporal extent of summer sea ice generally declined. Low survival from 2004 through 2006 led to a 25-50% decline in abundance. We hypothesize that low survival during this period resulted from (1) unfavorable ice conditions that limited access to prey during multiple seasons; and possibly, (2) low prey abundance. For reasons that are not clear, survival of adults and cubs began to improve in 2007 and abundance was comparatively stable from 2008 to 2010, with ~900 bears in 2010 (90% CI 606-1212). However, survival of subadult bears declined throughout the entire period. Reduced spatial and temporal availability of sea ice is expected to increasingly force population dynamics of polar bears as the climate continues to warm. However, in the short term, our findings suggest that factors other than sea ice can influence survival. A refined understanding of the ecological mechanisms underlying polar bear population dynamics is necessary to improve projections of their future status and facilitate development of management strategies.

  2. Portrait of a Warming Ocean and Rising Sea Levels: Trend of Sea Level Change 1993-2008

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-01-01

    Warming water and melting land ice have raised global mean sea level 4.5 centimeters (1.7 inches) from 1993 to 2008. But the rise is by no means uniform. This image, created with sea surface height data from the Topex/Poseidon and Jason-1 satellites, shows exactly where sea level has changed during this time and how quickly these changes have occurred. It's also a road map showing where the ocean currently stores the growing amount of heat it is absorbing from Earth's atmosphere and the heat it receives directly from the Sun. The warmer the water, the higher the sea surface rises. The location of heat in the ocean and its movement around the globe play a pivotal role in Earth's climate. Light blue indicates areas in which sea level has remained relatively constant since 1993. White, red, and yellow are regions where sea levels have risen the most rapidly up to 10 millimeters per year and which contain the most heat. Green areas have also risen, but more moderately. Purple and dark blue show where sea levels have dropped, due to cooler water. The dramatic variation in sea surface heights and heat content across the ocean are due to winds, currents and long-term changes in patterns of circulation. From 1993 to 2008, the largest area of rapidly rising sea levels and the greatest concentration of heat has been in the Pacific, which now shows the characteristics of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), a feature that can last 10 to 20 years or even longer. In this 'cool' phase, the PDO appears as a horseshoe-shaped pattern of warm water in the Western Pacific reaching from the far north to the Southern Ocean enclosing a large wedge of cool water with low sea surface heights in the eastern Pacific. This ocean/climate phenomenon may be caused by wind-driven Rossby waves. Thousands of kilometers long, these waves move from east to west on either side of the equator changing the distribution of water mass and heat. This image of sea level trend also reveals a significant

  3. Improving Arctic Sea Ice Observations and Data Access to Support Advances in Sea Ice Forecasting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrell, S. L.

    2017-12-01

    The economic and strategic importance of the Arctic region is becoming apparent. One of the most striking and widely publicized changes underway is the declining sea ice cover. Since sea ice is a key component of the climate system, its ongoing loss has serious, and wide-ranging, socio-economic implications. Increasing year-to-year variability in the geographic location, concentration, and thickness of the Arctic ice cover will pose both challenges and opportunities. The sea ice research community must be engaged in sustained Arctic Observing Network (AON) initiatives so as to deliver fit-for-purpose remote sensing data products to a variety of stakeholders including Arctic communities, the weather forecasting and climate modeling communities, industry, local, regional and national governments, and policy makers. An example of engagement is the work currently underway to improve research collaborations between scientists engaged in obtaining and assessing sea ice observational data and those conducting numerical modeling studies and forecasting ice conditions. As part of the US AON, in collaboration with the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC), we are developing a strategic framework within which observers and modelers can work towards the common goal of improved sea ice forecasting. Here, we focus on sea ice thickness, a key varaible of the Arctic ice cover. We describe multi-sensor, and blended, sea ice thickness data products under development that can be leveraged to improve model initialization and validation, as well as support data assimilation exercises. We will also present the new PolarWatch initiative (polarwatch.noaa.gov) and discuss efforts to advance access to remote sensing satellite observations and improve communication with Arctic stakeholders, so as to deliver data products that best address societal needs.

  4. Information About Dynamics of the Sea Surface as a Means to Improve Safety of the Unmanned Vessel at Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Przyborski Marek

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available One of the fundamental states of the sea surface is its heave. Despite of years of the intense scientific inquiry, no clear understanding of the influence of this aspect on the dynamics of the sea environment has emerged. The separation of two nearby fluid elements which one may observed for example as a free floating of small objects on the sea surface (rescuers on the rough sea or small research vessels is caused by the interaction of different components. On the other hand one may say that the heave of the sea is also a summary interaction of a few components describing the dynamics of the sea. Therefore it is the most important aspect, which influenced the dispersion phenomenon. This observation has important consequences for many different problems as for example conducting Search and Rescue missions and using unmanned ships. We would like to present results of our experiment focused on finding the answer to question about nature of the heave of the sea and its influence on safety of Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV.

  5. Chemical composition of aerosol, sea fog, and rainwater in the marine boundary layer of the northwestern North Pacific and its marginal seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sasakawa, Motoki; Uematsu, Mitsuo

    2002-12-01

    Samples of aerosol, sea fog, and rainwater were collected during a research cruise in the northwestern North Pacific, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Sea of Japan in the summer of 1998. High concentrations of NO3-, nss-SO42- and NH4+ in aerosol over the Sea of Japan suggest that anthropogenic substances were transported to this region. Although the Sea of Okhotsk was covered with a clean marine air mass, the concentration of nss-SO42- was comparatively high in the aerosol samples. This nss-SO42- is probably of marine biogenic origin. The pH values of fogwater samples were measured to be fogwater collected over the Sea of Japan were higher than those in the other regions, suggesting that the sea fog scavenged anthropogenic substances. The concentration of nss-SO42- in fogwater over the Sea of Okhotsk was equivalent to that over the Sea of Japan, probably because nss-SO42- and SO2 of marine biogenic origin were scavenged by the sea fog over the Sea of Okhotsk. The pH values of rainwater samples ranged from 6.1 to 7.2 during the cruise, and acidification of the rain was not significant. The concentrations of nss-Ca2+ in the rainwater were higher than those of the fogwater. This suggests that the rain-scavenged continental CaCO3 may have existed above the lower marine boundary layer, where sea fog appeared. Comparisons of the composition of aerosol and fogwater indicated that coarse particles, such as sea salts predominantly act as condensation nuclei of sea fog droplets rather than fine particles such as (NH4)2SO4.

  6. Overwintering of sea trout (Salmo trutta) in freshwater

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Dennis; Koed, Anders; Nielsen, Christian

    2007-01-01

    Brown trout (Salmo trutta) show large phenotypic plasticity. Juveniles may reside in their native freshwater habitat until maturation or migrate into the ocean as 1- to 3-year-old smolts. Sea-going fish (sea trout) reside at sea for 2-3 years until migrating back to their native stream for reprod......Brown trout (Salmo trutta) show large phenotypic plasticity. Juveniles may reside in their native freshwater habitat until maturation or migrate into the ocean as 1- to 3-year-old smolts. Sea-going fish (sea trout) reside at sea for 2-3 years until migrating back to their native stream...... for reproduction. However, immature fish may leave the ocean during their first or second winter at sea and overwinter in freshwater. The question is why does this occur? We tested the hypothesis that hypo-osmoregulatory capacity is compromised by low temperature in two coastal sea trout populations, one...... representing high salinity and the other, low salinity. Immature sea-run trout were caught in lower parts of two rivers during winter and acclimated to laboratory conditions. Subgroups were challenged with high salinity or low water temperature or both, and their osmoregulatory performance was investigated...

  7. Sea-ice deformation in a coupled ocean–sea-ice model and in satellite remote sensing data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Spreen

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available A realistic representation of sea-ice deformation in models is important for accurate simulation of the sea-ice mass balance. Simulated sea-ice deformation from numerical simulations with 4.5, 9, and 18 km horizontal grid spacing and a viscous–plastic (VP sea-ice rheology are compared with synthetic aperture radar (SAR satellite observations (RGPS, RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System for the time period 1996–2008. All three simulations can reproduce the large-scale ice deformation patterns, but small-scale sea-ice deformations and linear kinematic features (LKFs are not adequately reproduced. The mean sea-ice total deformation rate is about 40 % lower in all model solutions than in the satellite observations, especially in the seasonal sea-ice zone. A decrease in model grid spacing, however, produces a higher density and more localized ice deformation features. The 4.5 km simulation produces some linear kinematic features, but not with the right frequency. The dependence on length scale and probability density functions (PDFs of absolute divergence and shear for all three model solutions show a power-law scaling behavior similar to RGPS observations, contrary to what was found in some previous studies. Overall, the 4.5 km simulation produces the most realistic divergence, vorticity, and shear when compared with RGPS data. This study provides an evaluation of high and coarse-resolution viscous–plastic sea-ice simulations based on spatial distribution, time series, and power-law scaling metrics.

  8. Sea Snake Harvest in the Gulf of Thailand

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Van Cao, Nguyen; Thien Tao, Nguyen; Moore, Amelia

    2014-01-01

    Abstract: Conservation of sea snakes is virtually nonexistent in Asia, and its role in human–snake interactions in terms of catch, trade, and snakebites as an occupational hazard is mostly unexplored. We collected data on sea snake landings from the Gulf of Thailand, a hotspot for sea snake harvest...... years), and the treatment of sea snake bites with rhinoceros horn. Emerging markets in Southeast Asia drive the harvest of venomous sea snakes in the Gulf of Thailand and sea snake bites present a potentially lethal occupational hazard. We call for implementation of monitoring programs to further...... address the conservation implications of this large-scale marine reptile exploitation....

  9. Why is the North Sea West of Us?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gammeltoft, Peder

    2016-01-01

    . Occurrences of sea names such as the North Sea are examined and analysed to see how they spread from an original one-language form to exist in multiple languages, and analyses them from a linguistic, geographic and nautical perspective. It is found that Seas or bodies of water in stretches of sea are named......This article focuses on the motivations behind sea-naming, by means of examples from Europe but also elsewhere. Why do certain sea names become dominant while others retract into local forms or simply die out? The article takes us back in time to the early days of map-making and, indeed, earlier...

  10. The Costs of a Cleaner baltic Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brodersen, Sisse Liv; Konrad, Maria Theresia Hedegaard; Hasler, Berit

    2009-01-01

    In 2007 the Helcom (The Helsinki Comity), representing most of the countries around the Baltic, made an agreement for the future of the Baltic Sea, on reducing the nutrient input to the Baltic Sea and thereby avert further environmental damage, called the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). One...... of the results was nutrient reduction targets for each country - the BSAP targets. Because the Baltic Sea is such an international marine area, receiving pollutants from many  countries, an international approach is necessary to make effective solutions. But is the BSAP the most cost-effective solution...... to the regulation of the Baltic Sea? And does the BSAP result in cost-effective reductions in the different countries, which is a requirement of the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Directive?   These questions are studied and answered using a cost minimisation model for the Baltic sea, initially...

  11. Survival and breeding of polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea in relation to sea ice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Regehr, E.V.; Hunter, C.M.; Caswell, H.; Amstrup, Steven C.; Stirling, I.

    2010-01-01

    1. Observed and predicted declines in Arctic sea ice have raised concerns about marine mammals. In May 2008, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed polar bears (Ursus maritimus) - one of the most ice-dependent marine mammals - as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act. 2. We evaluated the effects of sea ice conditions on vital rates (survival and breeding probabilities) for polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea. Although sea ice declines in this and other regions of the polar basin have been among the greatest in the Arctic, to date population-level effects of sea ice loss on polar bears have only been identified in western Hudson Bay, near the southern limit of the species' range. 3. We estimated vital rates using multistate capture-recapture models that classified individuals by sex, age and reproductive category. We used multimodel inference to evaluate a range of statistical models, all of which were structurally based on the polar bear life cycle. We estimated parameters by model averaging, and developed a parametric bootstrap procedure to quantify parameter uncertainty. 4. In the most supported models, polar bear survival declined with an increasing number of days per year that waters over the continental shelf were ice free. In 2001-2003, the ice-free period was relatively short (mean 101 days) and adult female survival was high (0 ∙ 96-0 ∙ 99, depending on reproductive state). In 2004 and 2005, the ice-free period was longer (mean 135 days) and adult female survival was low (0 ∙ 73-0 ∙ 79, depending on reproductive state). Breeding rates and cub litter survival also declined with increasing duration of the ice-free period. Confidence intervals on vital rate estimates were wide. 5. The effects of sea ice loss on polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea may apply to polar bear populations in other portions of the polar basin that have similar sea ice dynamics and have experienced similar, or more severe, sea ice declines. Our findings

  12. Parasites in the Wadden Sea food web

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thieltges, David W.; Engelsma, Marc Y.; Wendling, Carolin C.; Wegner, K. Mathias

    2013-09-01

    While the free-living fauna of the Wadden Sea has received much interest, little is known on the distribution and effects of parasites in the Wadden Sea food web. However, recent studies on this special type of trophic interaction indicate a high diversity of parasites in the Wadden Sea and suggest a multitude of effects on the hosts. This also includes effects on specific predator-prey relationships and the general structure of the food web. Focussing on molluscs, a major group in the Wadden Sea in terms of biomass and abundance and an important link between primary producers and predators, we review existing studies and exemplify the ecological role of parasites in the Wadden Sea food web. First, we give a brief inventory of parasites occurring in the Wadden Sea, ranging from microparasites (e.g. protozoa, bacteria) to macroparasites (e.g. helminths, parasitic copepods) and discuss the effects of spatial scale on heterogeneities in infection levels. We then demonstrate how parasites can affect host population dynamics by acting as a strong mortality factor, causing mollusc mass mortalities. In addition, we will exemplify how parasites can mediate the interaction strength of predator-prey relationships and affect the topological structure of the Wadden Sea food web as a whole. Finally, we highlight some ongoing changes regarding parasitism in the Wadden Sea in the course of global change (e.g. species introduction, climate change) and identify important future research questions to entangle the role of parasites in the Wadden Sea food web.

  13. The Caribbean conundrum of Holocene sea level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Luke; Mound, Jon

    2014-05-01

    In the tropics, pre-historic sea-level curve reconstruction is often problematic because it relies upon sea-level indicators whose vertical relationship to the sea surface is poorly constrained. In the Caribbean, fossil corals, mangrove peats and shell material dominate the pre-historic indicator record. The common approach to reconstruction involves the use of modern analogues to these indicators to establish a fixed vertical habitable range. The aim of these reconstructions is to find spatial variability in the Holocene sea level in an area gradually subsiding (different depths. We use the first catalogue to calibrate 14C ages to give a probabilistic age range for each indicator. We use the second catalogue to define a depth probability distribution function (pdf) for mangroves and each coral species. The Holocene indicators are grouped into 12 sub-regions around the Caribbean. For each sub-region we apply our sea-level reconstruction, which involves stepping a fixed-length time window through time and calculating the position (and rate) of sea-level (change) using a thousand realisations of the time/depth pdfs to define an envelope of probable solutions. We find that the sub-regional relative sea-level curves display spatio-temporal variability including a south-east to north-west 1500 year lag in the arrival of Holocene sea level to that of the present day. We demonstrate that these variations are primarily due to glacial-isostatic-adjustment induced sea-level change and that sub-regional variations (where sufficient data exists) are due to local uplift variability.

  14. Trends in Sea Ice Cover, Sea Surface Temperature, and Chlorophyll Biomass Across a Marine Distributed Biological Observatory in the Pacific Arctic Region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frey, K. E.; Grebmeier, J. M.; Cooper, L. W.; Wood, C.; Panday, P. K.

    2011-12-01

    The northern Bering and Chukchi Seas in the Pacific Arctic Region (PAR) are among the most productive marine ecosystems in the world and act as important carbon sinks, particularly during May and June when seasonal sea ice-associated phytoplankton blooms occur throughout the region. Recent dramatic shifts in seasonal sea ice cover across the PAR should have profound consequences for this seasonal phytoplankton production as well as the intimately linked higher trophic levels. In order to investigate ecosystem responses to these observed recent shifts in sea ice cover, the development of a prototype Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) is now underway in the PAR. The DBO is being developed as an internationally-coordinated change detection array that allows for consistent sampling and monitoring at five spatially explicit biologically productive locations across a latitudinal gradient: (1) DBO-SLP (south of St. Lawrence Island (SLI)), (2) DBO-NBS (north of SLI), (3) DBO-SCS (southern Chukchi Sea), (4) DBO-CCS (central Chukchi Sea), and (5) DBO-BCA (Barrow Canyon Arc). Standardized measurements at many of the DBO sites were made by multiple research cruises during the 2010 and 2011 pilot years, and will be expanded with the development of the DBO in coming years. In order to provide longer-term context for the changes occurring across the PAR, we utilize multi-sensor satellite data to investigate recent trends in sea ice cover, chlorophyll biomass, and sea surface temperatures for each of the five DBO sites, as well as a sixth long-term observational site in the Bering Strait. Satellite observations show that over the past three decades, trends in sea ice cover in the PAR have been heterogeneous, with significant declines in the Chukchi Sea, slight declines in the Bering Strait region, but increases in the northern Bering Sea south of SLI. Declines in the persistence of seasonal sea ice cover in the Chukchi Sea and Bering Strait region are due to both earlier sea

  15. Impact of sea breeze on wind-seas off Goa, west coast of India

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    during November–May, winds in the coastal regions of India are dominated by sea breeze. It has an impact on the daily cycle of the sea state near the coast. The impact is quite significant when large scale winds are weak. During one such event, 1–15 April 1997, a Datawell directional waverider buoy was deployed in 23m ...

  16. Oxygen-18, deuterium and tritium in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rank, D.; Oezsoy, E.; Salihoglu, I.

    1999-01-01

    The stable isotopes 18 O and 2 H, together with the transient tracer 3 H can be used to identify origins and characteristics of distinct water masses in the Black Sea, and in its smaller neighbour, the Marmara Sea, connected between them and to the Mediterranean Sea through the Straits of Bosphorus and Dardanelles, respectively. Exchange through the system and the water mass formation and evolution are characterised, based on the isotope measurements. Spatial coverage including the shelf and deep regions, with improved accuracy and reduced noise provide-definitive assessments of pycnocline and deep mixing in the system. (Copyright (c) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.)

  17. The South Pole and the Ross Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    2002-01-01

    This image shows a rare clear view of the South Pole (lower right) and the Ross Sea, Antarctica. The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) acquired the scene on December 26, 2001. The geographic South Pole is located in the center of Antarctica, at an altitude of 2,900 meters (9,300 feet). It rests on a continent-wide ice sheet that is 2,870 m thick, with the underlying bedrock only 30 m (98 feet) above sea level. The ice underlying the South Pole is as much as 140,000 years old, and is currently accumulating at about 82 cm (32 inches) per year. Roughly 2,500 km (1,550 miles) away is the green water of the Ross Sea, which indicates the presence of large numbers of phytoplankton. This is a highly productive part of the world's oceans. Also note the ice gathered around McMurdo Sound, seen toward the lefthand shoreline of the Ross Sea, at the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. According to National Science Foundation researchers, this ice is making it difficult for penguins to reach their food supply. Separating the continental Antarctic ice sheet from the Ross Sea are the Queen Maud Mountains and the Ross Ice Shelf. Image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE

  18. Extending the Instrumental Record of Sea-Level Change: A 1300-Year Sea-Level Record From Eastern Connecticut

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donnelly, J. P.; Cleary, P.

    2002-12-01

    The instrumental record of sea-level change in the northeastern United States extends back to the early 20th century and at New York City (NYC) extends back to 1856. These tide gauge records indicate that sea level has risen at a rate of 2.5 to 4 mm/year over the last 100-150 years. Geologic evidence of sea-level change in the region over the last 2,000 years indicates rates of sea-level rise of about 1 mm/year or less. The discordance between the instrumental and geologic records is frequently cited as potentially providing evidence that anthropogenic warming of the climate system has resulted in an increase in the rate of sea-level rise. In order to begin to test the hypothesis that acceleration in the rate of sea-level rise has occurred in the last 150 years due to anthropogenic climate warming, accurate and precise information on the timing of the apparent acceleration in sea-level rise are needed. Here we construct a high-resolution relative sea-level record for the past 1350 years by dating basal salt marsh peat samples above a glacial erratic in a western Connecticut salt marsh. Preservation of marsh vegetation remains in the sediment record that has a narrow vertical habitat range at the upper end of the tidal range provides information on past sea levels. { \\it Spartina patens} (marsh hay) and { \\it Juncus gerardi} (black rush) dominate both the modern marsh and their remains are the major constituent of the marsh sediments and occur in the modern marsh between mean high water (MHW) and mean highest high water. We use the elevation distribution of modern plant communities to estimate the relationship of sediment samples to paleo-mean high water. The chronology is based on 15 radiocarbon ages, supplemented by age estimates derived from the horizons of industrial Pb pollution and pollen indicative of European land clearance. Thirteen of the radiocarbon ages and the Pb and pollen data come from samples taken along a contact between marsh peat and a glacial

  19. The Governance of Multi-Use Platforms at Sea for Energy Production and Aquaculture: Challenges for Policy Makers in European Seas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marian Stuiver

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available European seas are encountering an upsurge in competing marine activities and infrastructures. Traditional exploitation such as fisheries, tourism, transportation, and oil production are accompanied by new sustainable economic activities such as offshore windfarms, aquaculture, and tidal and wave energy. One proposed solution to overcome possible competing claims at sea lies in combining these economic activities as part of Multi-Use Platforms at Sea (MUPS. MUPS can be understood as areas at sea, designated for a combination of activities, either completely integrated in a platform or in shared marine space. MUPS can potentially benefit from each other in terms of infrastructure, maintenance, etc. Developing MUPS in the marine environment demands adequate governance. In this article, we investigate four European sites to find out how governance arrangements may facilitate or complicate MUPs. In particular, we apply a framework specifying policy, economic, social, technical, environmental, and legal (PESTEL factors to explore governance arrangements in four case study sites in different sea basins around Europe (the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, and the Baltic Sea. The article concludes with policy recommendations on a governance regime for facilitating the development of MUPS in the future.

  20. The Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armstrong, D.; Gallegos, S. C.

    2016-02-01

    The Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS) web-app was designed to automatically detect Sargassum at sea, forecast movement of the seaweed, and alert users of potential landings. Inspired to help address the economic hardships caused by large landings of Sargassum, the web app automates and enhances the manual tasks conducted by the SEAS group of Texas A&M University at Galveston. The SEAS web app is a modular, mobile-friendly tool that automates the entire workflow from data acquisition to user management. The modules include: 1) an Imagery Retrieval Module to automatically download Landsat-8 Operational Land Imagery (OLI) from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), 2) a Processing Module for automatic detection of Sargassum in the OLI imagery, and subsequent mapping of theses patches in the HYCOM grid, producing maps that show Sargassum clusters; 3) a Forecasting engine fed by the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) model currents and winds from weather buoys; and 4) a mobile phone optimized geospatial user interface. The user can view the last known position of Sargassum clusters, trajectory and location projections for the next 24, 72 and 168 hrs. Users can also subscribe to alerts generated for particular areas. Currently, the SEAS web app produces advisories for Texas beaches. The forecasted Sargassum landing locations are validated by reports from Texas beach managers. However, the SEAS web app was designed to easily expand to other areas, and future plans call for extending the SEAS web app to Mexico and the Caribbean islands. The SEAS web app development is led by NASA, with participation by ASRC Federal/Computer Science Corporation, and the Naval Research Laboratory, all at Stennis Space Center, and Texas A&M University at Galveston.

  1. Variational Ridging in Sea Ice Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, A.; Hunke, E. C.; Lipscomb, W. H.; Maslowski, W.; Kamal, S.

    2017-12-01

    This work presents the results of a new development to make basin-scale sea ice models aware of the shape, porosity and extent of individual ridges within the pack. We have derived an analytic solution for the Euler-Lagrange equation of individual ridges that accounts for non-conservative forces, and therefore the compressive strength of individual ridges. Because a region of the pack is simply a collection of paths of individual ridges, we are able to solve the Euler-Lagrange equation for a large-scale sea ice field also, and therefore the compressive strength of a region of the pack that explicitly accounts for the macro-porosity of ridged debris. We make a number of assumptions that have simplified the problem, such as treating sea ice as a granular material in ridges, and assuming that bending moments associated with ridging are perturbations around an isostatic state. Regardless of these simplifications, the ridge model is remarkably predictive of macro-porosity and ridge shape, and, because our equations are analytic, they do not require costly computations to solve the Euler-Lagrange equation of ridges on the large scale. The new ridge model is therefore applicable to large-scale sea ice models. We present results from this theoretical development, as well as plans to apply it to the Regional Arctic System Model and a community sea ice code. Most importantly, the new ridging model is particularly useful for pinpointing gaps in our observational record of sea ice ridges, and points to the need for improved measurements of the evolution of porosity of deformed ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. Such knowledge is not only useful for improving models, but also for improving estimates of sea ice volume derived from altimetric measurements of sea ice freeboard.

  2. Crust Structure Data of Seas Surrounding Turkey

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maden, N.; Gelisli, K.

    2007-01-01

    Black Sea, Aegean, Mediterranean and Marmara Sea, which surround the Turkey, have not been examined with respect to the Geological, Geophysical and other natural sciences sufficiently. In fact, it is not attach importance the Turkish seas adequately and abandoned with respect to the scientific researches. The most important reason of this situation is the lack of the education of the Marine Sciences in the Turkish Universities. In this study, it is tried to construct a crustal structure data base of the surrounding seas of the Turkey by collecting crustal structure data sets done by different authors in different times so far. The data acquired in the base are collected from different data base sources by dragging. The Moho depth in the eastern and western basin of the Black sea is 22 km and 19 km, respectively. In the Marmara Sea the Moho depth is 24 km. The moho value in the southern Aegean is 20 km, in the northern Aegean the moho depth is 30 km. on the other hand, the moho depth value in the eastern and western basin of the Mediterranean Sea are 15-20 km and 25-30 km, respectively

  3. Modelling the extinction of Steller's sea cow

    OpenAIRE

    Turvey, S.T; Risley, C.L

    2005-01-01

    Steller's sea cow, a giant sirenian discovered in 1741 and extinct by 1768, is one of the few megafaunal mammal species to have died out during the historical period. The species is traditionally considered to have been exterminated by ‘blitzkrieg’-style direct overharvesting for food, but it has also been proposed that its extinction resulted from a sea urchin population explosion triggered by extirpation of local sea otter populations that eliminated the shallow-water kelps on which sea cow...

  4. Sea level and climate variations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oerlemans, J.

    1985-01-01

    Review paper, ESA Symposium on Application of Satellite Data to Climate Modelling. Alpbach (Austria) Sea level is an essential component of the climate system, on which many human activities in the coastal zone depend. Climate variations leading to changes in relative sea level are

  5. ICESat Observations of Seasonal and Interannual Variations of Sea-Ice Freeboard and Estimated Thickness in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica (2003-2009)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yi, Donghui; Robbins, John W.

    2010-01-01

    Sea-ice freeboard heights for 17 ICESat campaign periods from 2003 to 2009 are derived from ICESat data. Freeboard is combined with snow depth from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) data and nominal densities of snow, water and sea ice, to estimate sea-ice thickness. Sea-ice freeboard and thickness distributions show clear seasonal variations that reflect the yearly cycle of growth and decay of the Weddell Sea (Antarctica) pack ice. During October-November, sea ice grows to its seasonal maximum both in area and thickness; the mean freeboards are 0.33-0.41 m and the mean thicknesses are 2.10-2.59 m. During February-March, thinner sea ice melts away and the sea-ice pack is mainly distributed in the west Weddell Sea; the mean freeboards are 0.35-0.46 m and the mean thicknesses are 1.48-1.94 m. During May-June, the mean freeboards and thicknesses are 0.26-0.29 m and 1.32-1.37 m, respectively. The 6 year trends in sea-ice extent and volume are (0.023+/-0.051) x 10(exp 6)sq km/a (0.45%/a) and (0.007+/-1.0.092) x 10(exp 3)cu km/a (0.08%/a); however, the large standard deviations indicate that these positive trends are not statistically significant.

  6. The old man and the sea.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Geesaman, D. F. (Physics)

    2010-01-01

    The summary of this presentation is: (1) the origin and structure of the sea remain critical themes in the physics of the nucleon and nucleus; (2) We need to push to higher x values and E906/SeaQuest is especially well suited for this. We start this summer and run for two years; (3) The other really key measurement is improved precision in the spin carried by the sea quarks and the spin-correlations in the sea - COMPASS, RHIC, J-PARC, JLAB 12 GeV.; and (4) This is difficult and may require the next generation of polarized Drell-Yan experiments. Whatever we measure, Tony Thomas will have thought of it first and helped stimulate the experiments.

  7. The old man and the sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geesaman, D.F.

    2010-01-01

    The summary of this presentation is: (1) the origin and structure of the sea remain critical themes in the physics of the nucleon and nucleus; (2) We need to push to higher x values and E906/SeaQuest is especially well suited for this. We start this summer and run for two years; (3) The other really key measurement is improved precision in the spin carried by the sea quarks and the spin-correlations in the sea - COMPASS, RHIC, J-PARC, JLAB 12 GeV.; and (4) This is difficult and may require the next generation of polarized Drell-Yan experiments. Whatever we measure, Tony Thomas will have thought of it first and helped stimulate the experiments.

  8. Sea dumping of hazardous wastes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thomas, J.

    1980-01-01

    From 1967 until 1976 ca. 45,000 t of weak radioactive wastes had been dumped into the sea during several actions under the supervision of the NEA. The requirements to be deduced from the experiences with regard to marine areas, packaging and transports of the wastes are described. Up to now the possibilities of the sea dumping of strong radioactive wastes has been just discussed. The natural removal of the decay heat by sea water would be advantageous but the problem of water-proof packagings for the period of 1000 years have not been solved yet. (orig.) [de

  9. THE COMPETITIVENESS ASSESSMENT OF THE POLISH AND GERMAN SEA PORTS AT THE SOUTHERN BALTIC SEA USING THE MULTICRITERIA METHOD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bohdan Pac

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents the results of the research conducted by the scientists of the Baltic Sea Logistics Research Centre in Gdansk Banking School. The aim of the research was to assess the competitiveness level of the indicated Polish and German sea ports at the Southern Baltic Sea on the base of their identified logistic capabilities. As the tool to make the assessment the Analitic Hierarchic Process (AHP method has been implemented. The sea port competitiveness has been directly referred to the total sea port logistic capabilities and presented as the number value. The research was focused on the logistics areas that is why it is difficult to take it as the interdisciplinary solution.

  10. Restoration of sea eagle population: A review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Josef RAJCHARD

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available The population density of the white-tailed sea eagle Haliaeetus albicilla is very low in many countries. In last twenty years, the sea eagle population in South Bohemia was restored by strict protection subsidized by reintroduction. The active help consisted of feeding during winter and building of artificial nests. A new sea eagle breeding population arose in the Třeboň basin area in the early 1980’s. Until this time sea eagles had used former breeding places only for wintering, probably coming from the Baltic. The South Bohemian sea eagle population is very unique: it exists in a densely man-occupied landscape, mainly in areas with very intensive carp breeding in artificial fishponds and was partly artficially (help to wintering birds and reintroduction of some individuals restored. The experience from South Bohemia may have importance for populations of the sea eagle in other areas of its occurence, primarily in the continental conditions [Current Zoology 55 (5:–2009].

  11. Lessons from sea louse and salmon epidemiology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Groner, Maya L; Rogers, Luke A; Bateman, Andrew W; Connors, Brendan M; Frazer, L Neil; Godwin, Sean C; Krkošek, Martin; Lewis, Mark A; Peacock, Stephanie J; Rees, Erin E; Revie, Crawford W; Schlägel, Ulrike E

    2016-03-05

    Effective disease management can benefit from mathematical models that identify drivers of epidemiological change and guide decision-making. This is well illustrated in the host-parasite system of sea lice and salmon, which has been modelled extensively due to the economic costs associated with sea louse infections on salmon farms and the conservation concerns associated with sea louse infections on wild salmon. Consequently, a rich modelling literature devoted to sea louse and salmon epidemiology has been developed. We provide a synthesis of the mathematical and statistical models that have been used to study the epidemiology of sea lice and salmon. These studies span both conceptual and tactical models to quantify the effects of infections on host populations and communities, describe and predict patterns of transmission and dispersal, and guide evidence-based management of wild and farmed salmon. As aquaculture production continues to increase, advances made in modelling sea louse and salmon epidemiology should inform the sustainable management of marine resources. © 2016 The Author(s).

  12. Sea water pipeline for nuclear power plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ueno, Ken-ichi.

    1992-01-01

    Heating coils, for example, are wound around sea water pipelines as a heater. The outer wall surface of the sea water pipelines is heated by the heating coils. The inner wall surfaces of the sea water pipelines can be warmed to higher than a predetermined temperature by heating the outer wall surfaces to die out marine organisms deposited at the inner surfaces. Further, thermocouples for the external wall and the internal wall are disposed so that the temperature at the inner wall surface of the sea water pipelines can be controlled. Further, a temperature keeping material is disposed at the external surface of the sea water system pipelines. With such a constitution, the marine organisms deposited on the internal wall surface of the sea water system pipelines are died out to suppress the deposition amount of the marine organisms. Accordingly, the maintenance and the operation reliability is improved after maintenance. (I.N.)

  13. Sea level rise and the geoid: factor analysis approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexey Sadovski

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Sea levels are rising around the world, and this is a particular concern along most of the coasts of the United States. A 1989 EPA report shows that sea levels rose 5-6 inches more than the global average along the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coasts in the last century. The main reason for this is coastal land subsidence. This sea level rise is considered more as relative sea level rise than global sea level rise. Thus, instead of studying sea level rise globally, this paper describes a statistical approach by using factor analysis of regional sea level rates of change. Unlike physical models and semi-empirical models that attempt to approach how much and how fast sea levels are changing, this methodology allows for a discussion of the factor(s that statistically affects sea level rates of change, and seeks patterns to explain spatial correlations.

  14. Present day sea level changes: observation and causes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lombard, A.

    2005-11-01

    Whereas sea level has changed little over the last 2000 years, it has risen at a rate of about 2 mm/year during the 20. century. This unexpected sea level rise has been attributed to the anthropogenic global warming, recorded over several decades. Sea level variations have been measured globally and precisely for about 12 years due to satellite altimeter missions Topex/Poseidon and Jason-1. These observations indicate a global mean sea level rise of about 3 mm/year since 1993, a value significantly larger than observed during previous decades. Recent observations have allowed us to quantify the various climatic factors contributing to observed sea level change: thermal expansion of sea water due to ocean warming, melting of mountain glaciers and ice sheets, and changes in the land water reservoirs. A water budget based on these new observations allows us to partly explain the observed sea level rise. In particular, we show that the thermal expansion explains only 25% of the secular sea level rise as recorded by tide-gauges over the last 50 years, while it contributes about 50% of sea level rise observed over the last decade. Meanwhile, recent studies show that glacier and ice sheet melting could contribute the equivalent of 1 mm/year in sea level rise over the last decade. In addition, the high regional variability of sea level trends revealed by satellite altimetry is mainly due to thermal expansion. There is also an important decadal spatio-temporal variability in the ocean thermal expansion over the last 50 years, which seems to be controlled by natural climate fluctuations. We question for the first time the link between the decadal fluctuations in the ocean thermal expansion and in the land reservoirs, and indeed their climatic contribution to sea level change. Finally a preliminary analysis of GRACE spatial gravimetric observations over the oceans allows us to estimate the seasonal variations in mean sea level due to ocean water mass balance variations

  15. Polar bear population dynamics in the southern Beaufort Sea during a period of sea ice decline

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bromaghin, Jeffrey F.; McDonald, Trent L.; Stirling, Ian; Derocher, Andrew E.; Richardson, Evan S.; Regehr, Eric V.; Douglas, David C.; Durner, George M.; Atwood, Todd C.; Amstrup, Steven C.

    2015-01-01

    In the southern Beaufort Sea of the United States and Canada, prior investigations have linked declines in summer sea ice to reduced physical condition, growth, and survival of polar bears (Ursus maritimus). Combined with projections of population decline due to continued climate warming and the ensuing loss of sea ice habitat, those findings contributed to the 2008 decision to list the species as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Here, we used mark–recapture models to investigate the population dynamics of polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea from 2001 to 2010, years during which the spatial and temporal extent of summer sea ice generally declined. Low survival from 2004 through 2006 led to a 25–50% decline in abundance. We hypothesize that low survival during this period resulted from (1) unfavorable ice conditions that limited access to prey during multiple seasons; and possibly, (2) low prey abundance. For reasons that are not clear, survival of adults and cubs began to improve in 2007 and abundance was comparatively stable from 2008 to 2010, with ~900 bears in 2010 (90% CI 606–1212). However, survival of subadult bears declined throughout the entire period. Reduced spatial and temporal availability of sea ice is expected to increasingly force population dynamics of polar bears as the climate continues to warm. However, in the short term, our findings suggest that factors other than sea ice can influence survival. A refined understanding of the ecological mechanisms underlying polar bear population dynamics is necessary to improve projections of their future status and facilitate development of management strategies.

  16. Ice–ocean coupled computations for sea-ice prediction to support ice navigation in Arctic sea routes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liyanarachchi Waruna Arampath De Silva

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available With the recent rapid decrease in summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean extending the navigation period in the Arctic sea routes (ASR, the precise prediction of ice distribution is crucial for safe and efficient navigation in the Arctic Ocean. In general, however, most of the available numerical models have exhibited significant uncertainties in short-term and narrow-area predictions, especially in marginal ice zones such as the ASR. In this study, we predict short-term sea-ice conditions in the ASR by using a mesoscale eddy-resolving ice–ocean coupled model that explicitly treats ice floe collisions in marginal ice zones. First, numerical issues associated with collision rheology in the ice–ocean coupled model (ice–Princeton Ocean Model [POM] are discussed and resolved. A model for the whole of the Arctic Ocean with a coarser resolution (about 25 km was developed to investigate the performance of the ice–POM model by examining the reproducibility of seasonal and interannual sea-ice variability. It was found that this coarser resolution model can reproduce seasonal and interannual sea-ice variations compared to observations, but it cannot be used to predict variations over the short-term, such as one to two weeks. Therefore, second, high-resolution (about 2.5 km regional models were set up along the ASR to investigate the accuracy of short-term sea-ice predictions. High-resolution computations were able to reasonably reproduce the sea-ice extent compared to Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer–Earth Observing System satellite observations because of the improved expression of the ice–albedo feedback process and the ice–eddy interaction process.

  17. Distribution and activity of petroleum hydrocarbon degrading bacteria in the North Sea and Baltic Sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bruns, K.; Dahlmann, G.; Gunkel, W.

    1993-01-01

    Data were collected in 1988 and 1989 on the distribution and activity of petroleum hydrocarbon degrading bacteria in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Crude oil degrading bacteria and the number of bacteria which in particular degrade naphthalene were quantified using a modified dilution method (MPN). Crude oil degrading bacteria were present in all of about 100 water samples, with as many as 10 3 ml -1 in some samples. Numbers of naphthalene degrading bacteria were at least tenfold lower. There is obviously a greater connection between this bacteria group and petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) contamination than between the more nonspecific group of crude oil degrading bacteria and PHC contamination. Data from the North Sea show an extremely high abundance of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria, even in winter, while in the southern Baltic Sea low numbers of bacteria were found and slower crude oil degradation was observed. (orig.)

  18. Sea otters in the northern Pacific Ocean

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bodkin, James L.; Jameson, Ronald J.; Estes, James A.; LaRoe, Edward T.; Farris, Gaye S.; Puckett, Catherine E.; Doran, Peter D.; Mac, Michael J.

    1995-01-01

    About 250 years ago sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were distributed continuously from central Baja California, north and west along the Pacific Rim to Machatka Peninsula in Russia, and south along the Kuril Island to northern Japan (Kenyon 1969; Fig. 1a). Several hundred thousand sea otters may have occurred in the north Pacific region when commercial hunting began in the 18th century (Riedman and Estes 1990).At least two attributes of the sea otter have influenced humans, likely for as long as they have resided together along the coast of the north Pacific Ocean. First, sea otters rely on a dense fur, among the finest in the world, for insulation in the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. The demand for sea otter fur led to their near extinction in the 19th century. The fur harvest, begun about 1740 and halted by international treaty in 1911, left surviving colonies, each likely numbering less than a few hundred animals, in California, south-central Alaska, and the Aleutian, Medney, and Kuril Islands (Fig. 1a). These individuals provided the nucleus for the recovery of the species. Today more than 100,000 sea otters occur throughout about 75% of their original range (fig. 1b). Immigration has resulted in near-complete occupation of the Aleutian and Kuril archipelagos and the Alaska peninsula. Successful translocations have resulted in viable populations in southeast Alaska, Washington, and British Columbia. Large amounts of unoccupied habitat remain along the coasts of Russia, Canada, the United States, and Mexico.The second potential source of conflict between sea otters and humans is that sea otters prey on and often limit some benthic invertebrate populations. Because some of these invertebrates are aso used by humans (Estes and VanBlaricom 1985), human perceptions about the effects of sea otter foraging on invertebrates sometimes differ. By limiting populations of herbivorous invertebrates (e.g., sea urchins [Echinoidea]) otters help maintain the integrity of kelp

  19. Temperature impacts on deep-sea biodiversity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yasuhara, Moriaki; Danovaro, Roberto

    2016-05-01

    Temperature is considered to be a fundamental factor controlling biodiversity in marine ecosystems, but precisely what role temperature plays in modulating diversity is still not clear. The deep ocean, lacking light and in situ photosynthetic primary production, is an ideal model system to test the effects of temperature changes on biodiversity. Here we synthesize current knowledge on temperature-diversity relationships in the deep sea. Our results from both present and past deep-sea assemblages suggest that, when a wide range of deep-sea bottom-water temperatures is considered, a unimodal relationship exists between temperature and diversity (that may be right skewed). It is possible that temperature is important only when at relatively high and low levels but does not play a major role in the intermediate temperature range. Possible mechanisms explaining the temperature-biodiversity relationship include the physiological-tolerance hypothesis, the metabolic hypothesis, island biogeography theory, or some combination of these. The possible unimodal relationship discussed here may allow us to identify tipping points at which on-going global change and deep-water warming may increase or decrease deep-sea biodiversity. Predicted changes in deep-sea temperatures due to human-induced climate change may have more adverse consequences than expected considering the sensitivity of deep-sea ecosystems to temperature changes. © 2014 Cambridge Philosophical Society.

  20. The Secret of the Svalbard Sea Ice Barrier

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nghiem, Son V.; Van Woert, Michael L.; Neumann, Gregory

    2004-01-01

    An elongated sea ice feature called the Svalbard sea ice barrier rapidly formed over an area in the Barents Sea to the east of Svalbard posing navigation hazards. The secret of its formation lies in the bottom bathymetry that governs the distribution of cold Arctic waters masses, which impacts sea ice growth on the water surface.

  1. Sea ice dynamics influence halogen deposition to Svalbard

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Spolaor

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Sea ice is an important parameter in the climate system and its changes impact upon the polar albedo and atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Iodine (I and bromine (Br have been measured in a shallow firn core drilled at the summit of the Holtedahlfonna glacier (Northwest Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Changing I concentrations can be linked to the March–May maximum sea ice extension. Bromine enrichment, indexed to the Br / Na sea water mass ratio, appears to be influenced by changes in the seasonal sea ice area. I is emitted from marine biota and so the retreat of March–May sea ice coincides with enlargement of the open-ocean surface which enhances marine primary production and consequent I emission. The observed Br enrichment could be explained by greater Br emissions during the Br explosions that have been observed to occur mainly above first year sea ice during the early springtime. In this work we present the first comparison between halogens in surface snow and Arctic sea ice extension. Although further investigation is required to characterize potential depositional and post-depositional processes, these preliminary findings suggest that I and Br can be linked to variability in the spring maximum sea ice extension and seasonal sea ice surface area.

  2. Linear and non-linear sea-level variations in the Adriatic Sea from tide gauge records (1872-2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gaia Galassi

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available We have analyzed tide gauge data from the Adriatic Sea in order to assess the secular sea-level trend, its acceleration and the existence of possible cyclic variation. Analyzing the sea-level stack of all Adriatic tide gauges, we have obtained a trend of (1.25±0.04 mm yr-1, in agreement with that observed for the last century in the Mediterranean Sea, and an acceleration that is negligibile compared to the average global values. By means of the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition technique, we have evidenced an energetic oscillation with a period of ∼20 years that we relate with the recurrence of opposite phases in the Atlantic Multi–decadal Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation indices. We suggest that anomalously high sea-level values observed at all the Adriatic tide gauges during 2010 and 2011 can be explained by the rising phase of this 20 years cycle.

  3. The Effect of the South Asia Monsoon on the Wind Sea and Swell Patterns in the Arabian Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Semedo, Alvaro

    2015-04-01

    Ocean surface gravity waves have a considerable impact on coastal and offshore infrastructures, and are determinant on ship design and routing. But waves also play an important role on the coastal dynamics and beach erosion, and modulate the exchanges of momentum, and mass and other scalars between the atmosphere and the ocean. A constant quantitative and qualitative knowledge of the wave patterns is therefore needed. There are two types of waves at the ocean surface: wind-sea and swell. Wind-sea waves are growing waves under the direct influence of local winds; as these waves propagate away from their generation area, or when their phase speed overcomes the local wind speed, they are called swell. Swell waves can propagate thousands of kilometers across entire ocean basins. The qualitative analysis of ocean surface waves has been the focus of several recent studies, from the wave climate to the air-sea interaction community. The reason for this interest lies mostly in the fact that waves have an impact on the lower atmosphere, and that the air-sea coupling is different depending on the wave regime. Waves modulate the exchange of momentum, heat, and mass across the air-sea interface, and this modulation is different and dependent on the prevalence of one type of waves: wind sea or swell. For fully developed seas the coupling between the ocean-surface and the overlaying atmosphere can be seen as quasi-perfect, in a sense that the momentum transfer and energy dissipation at the ocean surface are in equilibrium. This can only occur in special areas of the Ocean, either in marginal seas, with limited fetch, or in Open Ocean, in areas with strong and persistent wind speed with little or no variation in direction. One of these areas is the Arabian Sea, along the coasts of Somalia, Yemen and Oman. The wind climate in the Arabian sea is under the direct influence of the South Asia monsoon, where the wind blows steady from the northeast during the boreal winter, and

  4. Sea level and shoreline reconstructions for the Red Sea: isostatic and tectonic considerations and implications for hominin migration out of Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lambeck, Kurt; Purcell, Anthony; Flemming, Nicholas. C.; Vita-Finzi, Claudio; Alsharekh, Abdullah M.; Bailey, Geoffrey N.

    2011-12-01

    The history of sea level within the Red Sea basin impinges on several areas of research. For archaeology and prehistory, past sea levels of the southern sector define possible pathways of human dispersal out of Africa. For tectonics, the interglacial sea levels provide estimates of rates for vertical tectonics. For global sea level studies, the Red Sea sediments contain a significant record of changing water chemistry with implications on the mass exchange between oceans and ice sheets during glacial cycles. And, because of its geometry and location, the Red Sea provides a test laboratory for models of glacio-hydro-isostasy. The Red Sea margins contain incomplete records of sea level for the Late Holocene, for the Last Glacial Maximum, for the Last Interglacial and for earlier interglacials. These are usually interpreted in terms of tectonics and ocean volume changes but it is shown here that the glacio-hydro-isostatic process is an additional important component with characteristic spatial variability. Through an iterative analysis of the Holocene and interglacial evidence a separation of the tectonic, isostatic and eustatic contributions is possible and we present a predictive model for palaeo-shorelines and water depths for a time interval encompassing the period proposed for migrations of modern humans out of Africa. Principal conclusions include the following. (i) Late Holocene sea level signals evolve along the length of the Red Sea, with characteristic mid-Holocene highstands not developing in the central part. (ii) Last Interglacial sea level signals are also location dependent and, in the absence of tectonics, are not predicted to occur more than 1-2 m above present sea level. (iii) For both periods, Red Sea levels at 'expected far-field' elevations are not necessarily indicative of tectonic stability and the evidence points to a long-wavelength tectonic uplift component along both the African and Arabian northern and central sides of the Red Sea. (iv) The

  5. Arctic tides from GPS on sea ice

    OpenAIRE

    Kildegaard Rose, Stine; Skourup, Henriette; Forsberg, René

    2012-01-01

    The presence of sea-ice in the Arctic Ocean plays a significant role in the Arctic climate. Sea ice dampens the ocean tide amplitude with the result that global tidal models which use only astronomical data perform less accurately in the polar regions. This study presents a kinematic processing of Global Positioning System (GPS) buoys placed on sea-ice at five different sites north of Greenland for the study of sea level height and tidal analysis to improve tidal models in the Central Arctic....

  6. Governance of the Wadden Sea

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Slob, Adriaan F.L.; Geerdink, T.R.A.; Rockmann, Christine; Vöge, S.

    2016-01-01

    The Wadden Sea is a unique area from ecological, geological and cultural perspectives and lies in the territories of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. The trilateral cooperation on the protection of the Wadden Sea can be marked to start in 1978, although the countries already cooperated

  7. Review of critical factors for SEA implementation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhang Jie, E-mail: jasmine@plan.aau.dk; Christensen, Per; Kornov, Lone

    2013-01-15

    The implementation process involved in translating Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) intention into action is vital to an effective SEA. Many factors influence implementation and thus the effectiveness of an SEA. Empirical studies have identified and documented some factors influencing the implementation of an SEA. This research is fragmented, however, and it is still not clear what are the most critical factors of effective SEA performance, and how these relate to different stages of the implementation process or other contextual circumstances. The paper takes its point of departure in implementation theory. Firstly, we introduce implementation theory, and then use it in practice to establish a more comprehensive model related to the stages in the implementation process. Secondly, we identify the critical factors in order to see how they are related to the different stages of SEA or are more general in character. Finally we map the different critical factors and how they influence the overall results of an SEA. Based on a literature review, we present a comprehensive picture of the critical factors and where they are found in the process. We conclude that most of the critical factors identified are of a more general character influencing the SEA process as such, while only one out of four of these factors relates to the specific stages of the SEA. Based on this mapping we can sketch a picture of the totality of critical factors. In this study 266 notions of critical factors were identified. Seen at the level of notions of critical factors, only 24% of these relate to specific stages while for 76% the critical factors are of a more general nature. These critical factors interact in complex ways and appear in different combinations in different stages of the implementation process so tracing the cause and effect is difficult. The pervasiveness of contextual and general factors also clearly suggests that there is no single way to put SEA into practice. The

  8. Review of critical factors for SEA implementation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Jie; Christensen, Per; Kørnøv, Lone

    2013-01-01

    The implementation process involved in translating Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) intention into action is vital to an effective SEA. Many factors influence implementation and thus the effectiveness of an SEA. Empirical studies have identified and documented some factors influencing the implementation of an SEA. This research is fragmented, however, and it is still not clear what are the most critical factors of effective SEA performance, and how these relate to different stages of the implementation process or other contextual circumstances. The paper takes its point of departure in implementation theory. Firstly, we introduce implementation theory, and then use it in practice to establish a more comprehensive model related to the stages in the implementation process. Secondly, we identify the critical factors in order to see how they are related to the different stages of SEA or are more general in character. Finally we map the different critical factors and how they influence the overall results of an SEA. Based on a literature review, we present a comprehensive picture of the critical factors and where they are found in the process. We conclude that most of the critical factors identified are of a more general character influencing the SEA process as such, while only one out of four of these factors relates to the specific stages of the SEA. Based on this mapping we can sketch a picture of the totality of critical factors. In this study 266 notions of critical factors were identified. Seen at the level of notions of critical factors, only 24% of these relate to specific stages while for 76% the critical factors are of a more general nature. These critical factors interact in complex ways and appear in different combinations in different stages of the implementation process so tracing the cause and effect is difficult. The pervasiveness of contextual and general factors also clearly suggests that there is no single way to put SEA into practice. The

  9. Albedo of the ice covered Weddell and Bellingshausen Seas

    OpenAIRE

    A. I. Weiss; J. C. King; T. A. Lachlan-Cope; R. S. Ladkin

    2012-01-01

    This study investigates the surface albedo of the sea ice areas adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula during the austral summer. Aircraft measurements of the surface albedo, which were conducted in the sea ice areas of the Weddell and Bellingshausen Seas show significant differences between these two regions. The averaged surface albedo varied between 0.13 and 0.81. The ice cover of the Bellingshausen Sea consisted mainly of first year ice and the sea surface showed an averaged sea ice albedo o...

  10. Albedo of the ice-covered Weddell and Bellingshausen Sea

    OpenAIRE

    A. I. Weiss; J. C. King; T. A. Lachlan-Cope; R. S. Ladkin

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates the surface albedo of the sea ice areas adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula during the austral summer. Aircraft measurements of the surface albedo which were conducted in the sea ice areas of the Weddell and Bellingshausen Sea show significant differences between these two regions. The averaged surface albedo varied between 0.13 and 0.81. The ice cover of the Bellingshausen Sea consisted mainly of first year ice and the sea surface showed an averaged sea ice albed...

  11. The International Arctic Seas Assessment Project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Linsley, G.S.; Sjoeblom, K.L.

    1994-01-01

    The International Arctic Seas Assessment Project (IASAP) was initiated in 1993 to address widespread concern over the possible health and environmental impacts associated with the radioactive waste dumped into the shallow waters of the Arctic Seas. This article discusses the project with these general topics: A brief history of dumping activities; the international control system; perspectives on arctic Seas dumping; the IASAP aims and implementation; the IASAP work plan and progress. 2 figs

  12. Sea Turtles Geolocalization in the Indian Ocean: An Over Sea Radio Channel framework integrating a trilateration technique

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guegan, Loic; Murad, Nour Mohammad; Bonhommeau, Sylvain

    2018-03-01

    This paper deals with the modeling of the over sea radio channel and aims to establish sea turtles localization off the coast of Reunion Island, and also on Europa Island in the Mozambique Channel. In order to model this radio channel, a framework measurement protocol is proposed. The over sea measured channel is integrated to the localization algorithm to estimate the turtle trajectory based on Power of Arrival (PoA) technique compared to GPS localization. Moreover, cross correlation tool is used to characterize the over sea propagation channel. First measurement of the radio channel on the Reunion Island coast combine to the POA algorithm show an error of 18 m for 45% of the approximated points.

  13. Microbiology of the Red Sea (and other) deep-sea anoxic brine lakes

    KAUST Repository

    Antunes, Andre

    2011-05-30

    Summary: The Red Sea harbours approximately 25 deep-sea anoxic brine pools. They constitute extremely unique and complex habitats with the conjugation of several extreme physicochemical parameters rendering them some of the most inhospitable environments on Earth. After 50 years of research mostly driven by chemists, geophysicists and geologists, the microbiology of the brines has been receiving increased interest in the last decade. Recent molecular and cultivation-based studies have provided us with a first glimpse on the enormous biodiversity of the local microbial communities, the identification of several new taxonomic groups, and the isolation of novel extremophiles that thrive in these environments. This review presents a general overview of these unusual biotopes and compares them with other similar environments in the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, with a focus on their microbial ecology. © 2011 Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  14. The effects of additional black carbon on the albedo of Arctic sea ice: variation with sea ice type and snow cover

    OpenAIRE

    A. A. Marks; M. D. King

    2013-01-01

    The response of the albedo of bare sea ice and snow-covered sea ice to the addition of black carbon is calculated. Visible light absorption and light-scattering cross-sections are derived for a typical first-year and multi-year sea ice with both "dry" and "wet" snow types. The cross-sections are derived using data from a 1970s field study that recorded both reflectivity and light penetration in Arctic sea ice and snow overlying sea ice. The variation of absorption cross-section ov...

  15. Parasites in the Wadden Sea food web

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Thieltges, D.W.; Engelsma, M.Y.; Wendling, C.C.; Wegner, K.M.

    2013-01-01

    While the free-living fauna of the Wadden Sea has received much interest, little is known on the distribution and effects of parasites in the Wadden Sea food web. However, recent studies on this special type of trophic interaction indicate a high diversity of parasites in the Wadden Sea and suggest

  16. Sea cucumbers, the ocean of bioactive compounds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hadi Ebrahimi

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Sea cucumbers are one of the most echinoderms and from the class Holothuroidea. Some of their specific biological activities are including anti-cancer, anticoagulant, antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-atherosclerosis and anti-tumor properties, as well as accelerate wound healing. The presence of different compounds such as saponins, chondroitin sulfates, glycosaminoglycans, sulfated Polysaccharides, glycoprotein, glycosphingolipids and essential and non essential fatty acids, are the causes of their biological properties. Saponins, which are produced for compatibility with the environment, are as theire secondary metabolites. These active compounds have biological properties like hemolytic, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, ichthyotoxic, cytostatic, anti neogenic, antineoplastic, and uric acid lowering effects. Sea cucumber, have high economic value. In East Asia, Since ancient times, it have been traditionally used for the treatment of fatigue, sexual impotence, impotence caused by aging, constipation due to intestinal dryness, urinary incontinence, asthma, hypertension, arthritis and anemia. Also, toxins obtained from sea cucumber, have anti-viral, anti-tumor, anti-cancer and anti-pregnancy properties. According to literatures, the aqueous extract and high molecular weight compounds from sea cucumbers can inhibit tumor activity, via the apoptosis induction. Sea cucumbers because of the high percentage of protein and the absence of cholesterol, classified as an invigorating food. Because of different species of sea cucumbers in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea the identification of compounds and biological properties of sea cucumber species in these regions is recommended to the researchers.

  17. Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Changes and Impacts (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nghiem, S. V.

    2013-12-01

    The extent of springtime Arctic perennial sea ice, important to preconditioning summer melt and to polar sunrise photochemistry, continues its precipitous reduction in the last decade marked by a record low in 2012, as the Bromine, Ozone, and Mercury Experiment (BROMEX) was conducted around Barrow, Alaska, to investigate impacts of sea ice reduction on photochemical processes, transport, and distribution in the polar environment. In spring 2013, there was further loss of perennial sea ice, as it was not observed in the ocean region adjacent to the Alaskan north coast, where there was a stretch of perennial sea ice in 2012 in the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea. In contrast to the rapid and extensive loss of sea ice in the Arctic, Antarctic sea ice has a trend of a slight increase in the past three decades. Given the significant variability in time and in space together with uncertainties in satellite observations, the increasing trend of Antarctic sea ice may arguably be considered as having a low confidence level; however, there was no overall reduction of Antarctic sea ice extent anywhere close to the decreasing rate of Arctic sea ice. There exist publications presenting various factors driving changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. After a short review of these published factors, new observations and atmospheric, oceanic, hydrological, and geological mechanisms contributed to different behaviors of sea ice changes in the Arctic and Antarctic are presented. The contribution from of hydrologic factors may provide a linkage to and enhance thermal impacts from lower latitudes. While geological factors may affect the sensitivity of sea ice response to climate change, these factors can serve as the long-term memory in the system that should be exploited to improve future projections or predictions of sea ice changes. Furthermore, similarities and differences in chemical impacts of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice changes are discussed. Understanding sea ice changes and

  18. Sea ice classification using dual polarization SAR data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huiying, Liu; Huadong, Guo; Lu, Zhang

    2014-01-01

    Sea ice is an indicator of climate change and also a threat to the navigation security of ships. Polarimetric SAR images are useful in the sea ice detection and classification. In this paper, backscattering coefficients and texture features derived from dual polarization SAR images are used for sea ice classification. Firstly, the HH image is recalculated based on the angular dependences of sea ice types. Then the effective gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) texture features are selected for the support vector machine (SVM) classification. In the end, because sea ice concentration can provide a better separation of pancake ice from old ice, it is used to improve the SVM result. This method provides a good classification result, compared with the sea ice chart from CIS

  19. Knowledge-based sea ice classification by polarimetric SAR

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skriver, Henning; Dierking, Wolfgang

    2004-01-01

    Polarimetric SAR images acquired at C- and L-band over sea ice in the Greenland Sea, Baltic Sea, and Beaufort Sea have been analysed with respect to their potential for ice type classification. The polarimetric data were gathered by the Danish EMISAR and the US AIRSAR which both are airborne...... systems. A hierarchical classification scheme was chosen for sea ice because our knowledge about magnitudes, variations, and dependences of sea ice signatures can be directly considered. The optimal sequence of classification rules and the rules themselves depend on the ice conditions/regimes. The use...... of the polarimetric phase information improves the classification only in the case of thin ice types but is not necessary for thicker ice (above about 30 cm thickness)...

  20. Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST) dataset is a global monthly sea surface temperature analysis derived from the International Comprehensive...

  1. Sea level rise in the Arctic Ocean

    OpenAIRE

    Proshutinsky, Andrey; Pavlov, Vladimir; Bourke, Robert H.

    2001-01-01

    The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2000GL012760 About 60 tide-gauge stations in the Kara, Laptev, East-Siberian and Chukchi Seas have recorded the sea level change from the 1950s through 1990s. Over this 40-year period, most of these stations show a significant sea level rise (SLR). In light of global change, this SLR could be a manifestation of warming in the Artic coupled with a decrease of sea ice extent, warming of Atlantic waters, changes in...

  2. Exploring Archaeal Communities And Genomes Across Five Deep-Sea Brine Lakes Of The Red Sea With A Focus On Methanogens

    KAUST Repository

    Guan, Yue

    2015-12-15

    The deep-sea hypersaline lakes in the Red Sea are among the most challenging, extreme, and unusual environments on the planet Earth. Despite their harshness to life, they are inhabited by diverse and novel members of prokaryotes. Methanogenesis was proposed as one of the main metabolic pathways that drive microbial colonization in similar habitats. However, not much is known about the identities of the methane-producing microbes in the Red Sea, let alone the way in which they could adapt to such poly extreme environments. Combining a range of microbial community assessment, cultivation and omics (genomics, transcriptomics, and single amplified genomics) approaches, this dissertation seeks to fill these gaps in our knowledge by studying archaeal composition, particularly methanogens, their genomic capacities and transcriptomic characteristics in order to elucidate their diversity, function, and adaptation to the deep-sea brines of the Red Sea. Although typical methanogens are not abundant in the samples collected from brine pool habitats of the Red Sea, the pilot cultivation experiment has revealed novel halophilic methanogenic species of the domain Archaea. Their physiological traits as well as their genomic and transcriptomic features unveil an interesting genetic and functional adaptive capacity that allows them to thrive in the unique deep-sea hypersaline environments in the Red Sea.

  3. Thalassic biogas production from sea wrack biomass using different microbial seeds: cow manure, marine sediment and sea wrack-associated microflora.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marquez, Gian Powell B; Reichardt, Wolfgang T; Azanza, Rhodora V; Klocke, Michael; Montaño, Marco Nemesio E

    2013-04-01

    Sea wrack (dislodged sea grasses and seaweeds) was used in biogas production. Fresh water scarcity in island communities where sea wrack could accumulate led to seawater utilization as liquid substrate. Three microbial seeds cow manure (CM), marine sediment (MS), and sea wrack-associated microflora (SWA) were explored for biogas production. The average biogas produced were 2172±156 mL (MS), 1223±308 mL (SWA) and 551±126 mL (CM). Though methane potential (396.9 mL(CH4) g(-1) volatile solid) computed from sea wrack proximate values was comparable to other feedstocks, highest methane yield was low (MS=94.33 mL(CH4) g(-1) VS). Among the microbial seeds, MS proved the best microbial source in utilizing sea wrack biomass and seawater. However, salinity (MS=42‰) observed exceeded average seawater salinity (34‰). Hence, methanogenic activity could have been inhibited. This is the first report on sea wrack biomass utilization for thalassic biogas production. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. MODIS Snow and Sea Ice Products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Dorothy K.; Riggs, George A.; Salomonson, Vincent V.

    2004-01-01

    In this chapter, we describe the suite of Earth Observing System (EOS) Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra and Aqua snow and sea ice products. Global, daily products, developed at Goddard Space Flight Center, are archived and distributed through the National Snow and Ice Data Center at various resolutions and on different grids useful for different communities Snow products include binary snow cover, snow albedo, and in the near future, fraction of snow in a 5OO-m pixel. Sea ice products include ice extent determined with two different algorithms, and sea ice surface temperature. The algorithms used to develop these products are described. Both the snow and sea ice products, available since February 24,2000, are useful for modelers. Validation of the products is also discussed.

  5. Arctic Sea Level During the Satellite Altimetry Era

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Carret, A.; Johannessen, J. A.; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

    2017-01-01

    Results of the sea-level budget in the high latitudes (up to 80°N) and the Arctic Ocean during the satellite altimetry era. We investigate the closure of the sea-level budget since 2002 using two altimetry sea-level datasets based on the Envisat waveform retracking: temperature and salinity data....... However, in terms of regional average over the region ranging from 66°N to 80°N, the steric component contributes little to the observed sea-level trend, suggesting a dominant mass contribution in the Arctic region. This is confirmed by GRACE-based ocean mass time series that agree well with the altimetry......-based sea-level time series. Direct estimate of the mass component is not possible prior to GRACE. Thus, we estimated the mass contribution from the difference between the altimetry-based sea level and the steric component. We also investigate the coastal sea level with tide gauge records. Twenty coupled...

  6. Temporal dynamics of ikaite in experimental sea ice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rysgaard, Søren; Wang, F.; Galley, R.J.

    2014-01-01

    Ikaite (CaCO3·6H2O) is a metastable phase of calcium carbonate that normally forms in a cold environment and/or under high pressure. Recently, ikaite crystals have been found in sea ice, and it has been suggested that their precipitation may play an important role in air–sea CO2 exchange in ice......-covered seas. Little is known, however, of the spatial and temporal dynamics of ikaite in sea ice. Here we present evidence for highly dynamic ikaite precipitation and dissolution in sea ice grown at an outdoor pool of the Sea-ice Environmental Research Facility (SERF) in Manitoba, Canada. During...... the experiment, ikaite precipitated in sea ice when temperatures were below −4 C, creating three distinct zones of ikaite concentrations: (1) a millimeter-to-centimeter-thin surface layer containing frost flowers and brine skim with bulk ikaite concentrations of > 2000 μmol kg−1, (2) an internal layer...

  7. Present-day sea level rise: a synthesis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cazenave, A.; Llovel, W.; Lombard, A.

    2008-01-01

    Measuring sea level change and understanding its causes have improved considerably in the recent years, essentially because new in situ and remote sensing data sets have become available. Here we report on the current knowledge of present-day sea level change. We briefly present observational results on sea level change from satellite altimetry since 1993 and tide gauges for the past century. We next discuss recent progress made in quantifying the processes causing sea level change on time scales ranging from years to decades, i.e., thermal expansion, land ice mass loss and land water storage change. For the 1993-2003 decade, the sum of climate-related contributions agree well (within the error bars) with the altimetry-based sea level, half of the observed rate of rise being due to ocean thermal expansion, land ice plus land waters explaining the other half. Since about 2003, thermal expansion increase has stopped, whereas the sea level continues to rise, although at a reduced rate compared to the previous decade (2.5 mm/yr versus 3.1 mm/yr). Recent increases in glacier melting and ice mass loss from the ice sheets appear able to account alone for the rise in sea level reported over the last five years. (authors)

  8. Under Sea Ice phytoplankton bloom detection and contamination in Antarctica

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, C.; Zeng, T.; Xu, H.

    2017-12-01

    Previous researches reported compelling sea ice phytoplankton bloom in Arctic, while seldom reports studied about Antarctic. Here, lab experiment showed sea ice increased the visible light albedo of the water leaving radiance. Even a new formed sea ice of 10cm thickness increased water leaving radiance up to 4 times of its original bare water. Given that phytoplankton preferred growing and accumulating under the sea ice with thickness of 10cm-1m, our results showed that the changing rate of OC4 estimated [Chl-a] varied from 0.01-0.5mg/m3 to 0.2-0.3mg/m3, if the water covered by 10cm sea ice. Going further, varying thickness of sea ice modulated the changing rate of estimating [Chl-a] non-linearly, thus current routine OC4 model cannot estimate under sea ice [Chl-a] appropriately. Besides, marginal sea ice zone has a large amount of mixture regions containing sea ice, water and snow, where is favorable for phytoplankton. We applied 6S model to estimate the sea ice/snow contamination on sub-pixel water leaving radiance of 4.25km spatial resolution ocean color products. Results showed that sea ice/snow scale effectiveness overestimated [Chl-a] concentration based on routine band ratio OC4 model, which contamination increased with the rising fraction of sea ice/snow within one pixel. Finally, we analyzed the under sea ice bloom in Antarctica based on the [Chl-a] concentration trends during 21 days after sea ice retreating. Regardless of those overestimation caused by sea ice/snow sub scale contamination, we still did not see significant under sea ice blooms in Antarctica in 2012-2017 compared with Arctic. This research found that Southern Ocean is not favorable for under sea ice blooms and the phytoplankton bloom preferred to occur in at least 3 weeks after sea ice retreating.

  9. Characterization of bacterial diversity associated with deep sea ferromanganese nodules from the South China Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, De-Chao; Liu, Yan-Xia; Li, Xin-Zheng

    2015-09-01

    Deep sea ferromanganese (FeMn) nodules contain metallic mineral resources and have great economic potential. In this study, a combination of culture-dependent and culture-independent (16S rRNA genes clone library and pyrosequencing) methods was used to investigate the bacterial diversity in FeMn nodules from Jiaolong Seamount, the South China Sea. Eleven bacterial strains including some moderate thermophiles were isolated. The majority of strains belonged to the phylum Proteobacteria; one isolate belonged to the phylum Firmicutes. A total of 259 near full-length bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences in a clone library and 67,079 valid reads obtained using pyrosequencing indicated that members of the Gammaproteobacteria dominated, with the most abundant bacterial genera being Pseudomonas and Alteromonas. Sequence analysis indicated the presence of many organisms whose closest relatives are known manganese oxidizers, iron reducers, hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria and methylotrophs. This is the first reported investigation of bacterial diversity associated with deep sea FeMn nodules from the South China Sea.

  10. Nematode assemblages in the deep-sea benthos of the Norwegian Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, Preben

    1988-07-01

    The deep-sea benthos of the Norwegian Sea contains 20-204 nematodes per 10 cm 2 down to 3 cm depth at seven stations sampled between 970 and 3294 m water depth. The majority of nematodes occur in the uppermost cm. Biomass varies from 3 to 73 μg C per 10 cm 2. Individual adult weight of the most dominant species differs by a factor of almost 1000, i.e. from 3-4 ng C to 3400 ng C; however, the majority of the nematodes is small-sized. Species diversity and evenness are high at all stations and each station harbours its specific fauna with little overlap between stations. Analysis of trophic group composition suggests that microbial feeding types (deposit and epistrate feeders) prevail in the deep-sea benthos; predators and scavengers are scarce. It is concluded that the nematode assemblage at each station consists of a mosaic of many microhabitats. The small nematode body weight probably results from limited food supply and/or poor food quality.

  11. Decadal trends in Red Sea maximum surface temperature

    KAUST Repository

    Chaidez, Veronica

    2017-08-09

    Ocean warming is a major consequence of climate change, with the surface of the ocean having warmed by 0.11 °C decade-1 over the last 50 years and is estimated to continue to warm by an additional 0.6 - 2.0 °C before the end of the century1. However, there is considerable variability in the rates experienced by different ocean regions, so understanding regional trends is important to inform on possible stresses for marine organisms, particularly in warm seas where organisms may be already operating in the high end of their thermal tolerance. Although the Red Sea is one of the warmest ecosystems on earth, its historical warming trends and thermal evolution remain largely understudied. We characterized the Red Sea\\'s thermal regimes at the basin scale, with a focus on the spatial distribution and changes over time of sea surface temperature maxima, using remotely sensed sea surface temperature data from 1982 - 2015. The overall rate of warming for the Red Sea is 0.17 ± 0.07 °C decade-1, while the northern Red Sea is warming between 0.40 and 0.45 °C decade-1, all exceeding the global rate. Our findings show that the Red Sea is fast warming, which may in the future challenge its organisms and communities.

  12. Sea level rise and the geoid: factor analysis approach

    OpenAIRE

    Song, Hongzhi; Sadovski, Alexey; Jeffress, Gary

    2013-01-01

    Sea levels are rising around the world, and this is a particular concern along most of the coasts of the United States. A 1989 EPA report shows that sea levels rose 5-6 inches more than the global average along the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coasts in the last century. The main reason for this is coastal land subsidence. This sea level rise is considered more as relative sea level rise than global sea level rise. Thus, instead of studying sea level rise globally, this paper describes a statistical...

  13. Distributions and sources of volatile chlorocarbons and bromocarbons in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, Bin; Yang, Gui-Peng; Lu, Xiao-Lan; Li, Li; He, Zhen

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Concentrations of the six VHOC were determined in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea. • VHOC distributions were affected by anthropogenic, biologic and hydrographic factors. • Diurnal variations of the six VHOC were observed. • Relationships between VHOC and related parameters were discussed. • Sources of the six VHOC were identified by principal component analysis. - Abstract: Six volatile halogenated organic compounds (VHOC), namely, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethylene, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, and bromoform, were studied in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from April to May, 2009. The spatial variability of these VHOC was influenced by various factors, including anthropogenic inputs, biogenic production and complicated hydrographic features such as Changjiang Diluted Water, Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass, and Kuroshio Current. Diurnal study results showed that factors such as solar irradiation, biological activity, and tide affected the abundance of these VHOC. Correlation analyses revealed that bromodichloromethane was positively correlated with chlorophyll a in surface seawater. Principal component analysis suggested that chlorinated compounds like carbon tetrachloride originated from anthropogenic sources whereas brominated compounds such as bromodichloromethane originated from biogenic sources. Sources of other chlorinated and brominated compounds may not be governed by biological processes in the marine environment

  14. Radioactivity in the northern seas of europe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carvalho, Fernando P.; Madruga, Maria Jose; Oliveira, Joao M.; Gouveia, Jorge M.; Silva, Lidia

    2004-01-01

    The recent accidents with nuclear powered Russian submarines, such as the Kursk and the K-159, that took place in the Arctic Seas, give rise to high concerns of the public and the media about the radioactive contamination of marine ecosystems and radiological safety of the European population. Those accidents were preceded by decades of discharges of radioactive liquid effluents into coastal seas of Europe and the dumping of packed radioactive waste into the North Atlantic. Being Portugal one country with high consumption rate of seafood caught in its own coastal waters as well as in far seas including the Ar tic seas, the investigation of the radioactive contamination of fish was investigated. Analysis of fish from the Sea of Labrador, Sea of Iceland and Barents Sea, has shown that gamma-emitting radionuclides of artificial origin are in general not detected. The only gamma emitting radionuclide present is Cs-137, in concentrations not higher than 0.3 Bq/kg. This radionuclide originates in the deposition of radioactive fallout following nuclear weapon tests performed in the fifties and sixties. Radionuclides in fish from northern regions and in fish from the Portuguese coast generally are present in concentrations lower than those currently reported for fish from the Irish Sea and the Baltic Sea, impacted with the discharges of radioactive waste from Sellafield and the deposition of fallout from Chernobyl, respectively. Nevertheless, the potential for future accidents and the radioactive waste dumped into the North Atlantic may in the future modify this scenario and potentially increase the currently very low radionuclide concentration in fish included in the Portuguese diet. Therefore, the research and radiological surveillance must be maintained in order to monitor the radiological risk and to ensure the quality of food available to consumers. (author)

  15. Sea Turtle Research Program Summary Report

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    1997-01-01

    The USACE Sea Turtle Research Program (STRP) was conducted to minimize the risk to sea turtle populations in channels along the southeast Atlantic region of the United States from hopper-dredging activities...

  16. Evaluation of the contamination level of sea bottom sediments on the Crimean coast of the Black and Azov Seas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tikhonova Elena

    2016-12-01

    At the most stations in the Azov Sea the content of HM exceeded values obtained in the Black Sea. Now (2016 in the open Crimean coast bottom sediments of the Black Sea have properties typical for marine sediments of the studied area. There is an upward trend in the content of chloroform-extracted substances in the Black Sea region, but the sediments are not contaminated with oil products. Taking into account the physical-chemical characteristics of marine sediments, it can be stated that the condition the studied area as a whole is safe.

  17. Atmospheric input of trace substances into the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Stoffeintrag in Nord- und Ostsee ueber die Atmosphaere

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grassl, H; Eppel, D; Petersen, G; Schneider, B; Weber, H; Gandrass, J; Reinhardt, K H; Wodarg, D; Fliess, J

    1989-01-01

    The concentrations and deposition of atmospheric trace substances were measured over the Kiel Bight and the Southern North Sea. A European longrange-transport model was used to calculate the atmospheric concentrations of trace metals and their deposition into the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Natural and anthropogenic emitted element concentrations could be separated definitely by the measurements, and preferred transport directions of anthropogenic contributions could be found. Concentrations measured over the North Sea could be related to the surrounding emission areas by airmass trajectory analyses. The deposition measurements show that the main removal process is due to deposition by precipitation. Calculated and measured concentrations at several receptor points agreed well. The model results confirm the dominating role of wet deposition. It could be shown that extrapolations from measurements at coastal stations to the whole sea area tend to overestimate the total deposition into North Sea and Baltic Sea. (orig.) With 78 refs., 26 tabs., 85 figs.

  18. Population genetic structure of the mantis shrimp Oratosquilla oratoria (Crustacea: Squillidae) in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Mei; Li, Xinzheng

    2017-09-01

    The mantis shrimp Oratosquilla oratoria is an ecologically and economically important species in the Western Pacific. In present study, the population genetic structure of Oratosquilla oratoria from the Yellow Sea and East China Sea was examined with mitochondrial DNA control region sequences. In total, 394 samples were collected from 18 locations and 102 haplotypes were obtained. For the Yellow Sea, the overall nucleotide diversity and haplotype diversity were 0.006 9 and 0.946 8, respectively; while across all the East China Sea locations, the overall nucleotide diversity and haplotype diversity were 0.027 94 and 0.979 0, respectively. The results of AMOVA and pairwise F ST (0.145 2, P China Sea populations of O. oratoria. However, neither the neighbor-joining tree nor haplotype network showed clades with geographic pattern, which indicated considerable gene flow was existed between the Yellow Sea and East China Sea, and supporting the high larval dispersal ability in this species. Mismatch distribution analysis and neutrality tests suggested that O. oratoria has undergone population expansion event, and the Pleistocene glacial cycles might have an impact on the historical demography of O. oratoria. The genetic information obtained in this study can provide useful information for sustainable improvements for capture fisheries management strategies.

  19. Sea level rise and variability around Peninsular Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tkalich, Pavel; Luu, Quang-Hung; Tay, Tze-Wei

    2014-05-01

    Peninsular Malaysia is bounded from the west by Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, both connected to the Indian Ocean, and from the east by South China Sea being largest marginal sea in the Pacific Basin. As a result, sea level along Peninsular Malaysia coast is assumed to be governed by various regional phenomena associated with the adjacent parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. At annual scale, sea level anomalies (SLAs) are generated by the Asian monsoon; interannual sea level variability is determined by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD); whilst long term sea level trend is coordinated by the global climate change. To quantify the relative impacts of these multi-scale phenomena on sea level trend and variability surrounding the Peninsular Malaysia, long-term tide gauge record and satellite altimetry are used. During 1984-2011, relative sea level rise (SLR) rates in waters of Malacca Strait and eastern Peninsular Malaysia are found to be 2.4 ± 0.8 mm/yr and 2.7 ± 0.6 mm/yr, respectively. Discounting for their vertical land movements (0.8 ± 2.6 mm/yr and 0.9 ± 2.2 mm/yr, respectively), their pure SLR rates are 1.6 ± 3.4 mm/yr and 1.8 ± 2.8 mm/yr, respectively, which are lower than the global tendency. At interannual scale, ENSO affects sea level over the Malaysian east coast in the range of ± 5 cm with very high correlation coefficient. Meanwhile, IOD modulates sea level anomalies in the Malacca Strait in the range of ± 2 cm with high correlation coefficient. Interannual regional sea level drops are associated with El Niño events and positive phases of the IOD index; while the rises are correlated with La Niña episodes and the negative periods of the IOD index. Seasonally, SLAs are mainly monsoon-driven, in the order of 10-25 cm. Geographically, sea level responds differently to the monsoon: two cycles per year are observed in the Malacca Strait, presumably due to South Asian - Indian Monsoon; while single

  20. Development of Oil Spill Monitoring System for the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and the Barents/Kara Seas (DEMOSS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sandven, Stein; Kudriavtsev, Vladimir; Malinovsky, Vladimir; Stanovoy, Vladimir

    2008-01-01

    DEMOSS will develop and demonstrate elements of a marine oil spill detection and prediction system based on satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and other space data. In addition, models for prediction of sea surface pollution drift will be developed and tested. The project implements field experiments to study the effect of artificial crude oil and oil derivatives films on short wind waves and multi-frequency (Ka-, Ku-, X-, and C-band) dual polarization radar backscatter power and Doppler shift at different wind and wave conditions. On the basis of these and other available experimental data, the present model of short wind waves and radar scattering will be improved and tested.A new approach for detection and quantification of the oil slicks/spills in satellite SAR images is developed that can discriminate human oil spills from biogenic slicks and look-alikes in the SAR images. New SAR images are obtained in coordination with the field experiments to test the detection algorithm. Satellite SAR images from archives as well as from new acquisitions will be analyzed for the Black/Caspian/Kara/Barents seas to investigate oil slicks/spills occurrence statistics.A model for oil spills/slicks transport and evolution is developed and tested in ice-infested arctic seas, including the Caspian Sea. Case studies using the model will be conducted to simulate drift and evolution of oil spill events observed in SAR images. The results of the project will be disseminated via scientific publications and by demonstration to users and agencies working with marine monitoring. The project lasts for two years (2007 - 2009) and is funded under INTAS Thematic Call with ESA 2006.

  1. Assessment of the environmental status for the North Sea and Baltic Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Martin Mørk; Fryer, Rob; Andersen, Jesper H.

    to or at background”, green for “no harmful effect to the environment” and red for unacceptable. The HELCOM goals set out in the Baltic Sea action plan are similar, “concentrations of hazardous substances close to natural levels”, “all fish safe to eat”, and “healthy wildlife”. The assessment criteria used......The two Conventions for the Baltic Sea (Helsinki, HELCOM) and the North Sea (Oslo-Paris, OSPAR) both are in the process of assessing the state of the marine environment and producing Quality Status reports for their regions for publication in 2010. These assessments will be part of the basis...... for Marine Strategy work in the EU. An overview of the time trends and status for metals, PCBs and PAHs in biota and sediment for the convention areas will be presented, and the scientific basis for the assessments and how results from different contaminant groups and wider areas are aggregated...

  2. Synthesis of User Needs for Arctic Sea Ice Predictions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiggins, H. V.; Turner-Bogren, E. J.; Sheffield Guy, L.

    2017-12-01

    Forecasting Arctic sea ice on sub-seasonal to seasonal scales in a changing Arctic is of interest to a diverse range of stakeholders. However, sea ice forecasting is still challenging due to high variability in weather and ocean conditions and limits to prediction capabilities; the science needs for observations and modeling are extensive. At a time of challenged science funding, one way to prioritize sea ice prediction efforts is to examine the information needs of various stakeholder groups. This poster will present a summary and synthesis of existing surveys, reports, and other literature that examines user needs for sea ice predictions. The synthesis will include lessons learned from the Sea Ice Prediction Network (a collaborative, multi-agency-funded project focused on seasonal Arctic sea ice predictions), the Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (a resource for Alaska Native subsistence hunters and coastal communities, that provides reports on weather and sea ice conditions), and other efforts. The poster will specifically compare the scales and variables of sea ice forecasts currently available, as compared to what information is requested by various user groups.

  3. Optical measurements in the North Sea-Baltic Sea transition zone. I. On the origin of the deep water in the Kattegat

    Science.gov (United States)

    Højerslev, N. K.; Holt, N.; Aarup, T.

    1996-08-01

    In the North Sea-Baltic Sea region, several studies have shown that yellow substance can be treated as a quasi-conservative parameter that is negatively correlated with salinity. A review of more than 5000 historic and recently gathered yellow substance absorption and salinity measurements from the transition zone between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea have been analyzed for the purpose of water mass identification. Salinity-yellow substance scatter plots show that three water masses can be identified in the area: (1) North Sea water (high salinity, low yellow substance content); (2) Baltic Sea water (low salinity, intermediate-high yellow substance content); and (3) German Bight/Southern North Sea water (intermediate-high salinity, high yellow substance content). Based on the volume flow estimates used in a two-layer box-model of the Kattegat (Jørgensen, Continental Shelf Research, 12, 103-114, 1992) and conservation of yellow substance, it is argued that the long-term average composition of the bottom layer inflow to the Kattegat from the Skagerrak consists of about 90% North Sea/Atlantic water and 10% German Bight/Southern North Sea water. The German Bight content estimate is substantially lower than the ones given in earlier studies (50-67%) and implies that the Jutland Coastal Current only has a small impact on the water quality of the Kattegat.

  4. Experiments in Reconstructing Twentieth-Century Sea Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ray, Richard D.; Douglas, Bruce C.

    2011-01-01

    One approach to reconstructing historical sea level from the relatively sparse tide-gauge network is to employ Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) as interpolatory spatial basis functions. The EOFs are determined from independent global data, generally sea-surface heights from either satellite altimetry or a numerical ocean model. The problem is revisited here for sea level since 1900. A new approach to handling the tide-gauge datum problem by direct solution offers possible advantages over the method of integrating sea-level differences, with the potential of eventually adjusting datums into the global terrestrial reference frame. The resulting time series of global mean sea levels appears fairly insensitive to the adopted set of EOFs. In contrast, charts of regional sea level anomalies and trends are very sensitive to the adopted set of EOFs, especially for the sparser network of gauges in the early 20th century. The reconstructions appear especially suspect before 1950 in the tropical Pacific. While this limits some applications of the sea-level reconstructions, the sensitivity does appear adequately captured by formal uncertainties. All our solutions show regional trends over the past five decades to be fairly uniform throughout the global ocean, in contrast to trends observed over the shorter altimeter era. Consistent with several previous estimates, the global sea-level rise since 1900 is 1.70 +/- 0.26 mm/yr. The global trend since 1995 exceeds 3 mm/yr which is consistent with altimeter measurements, but this large trend was possibly also reached between 1935 and 1950.

  5. Forecasting sea fog on the coast of southern China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, H.; Huang, B.; Liu, C.; Tu, J.; Wen, G.; Mao, W.

    2016-12-01

    Forecast sea fog is still full of challenges. We have performed the numerical forecasting of sea fog on the coast of southern China by using the operational meso-scale regional model GRAPES (Global/Regional assimilation and prediction system). The GRAPES model horizontal resolution was 3km and with 66 vertical levels. A total of 72 hours forecasting of sea fog was conducted with hourly outputs over the sea fog event. The results show that the model system can predict reasonable characteristics of typical sea fog events on the coast of southern China. The scope of sea fog coincides with the observations of meteorological stations, the observations of the Marine Meteorological Science Experiment Base (MMSEB) at Bohe, Maoming and satellite products of sea fog. The goal of this study is to establish an operational numerical forecasting model system of sea fog on the coast of southern China.

  6. The effect of sea ice loss on sea salt aerosol concentrations and the radiative balance in the Arctic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Struthers

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Understanding Arctic climate change requires knowledge of both the external and the local drivers of Arctic climate as well as local feedbacks within the system. An Arctic feedback mechanism relating changes in sea ice extent to an alteration of the emission of sea salt aerosol and the consequent change in radiative balance is examined. A set of idealized climate model simulations were performed to quantify the radiative effects of changes in sea salt aerosol emissions induced by prescribed changes in sea ice extent. The model was forced using sea ice concentrations consistent with present day conditions and projections of sea ice extent for 2100. Sea salt aerosol emissions increase in response to a decrease in sea ice, the model results showing an annual average increase in number emission over the polar cap (70–90° N of 86 × 106 m−2 s−1 (mass emission increase of 23 μg m−2 s−1. This in turn leads to an increase in the natural aerosol optical depth of approximately 23%. In response to changes in aerosol optical depth, the natural component of the aerosol direct forcing over the Arctic polar cap is estimated to be between −0.2 and −0.4 W m−2 for the summer months, which results in a negative feedback on the system. The model predicts that the change in first indirect aerosol effect (cloud albedo effect is approximately a factor of ten greater than the change in direct aerosol forcing although this result is highly uncertain due to the crude representation of Arctic clouds and aerosol-cloud interactions in the model. This study shows that both the natural aerosol direct and first indirect effects are strongly dependent on the surface albedo, highlighting the strong coupling between sea ice, aerosols, Arctic clouds and their radiative effects.

  7. Air-sea heat flux control on the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass intensity and implications for its prediction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Junying; Shi, Jie; Guo, Xinyu; Gao, Huiwang; Yao, Xiaohong

    2018-01-01

    The Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass (YSCWM), which occurs during summer in the central Yellow Sea, plays an important role in the hydrodynamic field, nutrient cycle and biological species. Based on water temperature observations during the summer from 1978 to 1998 in the western Yellow Sea, five specific YSCWM years were identified, including two strong years (1984 and 1985), two weak years (1989 and 1995) and one normal year (1992). Using a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, the YSCWM formation processes in these five years were simulated and compared with observations. In general, the YSCWM began forming in spring, matured in summer and gradually disappeared in autumn of every year. The 8 °C isotherm was used to indicate the YSCWM boundary. The modelled YSCWM areas in the two strong years were approximately two times larger than those in the two weak years. Based on the simulations in the weak year of 1995, ten numerical experiments were performed to quantify the key factors influencing the YSCWM intensity by changing the initial water condition in the previous autumn, air-sea heat flux, wind, evaporation, precipitation and sea level pressure to those in the strong year of 1984, respectively. The results showed that the air-sea heat flux was the dominant factor influencing the YSCWM intensity, which contributed about 80% of the differences of the YSCWM average water temperature at a depth of 50 m. In addition, the air-sea heat flux in the previous winter had a determining effect, contributing more than 50% of the differences between the strong and weak YSCWM years. Finally, a simple formula for predicting the YSCWM intensity was established by using the key influencing factors, i.e., the sea surface temperature before the cooling season and the air-sea heat flux during the cooling season from the previous December to the current February. With this formula, instead of a complicated numerical model, we were able to roughly predict the YSCWM intensity for the

  8. The lowering of sea surface temperature in the east central Arabian sea associated with a cyclone

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Murty, V.S.N.; Rao, D.P.; Sastry, J.S.

    An analysis of thermal Structure in the East Central Arabian Sea associated with a moderate cyclone is presented. The heat storage and the heat budget components have been computed. Under the influence of the cyclone the Sea Surface Temperature (SST...

  9. Interspecies differences in the accumulation of tributyltin and its metabolites under dietary exposure in sea perch, Lateolabrax japonicus, and red sea bream, Pagrus major.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uno, Seiichi; Murakami, Masayo; Kokushi, Emiko; Koyama, Jiro

    2011-02-01

    Interspecies differences in the accumulation of dietary tributyltin (TBT) between sea perch, Lateolabrax japonicus, and red sea bream, Pagrus major, were studied. Although TBTs in both species reached steady-state condition in low-concentration group (L-group, 200 ng/g nominal concentration) by 1 week, it increased up to the end of exposure in high-concentration group (H-group, 3000 ng/g nominal concentration). In H-group, the accumulation rate of TBT in sea perch from 1 to 2 weeks was much higher than in red sea bream, which were 2.4-fold for sea perch and 1.7-fold for red sea bream, although TBT concentrations were similar between sea perch and red sea bream in L-group. Furthermore, in the H-group, the concentrations of TBT at 1 and 2 weeks were about 1.3- and 1.9-fold, respectively, higher in the sea perch than in the red sea bream. On the other hand, DBT residue in red sea bream was about 1.4-fold higher in sea perch for the L-group but concentrations were similar in both fishes for the H-group. These results suggest that red sea bream could metabolize faster the TBT to DBT than sea perch. This study also reveals that fish probably could absorb TBT through the food chain. The uptake of TBT by fish should be regarded in the real environment, because TBT concentration in seawater has been decreasing and now already at significantly low level. Copyright © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  10. Sea turtles sightings in North Carolina

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Sea turtles sightings are reported to the NMFS Beaufort Laboratory sea turtle program by the general public as they are fishing, boating, etc. These sightings...

  11. Arctic Sea Ice Freeboard and Thickness

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set provides measurements of sea ice freeboard and sea ice thickness for the Arctic region. The data were derived from measurements made by from the Ice,...

  12. A combined approach of remote sensing and airborne electromagnetics to determine the volume of polynya sea ice in the Laptev Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Rabenstein

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available A combined interpretation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR satellite images and helicopter electromagnetic (HEM sea-ice thickness data has provided an estimate of sea-ice volume formed in Laptev Sea polynyas during the winter of 2007/08. The evolution of the surveyed sea-ice areas, which were formed between late December 2007 and middle April 2008, was tracked using a series of SAR images with a sampling interval of 2–3 days. Approximately 160 km of HEM data recorded in April 2008 provided sea-ice thicknesses along profiles that transected sea ice varying in age from 1 to 116 days. For the volume estimates, thickness information along the HEM profiles was extrapolated to zones of the same age. The error of areal mean thickness information was estimated to be between 0.2 m for younger ice and up to 1.55 m for older ice, with the primary error source being the spatially limited HEM coverage. Our results have demonstrated that the modal thicknesses and mean thicknesses of level ice correlated with the sea-ice age, but that varying dynamic and thermodynamic sea-ice growth conditions resulted in a rather heterogeneous sea-ice thickness distribution on scales of tens of kilometers. Taking all uncertainties into account, total sea-ice area and volume produced within the entire surveyed area were 52 650 km2 and 93.6 ± 26.6 km3. The surveyed polynya contributed 2.0 ± 0.5% of the sea-ice produced throughout the Arctic during the 2007/08 winter. The SAR-HEM volume estimate compares well with the 112 km3 ice production calculated with a~high-resolution ocean sea-ice model. Measured modal and mean-level ice thicknesses correlate with calculated freezing-degree-day thicknesses with a factor of 0.87–0.89, which was too low to justify the assumption of homogeneous thermodynamic growth conditions in the area, or indicates a strong dynamic thickening of level ice by rafting of even thicker ice.

  13. Synoptic conditions of fine-particle transport to the last interglacial Red Sea -Dead Sea from Nd-Sr compositions of sediment cores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stein, M.; Palchan, D.; Goldstein, S. L.; Almogi-Labin, A.; Tirosh, O.; Erel, Y.

    2017-12-01

    The last interglacial peak, Marine Isotope Stage 5e (MIS 5e), was associated with stronger northern hemisphere insolation, higher global sea levels and higher average global temperatures compared to the Holocene, and is considered as an analogue for a future warming world. In this perspective the present-day areas of the Sahara - Arabia deserts (the "desert belt") are of special interest since their margins are densely inhabited and global climate models predict enhanced aridity in these regions due to future warming. The Red Sea situated at the midst of the desert belt and the Dead Sea at the northern fringe of the desert belt comprise sensitive monitors for past hydroclimate changes in the Red Sea-Levant regions as global climate shifted from glacial to interglacial conditions. Here, we reconstruct the synoptic conditions that controlled desert dust transport to the Red Sea and the Dead Sea during MIS5e. The reconstruction is based on Nd-Sr isotopes and chemical composition of carbonate-free detritus recovered from sediment cores drilled at the deep floors of these water-bodies combined with data of contemporaneous dust storms transporting dust to the lake and sea floors. During Termination 2 ( 134-130 ka) the Sahara, Nile River desiccated and the Dead Sea watershed were under extreme dry conditions manifested by lake level drop, deposition of salt and enhanced transport of Sahara dusts to the entire studied transect. At the peak of the interglacial MIS 5e ( 130-120 ka), enhanced flooding activity mobilized local fine detritus from the surroundings of the Red Sea and the Dead Sea watershed into the water-bodies. This interval coincided with the Sapropel event S5 in the Mediterranean that responded to enhanced monsoon rains at the heads of the Blue Nile River. At the end of MIS 5e ( 120-116 ka) the effect of the regional floods faded and the Dead Sea and Red Sea areas re-entered sever arid conditions with salt deposition at the Dead Sea. Overall, the desert

  14. Dependence of Indian monsoon rainfall on moisture fluxes across the Arabian Sea and the impact of coupled model sea surface temperature biases

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Levine, Richard C. [Met Office Hadley Centre, Devon (United Kingdom); Turner, Andrew G. [University of Reading, NCAS-Climate, Department of Meteorology, Reading (United Kingdom)

    2012-06-15

    The Arabian Sea is an important moisture source for Indian monsoon rainfall. The skill of climate models in simulating the monsoon and its variability varies widely, while Arabian Sea cold sea surface temperature (SST) biases are common in coupled models and may therefore influence the monsoon and its sensitivity to climate change. We examine the relationship between monsoon rainfall, moisture fluxes and Arabian Sea SST in observations and climate model simulations. Observational analysis shows strong monsoons depend on moisture fluxes across the Arabian Sea, however detecting consistent signals with contemporaneous summer SST anomalies is complicated in the observed system by air/sea coupling and large-scale induced variability such as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation feeding back onto the monsoon through development of the Somali Jet. Comparison of HadGEM3 coupled and atmosphere-only configurations suggests coupled model cold SST biases significantly reduce monsoon rainfall. Idealised atmosphere-only experiments show that the weakened monsoon can be mainly attributed to systematic Arabian Sea cold SST biases during summer and their impact on the monsoon-moisture relationship. The impact of large cold SST biases on atmospheric moisture content over the Arabian Sea, and also the subsequent reduced latent heat release over India, dominates over any enhancement in the land-sea temperature gradient and results in changes to the mean state. We hypothesize that a cold base state will result in underestimation of the impact of larger projected Arabian Sea SST changes in future climate, suggesting that Arabian Sea biases should be a clear target for model development. (orig.)

  15. Sea floor magnetic observatory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korepanov, V.; Prystai, A.; Vallianatos, F.; Makris, J.

    2003-04-01

    The electromagnetic precursors of seismic hazards are widely accepted as strong evidence of the approaching earthquake or volcano eruption. The monitoring of these precursors are of main interest in densely populated areas, what creates serious problems to extract them at the strong industrial noise background. An interesting possibility to improve signal-to-noise ratio gives the installation of the observation points in the shelf zones near the possible earthquake places, what is fairly possible in most seismically active areas in Europe, e. g. in Greece and Italy. The serious restriction for this is the cost of the underwater instrumentation. To realize such experiments it requires the unification of efforts of several countries (e. g., GEOSTAR) or of the funds of some great companies (e. g., SIO magnetotelluric instrument). The progress in electronic components development as well as the appearance of inexpensive watertight glass spheres made it possible to decrease drastically the price of recently developed sea floor magnetic stations. The autonomous vector magnetometer LEMI-301 for sea bed application is described in the report. It is produced on the base of three-component flux-gate sensor. Non-magnetic housing and minimal magnetism of electronic components enable the instrument to be implemented as a monoblock construction where the electronic unit is placed close to the sensor. Automatic circuit provides convenient compensation of the initial field offset and readings of full value (6 digits) of the measured field. Timing by internal clock provides high accuracy synchronization of data. The internal flash memory assures long-term autonomous data storage. The system also has two-axes tilt measurement system. The methodological questions of magnetometer operation at sea bed were studied in order to avoid two types of errors appearing at such experimental cases. First is sea waving influence and second one magnetometer orientation at its random positioning on

  16. Dead sea transform fault system reviews

    CERN Document Server

    Garfunkel, Zvi; Kagan, Elisa

    2014-01-01

    The Dead Sea transform is an active plate boundary connecting the Red Sea seafloor spreading system to the Arabian-Eurasian continental collision zone. Its geology and geophysics provide a natural laboratory for investigation of the surficial, crustal and mantle processes occurring along transtensional and transpressional transform fault domains on a lithospheric scale and related to continental breakup. There have been many detailed and disciplinary studies of the Dead Sea transform fault zone during the last?20 years and this book brings them together.This book is an updated comprehensive coverage of the knowledge, based on recent studies of the tectonics, structure, geophysics, volcanism, active tectonics, sedimentology and paleo and modern climate of the Dead Sea transform fault zone. It puts together all this new information and knowledge in a coherent fashion.

  17. The SEA complex – the beginning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dokudovskaya S. S.

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The presence of distinctive internal membrane compartments, dynamically connected via selective transport pathways, is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells. Many of the proteins required for formation and maintenance of these compartments share an evolutionary history. We have recently identified a new conserved protein complex – the SEA complex – that possesses proteins with structural characteristics similar to the membrane coating complexes such as the nuclear pore complex (NPC, the COPII vesicle coating complex and HOPS/CORVET tethering complexes. The SEA complex in yeast is dynamically associated to the vacuole. The data on the function of the SEA complex remain extremely limited. Here we will discuss a possible role of the SEA complex based on the data from genetic assays and a number of functional studies in both yeast and other eukaryotes.

  18. Spatial variability of oceanic phycoerythrin spectral types derived from airborne laser-induced fluorescence emissions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoge, Frank E.; Wright, C. Wayne; Kana, Todd M.; Swift, Robert N.; Yungel, James K.

    1998-07-01

    We report spatial variability of oceanic phycoerythrin spectral types detected by means of a blue spectral shift in airborne laser-induced fluorescence emission. The blue shift of the phycoerythrobilin fluorescence is known from laboratory studies to be induced by phycourobilin chromophore substitution at phycoerythrobilin chromophore sites in some strains of phycoerythrin-containing marine cyanobacteria. The airborne 532-nm laser-induced phycoerythrin fluorescence of the upper oceanic volume showed distinct segregation of cyanobacterial chromophore types in a flight transect from coastal water to the Sargasso Sea in the western North Atlantic. High phycourobilin levels were restricted to the oceanic (oligotrophic) end of the flight transect, in agreement with historical ship findings. These remotely observed phycoerythrin spectral fluorescence shifts have the potential to permit rapid, wide-area studies of the spatial variability of spectrally distinct cyanobacteria, especially across interfacial regions of coastal and oceanic water masses. Airborne laser-induced phytoplankton spectral fluorescence observations also further the development of satellite algorithms for passive detection of phytoplankton pigments. Optical modifications to the NASA Airborne Oceanographic Lidar are briefly described that permitted observation of the fluorescence spectral shifts.

  19. Phosphorus-limited photosynthesis and growth of Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans (Phaeophyceae) in the western North Atlantic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lapointe, Brian E.

    1986-03-01

    Growth enrichment studies utilizing in vitu cage cultures and a shipboard flowing seawater culture system were conducted with whole-plant populations of pelagic Sargassum-S. natans and S. fluitans (Phaeophyceaa)-in the western Sargasso Sea and at Looe Key Marine Sanctuary adjacent to the Straits of Florida. Growth rates of both species ranged from 0.03 to 0.04 doublings d -1 in control cultures receiving no enrichment and in cultures receiving either NO 3- or NH 4+ enrichment; in contrast, growth rates ranged from 0.05 to 0.08 doublings d -1 in cultures receiving PO 43- enrichment. Midday photosynthetic rates of S. natans and S. fluitans were also two-fold higher with PO 43- enrichment, ca. 2.3 mgC g dryw-1 h -1 compared to 1.0 to 1.5 mgC g dry wt -1 h -1 in the NH 4+, NO 3-, and control treatments. These data suggest the pelagic Sargassum may grow faster than previously thought and that phosphorus, rather than nitroge, may be the primary nutrient limiting growth and productivity of these plants.

  20. Radioisotopes in sedimentary study of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laptev, Gennady; Voitsekhovych, Oleg V.

    2013-04-01

    Natural archives, such as lake or marine sediment, are widely used in erosion/sedimentation, water quality, climate change and eutrophication study alongside with the retrospective reanalysis of contaminants fluxes (trace metals, organic pollutants or radionuclides). In order to "read" information stored in sediment sequences a chronostatigraphic method have been developed and used since 1950s which is based upon variation of activity of 210Pb over the sediment profile, natural radioisotope of Uranium decay series with half-life 22 years, and hence valid for the last 100-150 years of recent sedimentation history. The 210Pb chronology is prone to be validated by other time-markers, such as artificial radionuclides globally dispersed after the nuclear weapons tests of 1960s or major accidents on NPP (the Chernobyl accident of 1986 or latest on the Fukushima Daiichi in 2011). In the last decade an intensive study using sediment cores collected from shelf and deep-sea areas in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea have been undertaken within the framework of a number of international research projects organized by IAEA and UNOPS-GEF and devoted to environmental problems of this enclosed, and therefore sensitive to environmental impact, marine systems. Elaborative analysis of the experimental data and sediment age calculation have been done by application of CRS and CIC dating models to unsupported 210Pb activity over the sediment profile. Measured in sediment 137Cs and 241Am clearly showed well resolved Bomb test and Chernobyl fallout peaks and were used as markers in order to corroborate radiometrically determined age of sediment. Geochronological reconstruction of the fallout radionuclides inventory, fluxes and accumulation rate in the sediment of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea by application of combined radiometric dating technique proved to be very consistent with the historical data of atmospheric fallout observations of that artificial radionuclides recorded worldwide