Ocean Science最新文献

{"title":"New insights into the eastern subpolar North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation from OVIDE","authors":"H. Mercier, D. Desbruyères, P. Lherminier, A. Velo, L. Carracedo, M. Fontela, Fiz F. Pérez","doi":"10.5194/os-20-779-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-779-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a key component of the Earth's climate. However, there are few long time series of observations of the AMOC, and the study of the mechanisms driving its variability depends mainly on numerical simulations. Here, we use four ocean circulation estimates produced by different data-driven approaches of increasing complexity to analyse the seasonal to decadal variability of the subpolar AMOC across the Greenland–Portugal OVIDE (Observatoire de la Variabilité Interannuelle à DÉcennale) line since 1993. We decompose the MOC strength variability into a velocity-driven component due to circulation changes and a volume-driven component due to changes in the depth of the overturning maximum isopycnal. We show that the variance of the time series is dominated by seasonal variability, which is due to both seasonal variability in the volume of the AMOC limbs (linked to the seasonal cycle of density in the East Greenland Current) and to seasonal variability in the transport of the Eastern Boundary Current. The decadal variability of the subpolar AMOC is mainly caused by changes in velocity, which after the mid-2000s are partly offset by changes in the volume of the AMOC limbs. This compensation means that the decadal variability of the AMOC is weaker and therefore more difficult to detect than the decadal variability of its velocity-driven and volume-driven components, which is highlighted by the formalism that we propose.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141338664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Anthropogenic CO2, air–sea CO2 fluxes, and acidification in the Southern Ocean: results from a time-series analysis at station OISO-KERFIX (51° S–68° E)","authors":"N. Metzl, C. Lo Monaco, Coraline Leseurre, C. Ridame, Gilles Reverdin, T. Chau, Frédéric Chevallier, Marion Gehlen","doi":"10.5194/os-20-725-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-725-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The temporal variation of the carbonate system, air–sea CO2 fluxes, and pH is analyzed in the southern Indian Ocean, south of the polar front, based on in situ data obtained from 1985 to 2021 at a fixed station (50°40′ S–68°25′ E) and results from a neural network model that reconstructs the fugacity of CO2 (fCO2) and fluxes at monthly scale. Anthropogenic CO2 (Cant) is estimated in the water column and is detected down to the bottom (1600 m) in 1985, resulting in an aragonite saturation horizon at 600 m that migrated up to 400 m in 2021 due to the accumulation of Cant. At the subsurface, the trend of Cant is estimated at +0.53±0.01 µmol kg−1 yr−1 with a detectable increase in the trend in recent years. At the surface during austral winter the oceanic fCO2 increased at a rate close to or slightly lower than in the atmosphere. To the contrary, in summer, we observed contrasting fCO2 and dissolved inorganic carbon (CT) trends depending on the decade and emphasizing the role of biological drivers on air–sea CO2 fluxes and pH inter-annual variability. The regional air–sea CO2 fluxes evolved from an annual source to the atmosphere of 0.8 molC m−2 yr−1 in 1985 to a sink of −0.5 molC m−2 yr−1 in 2020. Over 1985–2020, the annual pH trend in surface waters of -0.0165±0.0040 per decade was mainly controlled by the accumulation of anthropogenic CO2, but the summer pH trends were modulated by natural processes that reduced the acidification rate in the last decade. Using historical data from November 1962, we estimated the long-term trend for fCO2, CT, and pH, confirming that the progressive acidification was driven by the atmospheric CO2 increase. In 59 years this led to a diminution of 11 % for both aragonite and calcite saturation state. As atmospheric CO2 is expected to increase in the future, the pH and carbonate saturation state will decrease at a faster rate than observed in recent years. A projection of future CT concentrations for a high emission scenario (SSP5-8.5) indicates that the surface pH in 2100 would decrease to 7.32 in winter. This is up to −0.86 lower than pre-industrial pH and −0.71 lower than pH observed in 2020. The aragonite undersaturation in surface waters would be reached as soon as 2050 (scenario SSP5-8.5) and 20 years later for a stabilization scenario (SSP2-4.5) with potential impacts on phytoplankton species and higher trophic levels in the rich ecosystems of the Kerguelen Islands area.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141357627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the tidal response to bathymetry evolution and present-day sea level rise in a channel–shoal environment","authors":"Robert Lepper, Leon Jänicke, Ingo Hache, Christian Jordan, F. Kösters","doi":"10.5194/os-20-711-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-711-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Intertidal flats and salt marshes in channel–shoal environments are at severe risk of drowning under sea level rise (SLR) ultimately ceasing their function of coastal defense. Earlier studies indicated that these environments can be resilient against moderate SLR as their mean height is believed to correlate with tidal amplitude and mean sea level. Recent morphological analyses in the German Wadden Sea on the northwestern European continental shelf contradicted this assumption as mean tidal flat accretion surpassed relative SLR, indicating that nonlinear feedback between SLR, coastal morphodynamics, and tidal dynamics played a role. We explored this relationship in the German Wadden Sea's channel–shoal environment by revisiting the sensitivity of tidal dynamics to observed SLR and coastal bathymetry evolution over one nodal cycle (1997 to 2015) with a numerical model. We found a proportional response of tidal high and low water to SLR when the bathymetry was kept constant. In contrast, coastal bathymetry evolution caused a spatially varying hydrodynamic reaction with both increases and decreases in patterns of tidal characteristics within a few kilometers. An explorative assessment of potential mechanisms suggested that energy dissipation declined near the coast, which we related to a decreasing tidal prism and declining tidal energy import. Our study stresses the fact that an accurate representation of coastal morphology in hindcasts, nowcasts, and ensembles for bathymetry evolution to assess the impact of SLR is needed when using numerical models.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141357911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dynamical reconstruction of the upper-ocean state in the central Arctic during the winter period of the MOSAiC expedition","authors":"I. Kuznetsov, B. Rabe, A. Androsov, Ying‐Chih Fang, M. Hoppmann, Alejandra Quintanilla-Zurita, S. Harig, Sandra Tippenhauer, K. Schulz, V. Mohrholz, I. Fer, V. Fofonova, M. Janout","doi":"10.5194/os-20-759-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-759-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. This paper presents a methodological tool for dynamic reconstruction of the state of the ocean, based, as an example, on observations from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) experiment. The data used in this study were collected in the Amundsen Basin between October 2019 and January 2020. Analysing observational data to assess tracer field and upper-ocean dynamics is highly challenging when measurement platforms drift with the ice pack due to continuous drift speed and direction changes. We have equipped the new version of the coastal branch of the global Finite-volumE sea ice–Ocean Model (FESOM-C) with a nudging method. Model nudging was carried out assuming a quasi-steady state. Overall, the model can reproduce the lateral and vertical structure of the temperature, salinity, and density fields, which allows for projecting dynamically consistent features of these fields onto a regular grid. We identify two separate depth ranges of enhanced eddy kinetic energy located around two maxima in buoyancy frequency: the depth of the upper halocline and the depth of the warm (modified) Atlantic Water. Simulations reveal a notable decrease in surface layer salinity and density in the Amundsen Basin towards the north but no significant gradient from east to west. However, we find a mixed-layer deepening from east to west, with a 0.084 m km−1 gradient at 0.6 m km−1 standard deviation, compared to a weak deepening from south to north. The model resolves several stationary eddies in the warm Atlantic Water and provides insights into the associated dynamics. The model output can be used to further analyse the thermohaline structure and related dynamics associated with mesoscale and submesoscale processes in the central Arctic, such as estimates of heat fluxes or mass transport. The developed nudging method can be utilized to incorporate observational data from a diverse set of instruments and for further analysis of data from the MOSAiC expedition.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141356119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of Hurricane Irma on coral reef sediment redistribution at Looe Key Reef, Florida, USA","authors":"Kimberly K. Yates, Zachery Fehr, Selena Johnson, David Zawada","doi":"10.5194/os-20-661-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-661-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Understanding event-driven sediment transport in coral reef environments is essential to assessing impacts on reef species, habitats, restoration, and mitigation, yet a global knowledge gap remains due to limited quantitative studies. Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Lower Florida Keys with sustained 209 km h−1 winds and waves greater than 8 m on 10 September 2017, directly impacting the Florida Reef Tract (FRT) and providing an opportunity to perform a unique comprehensive, quantitative assessment of its impact on coral reef structure and sediment redistribution. We used lidar and multibeam derived digital elevation models (DEMs) collected before and after the passing of Hurricane Irma over a 15.98 km2 area along the lower FRT including Looe Key Reef to quantify changes in seafloor elevation, volume, and structure due to storm impacts. Elevation change was calculated at over 4 million point locations across 10 habitat types within this study area for two time periods using data collected (1) approximately 1 year before the passing of Irma and 3 to 6 months following the storm's impact as well as (2) 3 to 6 months after and up to 16.5 months after the storm. Elevation change data were then used to generate triangulated irregular network (TIN) models in ArcMap to calculate changes in seafloor volume during each time period. Our results indicate that Hurricane Irma was primarily a depositional event that increased mean seafloor elevation and volume at this study site by 0.34 m and up to 5.4 Mm3, respectively. Sediment was transported primarily west-southwest (WSW) and downslope, modifying geomorphic seafloor features including the migration of sand waves and rubble fields, formation of scour marks in shallow seagrass habitats, and burial of seagrass and coral-dominated habitats. Approximately 16.5 months after Hurricane Irma (during a 13-month period between 2017 and 2019), net erosion was observed across all habitats with mean elevation change of −0.15 m and net volume change up to −2.46 Mm3. Rates of elevation change during this post-storm period were 1 to 2 orders of magnitude greater than decadal and multi-decadal rates of change in the same location, and changes showed erosion of approximately 50 % of sediment deposited during the storm event as seafloor sediment distribution began to re-equilibrate to non-storm sea-state conditions. Our results suggest that higher-resolution elevation change data collected over seasonal and annual time periods could enhance characterization and understanding of short-term and long-term rates and processes of seafloor change.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141102317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On the short-term response of entrained air bubbles in the upper ocean: a case study in the north Adriatic Sea","authors":"A. Benetazzo, T. Halsne, Ø. Breivik, K. O. Strand, Adrian Callaghan, F. Barbariol, Silvio Davison, Filippo Bergamasco, Cristobal Molina, M. Bastianini","doi":"10.5194/os-20-639-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-639-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Air bubbles in the upper ocean are generated mainly by waves breaking at the air–sea interface. As such, after the waves break, entrained air bubbles evolve in the form of plumes in the turbulent flow, exchange gas with the surrounding water, and may eventually rise to the surface. To shed light on the short-term response of entrained bubbles in different stormy conditions and to assess the link between bubble plume penetration depth, mechanical and thermal forcings, and the air–sea transfer velocity of CO2, a field experiment was conducted from an oceanographic research tower in the north Adriatic Sea. Air bubble plumes were observed using high-resolution echosounder data from an upward-looking 1000 kHz sonar. The backscatter signal strength was sampled at a high resolution, 0.5 s in time and 2.5 cm along the vertical direction. Time series profiles of the bubble plume depth were established using a variable threshold procedure applied to the backscatter strength. The data show the occurrence of bubbles organized into vertical plume-like structures, drawn downwards by wave-generated turbulence and other near-surface circulations, and reaching the seabed at 17 m depth under strong forcing. We verify that bubble plumes adapt rapidly to wind and wave conditions and have depths that scale approximately linearly with wind speed. Scaling with the wind–wave Reynolds number is also proposed to account for the sea-state severity in the plume depth prediction. Results show a correlation between measured bubble depths and theoretical air–sea CO2 transfer velocity parametrized with wind-only and wind/wave formulations. Further, our measurements corroborate previous results suggesting that the sinking of newly formed cold-water masses helps bring bubbles to greater depths than those reached in stable conditions for the water column. The temperature difference between air and sea seems sufficient for describing this intensification at the leading order of magnitude. The results presented in this study are relevant for air–sea interaction studies and pave the way for progress in CO2 gas exchange formulations.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141022115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tipping of the double-diffusive regime in the southern Adriatic Pit in 2017 in connection with record high-salinity values","authors":"Felipe L.L. Amorim, Julien Le Meur, Achim Wirth, Vanessa Cardin","doi":"10.5194/os-20-463-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-463-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. In double-diffusive mixing, whenever salinity and temperature decrease with depth, the water column is either unstable or predisposed to a state called salt fingering (SF), which exhibits increased vertical mixing. Analysis of a high-frequency time series of thermohaline data measured at the EMSO-E2M3A regional facility in the southern Adriatic Pit (SAP) from 2014 to 2019 reveals that in the south Adriatic, SF is the dominant regime. The same time series shows the presence of a very saline core of the Levantine Intermediate Water that penetrated with unprecedented strength during the winter of 2016/17 at around 550 dbar and even higher-salinity water above. The effect of strong heat loss at the surface during that winter allowed deep convection to transport this high-salinity water from the intermediate to the deep layers within the pit. This resulted in an increased predisposition to SF throughout the water column. In the subsurface layer (350 to 550 dbar) the increase is from 27 % to 72 % of observations. We observe an alteration of vertical stratification throughout the water column during the winter of 2016/17 from a stratified water column to an almost homogeneous water column down to 700 dbar, with no return in the following years.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140371452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating extreme marine summers in the Mediterranean Sea","authors":"Dimitra Denaxa, G. Korres, E. Flaounas, M. Hatzaki","doi":"10.5194/os-20-433-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-433-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The Mediterranean Sea (MS) has undergone significant surface warming, particularly pronounced during summers and associated with devastating impacts on marine life. Alongside the ongoing research on warming trends and marine heatwaves (MHWs), here we address the importance of understanding anomalously warm conditions also on the seasonal timescale. We propose the concept of extreme marine summers (EMSs) and investigate their characteristics in the MS, using sea surface temperature (SST) reanalysis data spanning 1950–2020. We define EMSs at a particular location, as the summers with a mean summer SST exceeding the 95th percentile. A marine summer may become extreme, under various SST substructures. Results show that, in most of the basin, EMSs are formed primarily due to the warmer summer days being warmer than normal. Areas where the warmest (coldest) part of the SST distribution is more variable experience EMSs primarily due to the warmest (coldest) part of the distribution being anomalously warm. MHWs occurring within EMSs are more intense, longer lasting, and more frequent than usual mainly in the northern MS regions. These enhanced MHW conditions occur mainly within the warmest part of the SST distribution. By means of temporal coverage of MHW conditions, a more pronounced occurrence of MHWs in EMSs is found for the central and eastern basin where up to 55 % of MHW days over 1950–2020 fall within EMSs. The role of air–sea heat fluxes in driving EMSs is quantified through a newly proposed metric. Results suggest that surface fluxes primarily drive EMSs in the northern half of the MS, while oceanic processes play a major role in southern regions. Upper-ocean preconditioning also contributes to the formation of EMSs. Finally, a detrended dataset was produced to examine how the SST multi-decadal variability affects the studied EMS features. Despite leading to warmer EMSs basin-wide, the multi-decadal signal does not significantly affect the dominant SST substructures during EMSs. Results also highlight the fundamental role of latent heat flux in modulating the surface heat budget during EMSs, regardless of the long-term trends.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140378805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Machine learning methods to predict sea surface temperature and marine heatwave occurrence: a case study of the Mediterranean Sea","authors":"Giulia Bonino, G. Galimberti, S. Masina, R. McAdam, Emanuela Clementi","doi":"10.5194/os-20-417-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-417-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Marine heatwaves (MHWs) have significant social and ecological impacts, necessitating the prediction of these extreme events to prevent and mitigate their negative consequences and provide valuable information to decision-makers about MHW-related risks. In this study, machine learning (ML) techniques are applied to predict sea surface temperature (SST) time series and marine heatwaves in 16 regions of the Mediterranean Sea. ML algorithms, including the random forest (RForest), long short-term memory (LSTM), and convolutional neural network (CNN), are used to create competitive predictive tools for SST. The ML models are designed to forecast SST and MHWs up to 7 d ahead. For each region, we performed 15 different experiments for ML techniques, progressively sliding the training and the testing period window of 4 years from 1981 to 2017. Alongside SST, other relevant atmospheric variables are utilized as potential predictors of MHWs. Datasets from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI SST) v2.1 and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 reanalysis from 1981 to 2021 are used to train and test the ML techniques. For each area, the results show that all the ML methods performed with minimum root mean square errors (RMSEs) of about 0.1 °C at a 1 d lead time and maximum values of about 0.8 °C at a 7 d lead time. In all regions, both the RForest and LSTM consistently outperformed the CNN model across all lead times. LSTM has the highest predictive skill in 11 regions at all lead times. Importantly, the ML techniques show results similar to the dynamical Copernicus Mediterranean Forecasting System (MedFS) for both SST and MHW forecasts, especially in the early forecast days. For MHW forecasting, ML methods compare favorably with MedFS up to 3 d lead time in 14 regions, while MedFS shows superior skill at 5 d lead time in 9 out of 16 regions. All methods predict the occurrence of MHWs with a confidence level greater than 50 % in each region. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of incoming solar radiation as a significant predictor of SST variability along with SST itself.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140217221","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biophysical coupling of seasonal chlorophyll-a bloom variations and phytoplankton assemblages across the Peninsula Front in the Bransfield Strait","authors":"Marta Veny, B. Aguiar-González, Á. Marrero-Díaz, Tania Pereira-Vázquez, Á. Rodríguez-Santana","doi":"10.5194/os-20-389-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-389-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. This study investigates the spatio-temporal variations in the chlorophyll-a (chl-a) blooms in the Bransfield Strait (BS) at a climatological scale (1998–2018). We propose that suitable monitoring of these blooms can be achieved through remotely sensed observations only if the BS is divided following the Peninsula Front (PF), which ultimately influences the phytoplankton assemblage. Our analysis is based on characterizing climatological fields of sea surface temperature (SST), air temperature, sea ice coverage, chl-a concentrations and wind stress, guided by synoptic novel and historical in situ observations which reveal two niches for phytoplankton assemblage: the Transitional Bellingshausen Water (TBW) and Transitional Weddell Water (TWW) pools. The TBW pool features stratified, less saline, warmer waters with shallow mixed layers, while the TWW pool features well-mixed, saltier, and colder waters. We identify that the 0.6 °C isotherm corresponds to the summertime climatological PF location, effectively dividing the BS into two different scenarios. Furthermore, the 0.5 mg m−3 chl-a isoline aligns well with the 0.6 °C isotherm, serving as a threshold for chl-a blooms of the highest concentrations around the South Shetland Islands. For the first time, these thresholds enable the monthly climatological descriptions of the two blooms developing in the BS on both sides of the PF. We think this approach underscores the potential of combining SST and chl-a data to monitor the year-to-year interplay of the chl-a blooms occurring in the TBW and TWW pools contoured by the PF.\u0000","PeriodicalId":19535,"journal":{"name":"Ocean Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140223513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}