Global research organization seeks to leverage technological advances to promote ocean protection

"Several dozen of the world’s top oceanographers were at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego last week to showcase advances in the technology used to observe the oceans.

At the 19th annual meeting of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), which Scripps Oceanography co-founded in 1999, leaders said that the organization has evolved from setting up scientific observation networks in the global oceans to encouraging the spread of oceanographic expertise worldwide. Now, said POGO Chair Karen Wiltshire, the organization seeks to create consensus among scientists to create a global voice calling attention to issues ranging from ocean acidification to deoxygenation and sustainable fishing. [...]"

Source: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

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Abstract.

"The influence of mesoscale eddies on the flow field and the water masses, especially the oxygen distribution of the eastern tropical South Pacific is investigated from a mooring, float and satellite data set. Two anticyclonic (ACE1/2), one mode water (MWE) and one cyclonic eddy (CE) are identified and followed in detail with satellite data on their westward transition with velocities of 3.2 to 6.0 cm/s from their generation region, the shelf of the Peruvian and Chilean upwelling regime, across the Stratus Ocean Reference Station (ORS) (~ 20° S, 85° W) to their decaying region far west in the oligotrophic open ocean. [...]"

Source: Ocean Science (under review)
Authors: Rena Czeschel et al.
DOI: 10.5194/os-2018-5

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Abstract.

"Subsurface coherent eddies are well-known features of ocean circulation, but the sparsity of observations prevents an assessment of their importance for biogeochemistry. Here, we use a global eddying (0.1° ) ocean-biogeochemical model to carry out a census of subsurface coherent eddies originating from eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUS), and quantify their biogeochemical effects as they propagate westward into the subtropical gyres.  [...]"

Source: Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Authors: Ivy Frenge et al.
DOI: 10.1002/2017GB005743

Abstract.

"At present, the Arabian Sea has a permanent oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) at water depths between about 100 and 1200 m. Active denitrification in the upper part of the OMZ is recorded by enhanced δ¹⁵N values in the sediments. Sediment cores show a δ¹⁵N increase during the middle and late Holocene, which is contrary to the trend in the other two regions of water column denitrification in the eastern tropical North and South Pacific.  [...]"

Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: Birgit Gaye et al.
DOI: 10.5194/bg-15-507-2018

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"Nitrogen monoxide (NO) belongs to the group of nitrogen oxides which are infamous as toxic emissions in urban agglomerations. But NO is also produced in nature and plays a role in the nitrogen cycle. However, from earth's largest ecosystem, the ocean, we have hardly any NO measurements."

Source: Science Daily

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Abstract.

"Nitric oxide (NO) is a short-lived compound of the marine nitrogen cycle. However, measurements of NO in seawater are analytically challenging and our knowledge about its oceanic distribution is, therefore, rudimentary. NO was measured in the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) of the eastern tropical South Pacific Ocean (ETSP) off Peru during R/V Meteor cruise M93 in February/March 2013. [...]"

Source: Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography
Authors: Hannah E. Lutterbeck et al.
DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2017.12.023

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Abstract.

"Symbioses between anaerobic or microaerophilic protists and prokaryotes are common in anoxic and oxygen-depleted habitats ranging from marine sediments to gastrointestinal tracts. Nevertheless, little is known about the mechanisms of metabolic interaction between partners. In these putatively syntrophic associations, consumption of fermentative end products (e.g., hydrogen) by the prokaryotic symbionts is thought to facilitate protistan anaerobic metabolism.  [...]"

Source: Molecular Ecology
Authors: R. A. Beinart et al.
DOI: 10.1111/mec.14465

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Abstract.

"The adaptation of some benthic foraminiferal species to low-oxygen conditions provides the prospect of using the chemical composition of their tests as proxies for bottom water oxygenation. Manganese may be particularly suitable as such a geochemical proxy because this redox element is soluble in reduced form (Mn²⁺) and hence can be incorporated into benthic foraminiferal tests under low-oxygen conditions. [...]"

Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: Jassin Petersen et al.
DOI: 10.5194/bg-15-331-2018

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Meeresworkshop für Jugendliche

9.–13. April 2018, GEOMAR Kiel

Neue Forschungsergebnisse des Sonderforschungsbereichs 754 der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft weisen darauf hin, dass die Sauerstoffgehalte in einigen Regionen des Pazifischen und Atlantischen Ozeans in mittleren Tiefen allmählich abnehmen. Die Forschenden aus den Bereichen der Meeresbiologie, Chemie, Physik und Geologie vermuten hierbei eine Wechselwirkung zwischen der Klimaänderung und der Ausbreitung dieser sauerstoffarmen Zonen im Meer.

Das GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel veranstaltet zu diesem Thema einen

1-wöchigen Osterworkshop für Jugendliche im Alter von 14-17 Jahren.

Der Kurs für 12 Teilnehmer findet am GEOMAR in der zweiten Woche der Schleswig-Holsteinischen Osterferien statt, ganztägig vom 9. bis 13. April 2018.

Weitere Informationen finden Sie hier.

"The ocean is facing unprecedented pressures that are causing massive ecosystem and nutrient cycle disruption the result of industrial-scale depletion of ocean wildlife and destabilization of steady-state ecosystems. This occurs not only on the seafloor by trawling, dredging, drilling, and mining but also in the water column with nets, long lines, fish aggregating devices and other techniques; methods introduced in recent decades to extract with unprecedented speed and scale from ecosystems hundreds of millions of years in the making.  [...]"

Source: GIS and Science
Author: Matt Artz
 

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