News

Subpolar gyre decadal variability explains the recent oxygenation in the Irminger Sea

Abstract. 

"Accurate monitoring of the long-term trend of oxygen content at global scale requires a better knowledge of the regional oxygen variability at interannual to decadal time scale. Here, we combined the Argo dataset and repeated ship-based sections to investigate the drivers of the oxygen variability in the North Atlantic Ocean, a key region for the oxygen supply into the deep ocean. We focus on the Labrador Sea Water in the Irminger Sea over the period 1991–2018 and we show that the oxygen solubility explains less than a third of the oxygen variability. [...]".

 

Source: Nature
Authors: Charlène Feucher et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00570-y

Read the full article here.


Offshore wind farms are projected to impact primary production and bottom water deoxygenation in the North Sea

Abstract. 

"The wind wake effect of offshore wind farms affects the hydrodynamical conditions in the ocean, which has been hypothesized to impact marine primary production. So far only little is known about the ecosystem response to wind wakes under the premisses of large offshore wind farm clusters. Here we show, via numerical modeling, that the associated wind wakes in the North Sea provoke large-scale changes in annual primary production with local changes of up to ±10% not only at the offshore wind farm clusters, but also distributed over a wider region. [...]".

 

Source: Nature
Authors: Ute Daewel et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00625-0 

Read the full article here.


Diverging Fates of the Pacific Ocean Oxygen Minimum Zone and Its Core in a Warming World

Abstract. 

"Global ocean oxygen loss is projected to persist in the future, but Earth system models (ESMs) have not yet provided a consistent picture of how it will influence the largest oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) in the tropical Pacific. We examine the change in the Pacific OMZ volume in an ensemble of ESMs from the CMIP6 archive, considering a broad range of oxygen (O2) thresholds relevant to biogeochemical cycles and ecosystems (5–160 µmol/kg). Despite OMZ biases in the historical period of the simulations, the ESM ensemble projections consistently fall into three regimes across ESMs […]".

 

Source: Wiley Online Library
Authors: Julius J.M. Busecke et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2021AV000470

Read the full article here.


Oxygen and irradiance constraints on visual habitat in a changing ocean: The luminoxyscape

Abstract. 

"Changing oxygen conditions are altering the distribution of many marine animals. Zooplankton vertical distributions are primarily attributed to physiological tolerance and/or avoidance of visual predation. Recent findings reveal that visual function in marine larvae is highly sensitive to oxygen availability, but it is unknown how oxygen, which affects light sensitivity and generates limits for vision, may affect the distribution of animals that rely heavily on this sensory modality. This study introduces the concept of a “visual luminoxyscape” to demonstrate how combinations of limiting oxygen and light could constrain the habitat of marine larvae with oxygen-demanding vision. [...]".

 

Source: Wiley Online Library
Authors: Lillian R. McCormick et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10296

Read the full article here.


Volcanic trigger of ocean deoxygenation during Cordilleran ice sheet retreat

Abstract. 

"North Pacific deoxygenation events during the last deglaciation were sustained over millennia by high export productivity, but the triggering mechanisms and their links to deglacial warming remain uncertain. Here we find that initial deoxygenation in the North Pacific immediately after the Cordilleran ice sheet (CIS) retreat was associated with increased volcanic ash in seafloor sediments. Timing of volcanic inputs relative to CIS retreat suggests that regional explosive volcanism was initiated by ice unloading. […]".

 

Source: Nature
Authors: Jianghui Du et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05267-y

Read the full article here.


Progressive expansion of seafloor anoxia in the Middle to Late Ordovician Yangtze Sea: Implications for concurrent decline of invertebrate diversity

Abstract. 

"The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) achieved its peak during the Middle Ordovician, likely in association with climatic cooling and a rise of atmospheric O2. However, unstable redox states developed widely in contemporaneous epeiric seas, challenging previous assumptions about sustained oceanic oxygenation driven by deep-ocean ventilation in the aftermath of Ordovician cooling. Here, we investigate two Middle-Upper Ordovician shale-dominated successions from intra-shelf basin and slope settings of the Yangtze Sea, South China. […]".

 

Source: Science Direct 
Authors: Junpeng Zhang et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117858

Read the full article here.


Two deep marine oxygenation events during the Permian-Triassic boundary interval in South China

Abstract. 

"Marine redox conditions through the Permian-Triassic (P-T) boundary interval have been intensively studied in South China with different redox proxies and from different sections. However, the resultant interpretations are inconsistent and sometimes even controversial, thereby impeding an overall understanding of global environmental changes and of causes for the P-T mass extinction events. This study summarizes and reevaluates these previous studies. [...]".

 

Source: Science Direct
Authors: Yuzhu Ge & David P.G. Bond
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104220

Read the full article here.


The Ocean's Biological Pump: In Situ Oxygen Measurements in the Subtropical Oceans

Abstract. 

"The magnitude and distribution of the ocean's biological pump (the downward flux of organic carbon (OC) from the ocean surface) influences the pCO2 of the atmosphere and the O2 content of the deep sea, but has not been well quantified. We determine this flux in the ocean's five subtropical gyres using upper-ocean oxygen mass balance and measurements of T, S, and pO2 by autonomous profiling floats. Our results suggest that the biological OC pump is not globally uniform among the subtropical gyres: values in the North Pacific and Atlantic indicate distinct autotrophy (1–2 mol C m−2 yr−1) while near zero values in the S. [...]".

 

Source: Geophysical Research Letters
Authors: Steven Emerson & Bo Yang
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099834

Read the full article here.


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