News

Effects of low oxygen concentrations on aerobic methane oxidation in seasonally hypoxic coastal waters

Abstract. 

"Coastal seas may account for more than 75 % of global oceanic methane emissions. There, methane is mainly produced microbially in anoxic sediments from which it can escape to the overlying water column. Aerobic methane oxidation (MOx) in the water column acts as a biological filter, reducing the amount of methane that eventually evades to the atmosphere. The efficiency of the MOx filter is potentially controlled by the availability of dissolved methane and oxygen, as well as temperature, salinity, and hydrographic dynamics, and all of these factors undergo strong temporal fluctuations in coastal ecosystems. [...]"

Source: Biogeosciences 14
Authors: Lea Steinle et al.
DOI: 10.5194/bg-14-1631-2017

Full article


The impact of ocean deoxygenation on iron release from continental margin sediments

Abstract. 

"In the oceans’ high-nitrate–low-chlorophyll regions, such as the Peru/Humboldt Current system and the adjacent eastern equatorial Pacific, primary productivity is limited by the micronutrient iron. Within the Peruvian upwelling area, bioavailable iron is released from the reducing continental margin sediments. The magnitude of this seafloor source could change with fluctuations in the extension or intensity of the oxygen minimum zones. Here we show that measurements of molybdenum, uranium and iron concentrations can be used as a proxy for sedimentary iron release, and use this proxy to assess iron release from the sea floor beneath the Peru upwelling system during the past 140,000 years. [...]"

Source: Nature Geoscience 7
Authors: Florian Scholz et al.
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2162

Full article


Effect of oxygen minimum zone formation on communities of marine protists

Abstract.

"Changes in ocean temperature and circulation patterns compounded by human activities are leading to oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) expansion with concomitant alteration in nutrient and climate active trace gas cycling. Here, we report the response of microbial eukaryote populations to seasonal changes in water column oxygen-deficiency using Saanich Inlet, a seasonally anoxic fjord on the coast of Vancouver Island British Columbia, as a model ecosystem. [...]"

Source: The ISME Journal 6
Authors: William Orsi et al.
DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2012.7

Full article


West Maui shoreline water quality to be documented in huge collection program

"A groundbreaking scientific data collection program to expand the measuring of water quality off 18 West Maui shoreline sites has been forged between the state Department of Health and Maui community groups involved in the protection of the island’s nearshore waters. [...]"

Source: The Maui News

Full article

 


Positive Indian Ocean Dipole events prevent anoxia off the west coast of India

Abstract.

"The seasonal upwelling along the west coast of India (WCI) brings nutrient-rich, oxygen-poor subsurface waters to the continental shelf, favoring very low oxygen concentrations in the surface waters during late boreal summer and fall. This yearly-recurring coastal hypoxia is more severe during some years, leading to coastal anoxia that has strong impacts on the living resources. In the present study, we analyze a 1/4◦ resolution coupled physical–biogeochemical regional oceanic simulation over the 1960–2012 period to investigate the physical processes influencing the oxycline interannual variability off the WCI, that being a proxy for the variability on the shelf in our model. [...]" 

Source: Bioggeosciences 14
Authors: Parvathi Vallivattathillam et al.
DOI: 10.5194/bg-14-1541-2017

Full article


The influence of oxygen exposure time on the composition of macromolecular organic matter as revealed by surface sediments on the Murray Ridge

Abstract.

"The Arabian Sea represents a prime example of an open ocean extended oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) with low oxygen concentrations (down to less than 2 mM) between 200 and 1000 m water depth. The OMZ impinges on the ocean floor, affect ingorganic matter (OM) mineralization. We investigated impact of oxygen depletion on the composition of macromolecularOM (MOM) along a transect through the OMZ on the slopes of the Murray Ridge. This sub-marine high in the northern Arabian Sea, with the top at approximately 500 m below sea surface (mbss), intersects the OMZ. We analyzed sediments deposited in the core of OMZ (suboxic conditions) [...]"

Source: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 206
Authors: Nierop, K.G.J.; Reichart, G.-J.; Veld, H.; Sinninghe Damsté, J.S
DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2017.02.032

Full article


Remineralization of particulate organic carbon in an ocean oxygen minimum zone

Abstract.

"Biological oceanic processes, principally the surface production, sinking and interior remineralization of organic particles, keep atmospheric CO2 lower than if the ocean was abiotic. The remineralization length scale (RLS, the vertical distance over which organic particle flux declines by 63%, affected by particle respiration, fragmentation and sinking rates) controls the size of this effect and is anomalously high in oxygen minimum zones (OMZ). Here we show in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific OMZ 70% of POC remineralization is due to microbial respiration, indicating that the high RLS is the result of lower particle fragmentation by zooplankton, likely due to the almost complete absence of zooplankton particle interactions in OMZ waters. [...]"

Source: Nature Communications 8
Authors: E. L. Cavan, M. Trimmer, F. Shelley & R. Sanders
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14847

Full article


Tropical dead zones and mass mortalities on coral reefs

Description

"Oxygen-starved coastal waters are rapidly increasing in prevalence worldwide. However, little is known about the impacts of these “dead zones” in tropical ecosystems or their potential threat to coral reefs. We document the deleterious effects of such an anoxic event on coral habitat and biodiversity, and show that the risk of dead-zone events to reefs worldwide likely has been seriously underestimated. Awareness of, and research on, reef hypoxia is needed to address the threat posed by dead zones to coral reefs."

 

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Stated of America (PNAS)
Authors: Andrew H. Altieri et al.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1621517114

Full article

 


Buoyancy-driven coastal current blocks ventilation of an anoxic fjord on the Pacific coast of Canada

Abstract. 

"Shallow sills restrict the ventilation of deep coastal fjords. Dense oceanic water seaward of the sill and lower density water within the receiving basin are generally required for oxygenated water to cross the sill and descend deep into the fjord. Here, we use concurrent 10-year time series from current meters in the fjord and on the continental shelf to examine ventilation of the 120-m deep, anoxic inner basin of Effingham Inlet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Whereas density currents traverse the 40 m-deep sill and flow into the inner basin at mid-depth at quasi-fortnightly tidal intervals, only five current intrusions descended to the bottom of the basin over the decade-long measurement period. [...]"

Source: Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR)
Authors: Richard E. Thomson et al.
DOI: 10.1002/2016JC012512

Full article


Declining oxygen – is Humboldt’s nutrient boost at risk?

Experiment with the KOSMOS mesocosms in Peru

"If less and less oxygen is available in the ocean as a result of climate change, this also affects highly productive regions such as the waters off the coast of Peru – an area strongly influenced by the nutrient-rich Humboldt Current. An international team led by GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel now investigates the impact of declining oxygen on the productivity of the Peruvian upwelling system employing the KOSMOS mesocosm facility. [...]"

Source: GEOMAR
Contact: Maike Nicolai

Link to News


Showing 1 - 10 of 22 results.
Items per Page 10
of 3

Newsletter

It is possible to subscribe to our email newsletter list.

Depending on the amount of publications, we will summarize the activities on this blog in a newsletter for everyone not following the blog regularly.

If you want to subscribe to the email list to receive the newsletter, please send an email to sfb754@geomar.de with the header "subscribe".

If you want to unsubscribe from the newsletter, please send an email to sfb754@geomar.de with the header "unsubscribe".

You cannot forward any messages as a regular member to the list. If you want to suggest new articles or would like to contact us because of any other issue, please send an email to sfb754@geomar.de.

GOOD Social Media

To follow GOOD on LinkedIn, please visit here.
 

To follow GOOD on Twitter, please visit here.


To follow GOOD on Blue Sky, please visit here