News
Diel and tidal pCO2 × O2 fluctuations provide physiological refuge to early life stages of a coastal forage fish
Abstract.
"Coastal ecosystems experience substantial natural fluctuations in pCO2 and dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions on diel, tidal, seasonal and interannual timescales. Rising carbon dioxide emissions and anthropogenic nutrient input are expected to increase these pCO2 and DO cycles in severity and duration of acidification and hypoxia. [...]"
Source: Scientific Reports
Authors: Emma L. Cross et al.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-53930-8
Spatiotemporal redox heterogeneity and transient marine shelf oxygenation in the Mesoproterozoic ocean
Abstract.
"The Mesoproterozoic Era (1.6-1.0 Ga), long regarded as an interval of sluggish biotic evolution and persistently low atmospheric-oceanic oxygen levels, has become the subject of recent controversy regarding putative large-scale oxygenation events. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of redox, productivity, seawater sulfate concentrations, and hydrographic conditions for the ∼1.4-1.32-Ga Xiamaling Formation in the shallow Hougou and mid-depth Huangtugui sections in the Yanshan Basin (North China). [...]"
Source: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Authors: HaiyangWang et al.
DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2019.11.028
Ocean acidification – a silently progressing crisis
"Ocean warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and marine heatwaves are all pressing marine issues that are quietly intensifying around the world. These challenges are diverse and occur on a massive scale, making it difficult for people to understand the full extent of the problem. To shed some light on this topic, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) spoke with Mr. Tsunoda, Senior Research Fellow at the Ocean Policy Research Institute (OPRI). [...]"
Source: Sasakawa Peace Foundation
Marine animals hold promise for extending ocean monitoring
"An international team of researchers led by the University of Exeter suggests that a wide variety of marine species could be used for monitoring the world's oceans. Using electronic tags, scientists could exploit the natural behavior of sharks, penguins, turtles, seals and other species to fill gaps in our knowledge of the seas.
With three-quarters of the Earth's surface covered with water, having a comprehensive understanding of the oceans is very important in dealing with everything from fishing quotas to climate change. The problem is that the oceans are much bigger than most people realize and many parts aren't easily, if at all, accessible."
Source: New Atlas
A crisis in the water is decimating this once-booming fishing town
"TOMBWA, Angola — His ancestors were Portuguese colonialists who settled on this otherworldly stretch of coast, wedged between a vast desert and the southern Atlantic. They came looking for the one thing this barren region had in abundance: fish.
By the time Mario Carceija Santos was getting into the fishing business half a century later, in the 1990s, Angola had won independence and the town of Tombwa was thriving. There were 20 fish factories strung along the bay, a constellation of churches and schools, a cinema hall built in art deco, and, in the central plaza, massive drying racks for the tons upon tons of fish hauled out of the sea. [...]"
Source: The Washington Post
Article Open Access Published: 29 November 2019 Role of synoptic activity on projected changes in upwelling-favourable winds at the ocean’s eastern bo
Abstract.
"The climate of the ocean’s eastern boundaries is strongly influenced by subtropical anticyclones, which drive a surface wind stress that promotes coastal upwelling of nutrient-rich subsurface water that supports high primary productivity and an abundance of food resources. Understanding the projected response of upwelling-favourable winds to climate change has broad implications for coastal biogeochemistry, ecology, and fisheries. [...]"
Source: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
Authors: Catalina Aguirre et al.
DOI: 10.1038/s41612-019-0101-9
Global sea-surface iodide observations, 1967–2018
Abstract.
"The marine iodine cycle has significant impacts on air quality and atmospheric chemistry. Specifically, the reaction of iodide with ozone in the top few micrometres of the surface ocean is an important sink for tropospheric ozone (a pollutant gas) and the dominant source of reactive iodine to the atmosphere. Sea surface iodide parameterisations are now being implemented in air quality models, but these are currently a major source of uncertainty. [...]"
Source: Scientific Data
Authors: Rosie J. Chance et al.
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-019-0288-y
Changes in oxygen concentrations in our ocean can disrupt fundamental biological cycles
"New research led by scientists at the University of Bristol has shown that the feedback mechanisms that were thought to keep the marine nitrogen cycle relatively stable over geological time can break down when oxygen levels in the ocean decline significantly.
The nitrogen cycle is essential to all forms of life on Earth - nitrogen is a basic building block of DNA.The marine nitrogen cycle is strongly controlled by biology and small changes in the marine nitrogen cycle have major implications on life. [...]"
Source: University of Bristol
Fundamentally different global marine nitrogen cycling in response to severe ocean deoxygenation
Abstract.
"The present-day marine nitrogen (N) cycle is strongly regulated by biology. Deficiencies in the availability of fixed and readily bioavailable nitrogen relative to phosphate (P) in the surface ocean are largely corrected by the activity of diazotrophs. This feedback system, termed the “nitrostat,” is thought to have provided close regulation of fixed-N speciation and inventory relative to P since the Proterozoic. [...]"
Source: PNAS
Authors: B. David A. Naafs et al.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1905553116
Large projected decline in dissolved oxygen in a eutrophic estuary due to climate change
Abstract.
"Climate change is known to cause deoxygenation in the open ocean, but its effects on eutrophic and seasonally hypoxic estuaries and coastal oceans are less clear. Using Chesapeake Bay as a study site, we conducted climate downscaling projections for dissolved oxygen and found that the hypoxic and anoxic volumes would increase by 10‐30% between the late 20th and mid‐21st century. [...]"
Source: JGR Oceans
Authors: Wenfei Ni et al.
DOI: 10.1029/2019JC015274