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Sophie Clayton1, Peter Gaube1, Takeyoshi Nagai2, Melissa M. Omand3, Makio Honda4 1. University of Washington 2. Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Japan 3. University of Rhode Island 4. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan Western boundary current (WBC) regions are largely thought to be hotspots of productivity, biodiversity, and carbon export. […]
Read MoreAntarctic shelf systems generate the densest waters in the world. These shelf waters are the building blocks of Antarctic Bottom Water, the ocean’s abyssal water mass. These bottom waters have the potential to sequester carbon out of the atmosphere for millennia. One such form of marine carbon is dissolved organic carbon (DOC). DOC is produced […]
Read MoreHow will phytoplankton respond to climate changes over the next century in the Ross Sea, the most productive coastal waters of Antarctica? Model projections of physical conditions suggest substantial environmental changes in this region, but associated impacts on Ross Sea biology, specifically phytoplankton, remain unclear. In a recent study, Kaufman et al (2017) generated and […]
Read MoreIn the subtropical North Atlantic, dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) concentrations are depleted and might co-limit N2 fixation and microbial productivity. There are relatively large pools of dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP), but microbes need an enzyme to access this P source. One such alkaline phosphatase (APase) enzyme requires zinc (Zn) as its activating cofactor. This has […]
Read MoreA recent study by Pohlman et al. published in PNAS showed that ocean waters near the surface of the Arctic Ocean absorbed 2,000 times more carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere than the amount of methane released into the atmosphere from the same waters. The study was conducted near Norway’s Svalbard Islands, which overly numerous […]
Read MoreWhat controls the amount of organic carbon entering the deep ocean? In the sunlit layer of the ocean, phytoplankton transform inorganic carbon to organic carbon via a process called photosynthesis. As these particulate forms of organic carbon stick together, they become dense enough to sink out of the sunlit layer, transferring large quantities of organic […]
Read MoreTurbulence is known to be a primary determinant of plankton fitness and succession. However, open questions remain about whether phytoplankton can actively respond to turbulence and, if so, how rapidly they can adapt to it. Recent experiments have revealed that phytoplankton can behaviorally respond to turbulent cues with a rapid change in shape, and this […]
Read MoreThe diatom Pseudo-nitzchia produces a neurotoxin called domoic acid, which in high concentrations affects wildlife ranging from mussels and crabs to seabirds and sea lions, as well as humans. In humans, the effects of domoic acid poisoning can range from gastrointestinal distress to memory loss, and even death. Despite being studied in laboratories since the […]
Read MoreCoral reefs are diverse, productive ecosystems that are highly vulnerable to changing ocean conditions such as acidification and warming. Coral reef metabolism—in particular the fundamental ecosystem properties of net community production (NCP; the balance of photosynthesis and respiration) and net community calcification (NCC; the balance of calcification and dissolution)—has been proposed as a proxy for […]
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