Archive for go-ship

Bacterial fingerprints as a tool for large-scale functional ecology

Posted by Dina Pandya 
· Monday, September 20th, 2021 

Unravelling the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem functions is a timeless question which dates back to the expeditions of Alexander von Humboldt in the early 1800’. At the base of the marine foodweb, marine prokaryotes are essential for ecosystem functioning. Measuring their biogeography and functional traits therefore merits investigation as alterations in their alpha and beta diversities could lead to changes in the fluxes of oceanic biogeochemical cycles that sustain the life on Earth.

In a new article, published in Nature Communications, the authors used the genetic fingerprint of marine bacteria to predict their metabolic profiles from the ice edge to the equator in the Pacific Ocean. Their research showed that low-cost, high-throughput bacterial marker gene data can be used as a tool for large-scale functional ecology. They tackled five hypotheses and show how biological diversity influences functional diversity, and how these are related to energy production in the ocean. The authors, furthermore, highlight how -  can be nicely integrated with the physical and chemical sampling programs during global ocean monitoring campaigns such as GO-SHIP and GEOTRACES.

Increasing our understanding how bacterial diversity impacts the functional diversity of ecosystems has also broader implications. For example, bacterial fingerprints can help us to improve marine ecosystem monitoring programs, especially in coastal zones and estuaries where the input of nitrogen is predicted to increase. Assessing the changes in the bacterial diversity can also help to assess the environmental footprint of aquaculture cages, which are a source of nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus and have been shown to deteriorate the water quality and life higher up the food chain.

Figure caption: The P15S GO-SHIP line from the ice-edge to the equator along 170o W in the South Pacific Ocean (a). Sea surface temperatures and salinity (b) and a conceptual picture of the functional prokaryotic and microbial-eukaryotic biogeography (c). In winter heterotrophic prokaryotes (blue rods) recycle the organic matter produced in the summer and autumn months in the high nutrient low chlorophyll (HNLC) region of the Southern Ocean (SO). Turbulence and mixing (curved arrows) in the sub-tropical front (STF) results in high primary productivity (PP) driven by phytoplankton rich in chlorophyll-a (green discs). The South Pacific Subtropical Gyre Province (SPSG) is characterized by nutrient co-limitation, low PP, and higher abundances of photosynthetic prokaryotes (yellow circles). The Pacific Equatorial Divergence (PED) is characterized by equatorial upwelling which results in an increase of the N:P ratio in the mixed layer (MLD) relative to the SPSG (d), and results in increased chlorophyll-a concentrations and PP. The MLD is shown as a thick white line. CTD stations (small gray dots), sampling stations for 16S rRNA data (large gray circles) and shotgun metagenome samples (yellow stars) are shown on panel d.

 

Authors:
Eric J. Raes (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Australia; Dalhousie University, Canada)
Kristen Karsh (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Australia)
Swan L. S. Sow (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Australia; University of Tasmania, Hobart; NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, The Netherlands)
Martin Ostrowski (University of Technology Sydney, Australia)
Mark V. Brown (The University of Newcastle, Australia)
Jodie van de Kamp (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Australia)
Rita M. Franco-Santos (University of Tasmania, Australia)
Levente Bodrossy (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Australia)
Anya M. Waite (Dalhousie University, Canada)

 

Read this related general audience article in The Conversation

Want to read more about the P15S line?

Raes, E. J., Bodrossy, L., Van De Kamp, J., Bissett, A., Ostrowski, M., Brown, M. V., ... & Waite, A. M. (2018). Oceanographic boundaries constrain microbial diversity gradients in the South Pacific Ocean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(35), E8266-E8275.

Raes, E. J., van de Kamp, J., Bodrossy, L., Fong, A. A., Riekenberg, J., Holmes, B. H., ... & Waite, A. M. (2020). N2 fixation and new insights into nitrification from the ice-edge to the equator in the South Pacific Ocean. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, 389.

Sow, S. L., Trull, T. W., & Bodrossy, L. (2020). Oceanographic Fronts Shape Phaeocystis Assemblages: A High-Resolution 18S rRNA Gene Survey From the Ice-Edge to the Equator of the South Pacific. Frontiers in microbiology, 11, 1847.

Regional circulation changes and a growing atmospheric CO2 concentration drive accelerated anthropogenic carbon uptake in the South Pacific

Posted by mmaheigan 
· Tuesday, August 6th, 2019 

About one tenth of human CO2 emissions are currently being taken up by the Pacific Ocean, which makes the seawater more corrosive to the calcium carbonate shells and skeletons of the plants and animals that live there. Now, thanks to hard work by international teams of scientists from the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP), there are decades of data, enough to test how much this anthropogenic CO2 accumulation varies throughout the Pacific Ocean and regionally on the timescales of decades.

 

Figure caption: Map of the concentration of human-emitted CO2 along the sections where data were available from more than one decade, estimated for the year 2015.

Using a new take on an old technique, along with a wide variety of repeat biogeochemical measurements, a study in Biogeochemical Cycles revealed that Pacific anthropogenic CO2 accumulation increased from the 1995-2005 decade to the 2005-2015 decade. While the magnitude of the decadal increase was consistent with increases in human CO2 emissions over this period for most of the Pacific, the rate of change was greater than expected in the South Pacific subtropical gyre. The authors suggest that recent increases in circulation in the gyre region could have delivered an unexpectedly large amount of anthropogenic CO2-laden seawater from the surface to the ocean interior. Programs like GO-SHIP will continue to be critical for tracking the fate of human CO2 emissions and associated feedbacks on climate and marine ecosystems.

 

Authors:
B. R. Carter (Univ. Washington and PMEL)
R. A. Feely, G. C. Johnson, J. L. Bullister (PMEL)
R. Wanninkhof (NOAA AOML)
S. Kouketsu, A. Murata (JAMSTEC
R. E. Sonnerup, S. Mecking (Univ. Washington)
P. C. Pardo (Univ. Tasmania)
C. L. Sabine (Univ. Hawai‘i, Mānoa)
B. M. Sloyan, B. Tilbrook (CSIRO, Australia)
K. Speer (Florida State University
L. D. Talley (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
F. J. Millero (Univ. Miami)
S. E. Wijffels (CSIRO and WHOI)
A. M. Macdonald (WHOI)
N. Gruber (ETH Zurich)

Filter by Keyword

abundance acidification africa air-sea interactions algae alkalinity allometry ammonium AMOC anoxic Antarctic anthro impacts anthropogenic carbon aquaculture aquatic continuum aragonite saturation arctic Argo argon arsenic artificial seawater Atlantic atmospheric CO2 atmospheric nitrogen deposition authigenic carbonates autonomous platforms bacteria bathypelagic BATS BCG Argo benthic bgc argo bio-go-ship bio-optical bioavailability biogeochemical cycles biogeochemical models biogeochemistry Biological Essential Ocean Variables biological pump biophysics bloom blue carbon bottom water boundary layer buffer capacity C14 CaCO3 calcification calcite carbon carbon-climate feedback carbon-sulfur coupling carbon budget carbon cycle carbon dioxide carbon export carbon sequestration carbon storage Caribbean CCA CCS changing marine ecosystems changing marine environments changing ocean chemistry chemical oceanographic data chemical speciation chemoautotroph chesapeake bay chl a chlorophyll circulation climate change climate variability CO2 coastal darkening coastal ocean cobalt Coccolithophores commercial community composition conservation cooling effect copepod coral reefs CTD currents cyclone daily cycles data data access data assimilation data management data product Data standards DCM dead zone decadal trends decomposers decomposition deep convection deep ocean deep sea coral deoxygenation depth diatoms DIC diel migration diffusion dimethylsulfide dinoflagellate discrete measurements DOC DOM domoic acid dust DVM ecology ecosystem management ecosystems eddy Education Ekman transport emissions ENSO enzyme equatorial regions ESM estuarine and coastal carbon fluxes estuary euphotic zone eutrophication evolution export export fluxes export production EXPORTS extreme events faecal pellets fecal pellets filter feeders filtration rates fire fish Fish carbon fisheries fishing floats fluid dynamics fluorescence food webs forage fish forams freshening freshwater frontal zone functional role future oceans geochemistry geoengineering geologic time GEOTRACES glaciers gliders global carbon budget global ocean global warming go-ship grazing greenhouse gas Greenland ground truthing groundwater Gulf of Maine Gulf of Mexico Gulf Stream gyre harmful algal bloom high latitude human food human impact human well-being hurricane hydrogen hydrothermal hypoxia ice age ice cores ice cover industrial onset inland waters in situ inverse circulation ions iron iron fertilization isotopes jellies katabatic winds kelvin waves krill kuroshio lab vs field land-ocean continuum larvaceans lateral transport LGM lidar ligands light light attenuation lipids machine learning mangroves marine carbon cycle marine heatwave marine particles marine snowfall marshes Mediterranean meltwater mesopelagic mesoscale metagenome metals methane methods microbes microlayer microorganisms microscale microzooplankton midwater mixed layer mixed layers mixing mixotrophy model modeling model validation mode water molecular diffusion MPT multi-decade n2o NAAMES NASA NCP nearshore net community production net primary productivity new ocean state new technology Niskin bottle nitrate nitrogen nitrogen cycle nitrogen fixation nitrous oxide north atlantic north pacific nuclear war nutricline nutrient budget nutrient cycling nutrient limitation nutrients OA ocean-atmosphere ocean acidification ocean acidification data ocean carbon uptake and storage ocean color ocean modeling ocean observatories ocean warming ODZ oligotrophic omics OMZ open ocean optics organic particles oscillation overturning circulation oxygen pacific paleoceanography parameter optimization particle flux partnerships pCO2 PDO peat pelagic PETM pH phenology phosphorus photosynthesis physical processes physiology phytoplankton PIC piezophilic piezotolerant plankton POC polar regions policy pollutants precipitation predation prediction pressure primary productivity Prochlorococcus prokaryotes proteins pteropods pycnocline radioisotopes remineralization remote sensing repeat hydrography residence time resource management respiration resuspension rivers rocky shore Rossby waves Ross Sea ROV salinity salt marsh satellite scale seafloor seagrass sea ice sea level rise seasonal patterns seasonal trends sea spray seawater collection seaweed secchi sediments sensors shelf ocean shelf system shells ship-based observations shorelines silicate silicon cycle sinking particles size SOCCOM soil carbon southern ocean south pacific spatial covariations speciation SST state estimation stoichiometry subduction submesoscale subpolar subtropical sulfate surf surface surface ocean Synechococcus technology teleconnections temperate temperature temporal covariations thermocline thermodynamics thermohaline thorium tidal time-series time of emergence titration top predators total alkalinity trace elements trace metals trait-based transfer efficiency transient features Tris trophic transfer tropical turbulence twilight zone upper ocean upper water column upwelling US CLIVAR validation velocity gradient ventilation vertical flux vertical migration vertical transport volcano warming water clarity water mass water quality waves western boundary currents wetlands winter mixing zooplankton

Copyright © 2023 - OCB Project Office, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 266 Woods Hole Rd, MS #25, Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA Phone: 508-289-2838  •  Fax: 508-457-2193  •  Email: ocb_news@us-ocb.org

link to nsflink to noaalink to WHOI

Funding for the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry Project Office is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The OCB Project Office is housed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.