Archive for sea ice

An unexpected shift to a later phytoplankton bloom in the West Antarctic Peninsula

Posted by mmaheigan 
· Wednesday, May 29th, 2024 

Polar regions are changing: warming, losing sea ice, and experiencing shifts in the phenology of seasonal events. Global models predict that phytoplankton blooms will start earlier in these warming polar environments. What we don’t know is will this be true for all high-latitude regions? Is the timing of phytoplankton growing season moving earlier in the West Antarctic Peninsula as this region experiences climate change?

The authors of a recent paper published in Marine Ecology Progress Series used 25 years of satellite ocean color data to track shifts in bloom phenology—the timing of recurring seasonal events. Contrary to predictions, the results show that the spring bloom start date is shifting later over time. Figure 1 shows that in the waters experiencing seasonal sea ice, from 1997 to 2022, the start and peak date of the phytoplankton growing season are shifting later. However, there is no overall decline in total annual chlorophyll-a, because in the fall (February-April) chlorophyll-a concentrations are increasing over time.

The most likely driver of earlier spring bloom start dates is increased wind mixing. Spring (October-December) wind speed has been increasing over time concurrent with delayed bloom start dates. In an ecosystem with less sea ice than previous decades, more open water exposed to increased wind speed may mix phytoplankton more deeply in spring, delaying the bloom until the onset of summer stratification.

Even though global climate models predict bloom timing will shift earlier with climate change, this may not be the case in specific polar regions like the West Antarctic Peninsula.  Later bloom timing could impact surface ocean carbon uptake, phytoplankton community composition, and ecosystem health. If the timing and composition of blooms is changing, that shifts will affect the food quantity and quality available to krill and higher trophic level organisms.

Author
Jessie Turner (University of Connecticut) @jessiesturner

Figure 1: In recent years the timing of the annual phytoplankton bloom in the Mid Shelf region of the West Antarctic Peninsula has shifted: satellite-derived chlorophyll-a concentration in recent years (pink line) shows a significant delayed bloom start date compared to past years (blue line).

Size does matter: larger krill leads to more POC export in the West Antarctic Peninsula

Posted by mmaheigan 
· Friday, December 1st, 2023 

Despite the importance of particulate organic carbon (POC) export on carbon sequestration and marine ecology, there have been few multi-decade studies in the world’s oceans. A new analysis published in Nature analyzed two decades of POC export data in the West Antarctic Peninsula and found that export oscillates on a 5-year cycle.

Figure caption: A) Particulate organic carbon (POC) export oscillates on a 5-year timescale in sync with the oscillation in the body size of the krill Euphausia superba on the West Antarctic Peninsula. B) POC export is significantly correlated with krill body size (p = 0.01).

Using a unique combination of krill data from penguin diet samples and net tows over two decades, Trinh et al. found that the cycle of POC export is intimately tied to the Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) life cycle, as the bulk of the POC in their sediment traps was krill fecal pellets. Surprisingly, more krill did not lead to more POC export. Instead, when the krill population size was smaller but dominated by larger, older adults, POC export increased.

E. superba is the longest-lived (5-6 years) and largest krill species. They exhibit continuous annual growth throughout their life cycle. After about five years a krill population reaches its end stage and the population size is at a minimum. This end-stage population is composed of large, 50-60 mm long individuals that produce large, fast-sinking fecal pellets, leading to increased POC export. Increasing temperatures and deterioration of sea ice cover during the winter season due to climate change will likely impact the recruitment of new cohorts of krill and their success in replenishing aging populations. It is unclear how changes in the krill population and life cycle will impact long-term carbon sequestration on the West Antarctic Peninsula and nutrients exported to the benthic ecosystem

Authors:
Rebecca Trinh (Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University)
Hugh Ducklow (Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University)
Deborah Steinberg (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary)
William Fraser (Polar Oceans Research Group)

 

Air-sea gas disequilibrium drove deoxygenation of the deep ice-age ocean

Posted by mmaheigan 
· Thursday, March 18th, 2021 

During the Last Glacial Maximum (~20,000 years ago, LGM) sediment data show that the deep ocean had lower dissolved oxygen (O2) concentrations than the preindustrial ocean, despite cooler temperatures of this period increasing O2 solubility in sea water.

Figure 1. a) Whole ocean inventory of the O2 components in the preindustrial control (PIC): total O2 (O2); the preformed components equilibrium O2 (O2 equilibrium), physical disequilibrium O2 (O2 diseq phys) and biologically-mediated disequilibrium (O2 diseq bio); and O2 respired from soft-tissue (O2 soft). b) The difference in whole ocean inventory of O2 components between the LGM and PIC simulations.

In a study published in Nature Geoscience, the authors provide one of the first explanations for glacial deoxygenation. The authors combined a data-constrained model of the preindustrial (PIC) and LGM ocean with a novel decomposition of O2 to assess the processes affecting the oceanic distribution of oxygen. The decomposition allowed for the preformed disequilibrium O2—the amount of oxygen that deviates from its solubility equilibrium value when at the surface—to be tracked, along with other contributions such as the O2 consumed by bacterial respiration of organic matter. In the preindustrial ocean, a third of the subsurface oxygen deficit was a result of disequilibrium rather than oxygen consumed by bacteria. This contradicts previous assumptions (Figure 1a). Nearly 80% of the disequilibrium resulted from upwelling waters, depleted in O2 due to respiration, not fully equilibrating before re-subduction into the ocean interior. This effect was even greater during the LGM (Figure 1b). The authors attributed this largely to the widespread presence of sea ice—which acts as a cap on the surface preventing the water from gaining oxygen from the atmosphere—in the ocean around Antarctica, with a smaller contribution from iron fertilization.

This study provides one of the first mechanistic explanations for LGM deep ocean deoxygenation. As the ocean is currently losing oxygen due to warming, the effect of other processes, including sea ice changes, could prove important for understanding long-term ocean oxygenation changes.

Authors
Ellen Cliff (University of Oxford)
Samar Khatiwala (University of Oxford)
Andreas Schmittner (Oregon State University)

Joint highlight with GEOTRACES International Project Office

Sea ice loss amplifies CO2 increase in the Arctic

Posted by mmaheigan 
· Thursday, January 7th, 2021 

Warming and sea ice loss over the past few decades have caused major changes in sea surface partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) of the western Arctic Ocean, but detailed temporal variations and trends during this period of rapid climate-driven changes are not well known.

Based on an analysis of an international Arctic pCO2 synthesis data set collected between 1994-2017, the authors of a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change observed that summer sea surface pCO2 in the Canada Basin is increasing at twice the rate of atmospheric CO2 rise. Warming, ice loss and subsequent CO2 uptake in the Basin are amplifying seasonal pCO2 changes, resulting in a rapid long-term increase. Consequently, the summer air-sea CO2 gradient has decreased sharply and may approach zero by the 2030s, which is reducing the basin’s capacity to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. In stark contrast, sea surface pCO2 on the Chukchi Shelf remains low and relatively constant during this time frame, which the authors attribute to increasingly strong biological production in response to higher intrusion of nutrient-rich Pacific Ocean water onto the shelf as a result of increased Bering Strait throughflow. These trends suggest that, unlike the Canada Basin, the Chukchi Shelf will become a larger carbon sink in the future, with implications for the deep ocean carbon cycle and ecosystem.

As Arctic sea ice melting accelerates, more fresh, low-buffer capacity, high-CO2 water will enter the upper layer of the Canada Basin, which may rapidly acidify the surface water, endanger marine calcifying organisms, and disrupt ecosystem function.

Figure. 1: TOP) Sea surface pCO2 trend in the Canada Basin and Chukchi Shelf. The grey dots represent the raw observations of pCO2, black dots are the monthly mean of pCO2 at in situ SST, and red dots are the monthly means of pCO2 normalized to the long-term means of SST. The arrows indicate the statistically significant change in ∆pCO2. BOTTOM) Sea ice-loss amplifying surface water pCO2 in the Canada Basin. Black dots represent the initial condition for pCO2 and DIC at -1.6 ℃. The arrows indicate the processes of warming (red), CO2 uptake from the atmosphere (green), dilution by ice meltwater (blue). The yellow shaded areas indicate the possible seasonal variations of pCO2, which are amplified by the synergistic effect of ice melt, warming and CO2 uptake.

Authors:
Zhangxian Ouyang (University of Delaware, USA),
Di Qi (Third Institute of Oceanography, China),
Liqi Chen (Third Institute of Oceanography, China),
Taro Takahashi† (Columbia University, USA),
Wenli Zhong (Ocean University of China, China),
Michael D. DeGrandpre (University of Montana, USA),
Baoshan Chen (University of Delaware, USA),
Zhongyong Gao (Third Institute of Oceanography, China),
Shigeto Nishino (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan),
Akihiko Murata (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan),
Heng Sun (Third Institute of Oceanography, China),
Lisa L. Robbins (University of South Florida, USA),
Meibing Jin (International Arctic Research Center, USA),
Wei-Jun Cai* (University of Delaware, USA)

Profiling floats reveal fate of Southern Ocean phytoplankton stocks

Posted by mmaheigan 
· Tuesday, September 1st, 2020 

More observations are needed to constrain the relative roles of physical (advection), biogeochemical (downward export), and ecological (grazing and biological losses) processes in driving the fate of phytoplankton blooms in Southern Ocean waters. In a recent paper published in Nature Communications, authors used seven Biogeochemical Argo (BGC-Argo) floats that vertically profiled the upper ocean every ten days as they drifted for three years across the remote Sea Ice Zone of the Southern Ocean. Using the floats’ biogeochemical sensors (chlorophyll, nitrate, and backscattering) and regional ratios of nitrate consumption:chlorophyll synthesis, the authors developed a new approach to remotely estimate the fate of the phytoplankton stocks, enabling calculations of herbivory and of downward carbon export. The study revealed that the major fate of phytoplankton biomass in this region is grazing, which consumes ~90% of stocks. The remaining 10% is exported to depth. This pattern was consistent throughout the entire sea ice zone where the floats drifted, from 60°-69° South.

Figure Caption: Southern Ocean Chlorophyll a climatology and floats’ trajectories (top panel). Total losses of Chlorophyll a (including grazing and phytodetritus export, left panel). Phytodetritus export (right panel).

 

This study region comprises two of the three major krill growth and development areas—the eastern Weddell and King Haakon VII Seas and Prydz Bay and the Kerguelen Plateau—so the observed grazing was probably due to Antarctic krill, underscoring their pivotal importance in this ecosystem. Building upon the greater understanding of ocean ecosystems via satellite ocean colour development in the 1990s, BGC-Argo floats and this new approach will allow remote monitoring of the different fates of phytoplankton stocks and insights into the status of the ecosystem.

 

Authors:
Sebastien Moreau (Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway)
Philip Boyd (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart, Australia)
Peter Strutton (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart, Australia)

The causes of the 90-ppm glacial atmospheric CO2 drawdown still strongly debated

Posted by mmaheigan 
· Tuesday, July 9th, 2019 

Joint feature with GEOTRACES

Figure: Illustration of the two main mechanisms identified by this study to explain lower atmospheric CO2 during glacial periods. Left: present-day conditions; right: conditions around 19,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. The obvious explanation for lower CO2 during glacial periods – cooler ocean temperatures (darker blue shade) making CO2 more soluble, much as a glass of sparkling wine will remain fizzier for longer when it is colder – has long been dismissed as not being a significant factor. However, previous calculations assumed that the ocean cooled uniformly and was saturated in dissolved CO2. The model, consistent with reconstructions of sea surface temperature, predicts more cooling at mid latitudes compared with polar regions and also accounts for undersaturation. This nearly doubles the effect of temperature change and accounts for almost half the 90 ppm glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO2 difference. Another quarter is explained in this model by increased growth of marine algae (green blobs and inset) in the waters off Antarctica. Algae absorb CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and “pump” it into the deep ocean when they die and sink. But their growth in the present-day ocean, especially the waters off Antarctica, is limited by the availability of iron, an essential micronutrient primarily supplied by wind-borne dust. In our model an increased supply of iron to the Southern Ocean, likely originating from Patagonia, Australia and New Zealand, enhances their growth and sucks CO2 out of the atmosphere. This “fertilization” effect was greatly underestimated by previous studies. The study also finds that, contrary to the current consensus, a large expansion of sea ice off Antarctica and reconfiguration of ocean circulation may have played only a minor role in glacial-interglacial CO2 changes. Credit: Illustration by Andrew Orkney, University of Oxford.

Using an observationally constrained earth system model, S. Khatiwala and co-workers compare different processes that could lead to the 90-ppm glacial atmospheric CO2 drawdown, with an important improvement on the deep carbon storage quantification (i.e. Biological Carbon Pump efficiency). They demonstrate that circulation and sea ice changes had only a modest net effect on glacial ocean carbon storage and atmospheric CO2, whereas temperature and iron input effects were more important than previously thought due to their effects on disequilibrium carbon storage.

Authors:
Samar Khatiwala (University of Oxford, UK)
Andreas Schmittner and Juan Muglia (Oregon State University)

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