scholarly journals An Assessment of Orthobaric Density in the Global Ocean

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 2054-2075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor J. McDougall ◽  
David R. Jackett
Keyword(s):  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Ocean Modeling ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Potential Density ◽  
Vertical Coordinate ◽  
The World ◽  
Density Surface

Abstract Orthobaric density has recently been advanced as a new density variable for displaying ocean data and as a coordinate for ocean modeling. Here the extent to which orthobaric density surfaces are neutral is quantified and it is found that orthobaric density surfaces are less neutral in the World Ocean than are potential density surfaces referenced to 2000 dbar. Another property that is important for a vertical coordinate of a layered model is the quasi-material nature of the coordinate and it is shown that orthobaric density surfaces are significantly non-quasi-material. These limitations of orthobaric density arise because of its inability to accurately accommodate differences between water masses at fixed values of pressure and in situ density such as occur between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere portions of the World Ocean. It is shown that special forms of orthobaric density can be quite accurate if they are formed for an individual ocean basin and used only in that basin. While orthobaric density can be made to be approximately neutral in a single ocean basin, this is not possible in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere portions of the Atlantic Ocean. While the helical nature of neutral trajectories (equivalently, the ill-defined nature of neutral surfaces) limits the neutrality of all types of density surface, the inability of orthobaric density surfaces to accurately accommodate more than one ocean basin is a much greater limitation.

On properties of seawater defined by temperature, salinity, and pressure

2021 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-147
Author(s):  
George Veronis
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Direction ◽  
Great Depth ◽  
Local Potential ◽  
Potential Density ◽  
Marine Research ◽  
Station Data ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Gravitational Stability

Hydrographic station data, consisting principally of temperature and salinity determinations, have been used by physical oceanographers to develop a climatological picture of the distribution of these quantities in the oceans of the world. Density as determined by Knudsen's formula, taken together with hydrostatic and geostrophic dynamics, also provides a crude picture of oceanic flow. However, the data probably contain substantially more information than has been derived from them in the past.The quantity that is orthogonal to potential-density curves in the S plane is suggested as a useful variable to complement the information contained in potential density. The derivation of this quantity, denoted by τ in this paper, is straightforward. A polynomial expression for τ that is suitable for computer calculations of τ from hydrographic station data is given. Shown are examples of hydrographic station data from the Atlantic plotted on the τσ diagram. The information contained in the τσ diagram shows many of the features exhibited in the TS plane. Vertical sections of τ appear to provide information about mixing in different parts of the Atlantic. The distribution of τ for abyssal waters at selected stations in the oceans of the world resembles the distribution of abyssal density as plotted by Lynn and Reid (1968). From the data presented, it appears that τ may serve as a good tracer for abyssal water movements.Since τ is defined to be orthogonal to σ, the expectation is that τ is a dynamically passive variable. However, since σ does not correlate with abyssal densities, it appears to lose dynamical significance at great depth, and τ assumes dynamical significance because of its orthogonality to σ. This unexpected feature leads to an exploration of the dynamical significance of σ. A natural starting point is the question of stability of abyssal water.A distinction is made between stability as determined by in situ determinations and as determined by the potential-density (σ) distribution. Simple examples are presented to show that analysis based on σ alone can lead to incorrect conclusions about gravitational stability of the water in the abyssal ocean. The reason is that seawater is a multicomponent thermodynamic system, and the thermodynamic coefficients are functions of pressure, salinity, and temperature. This functional dependence leads to adjustments in density as a water particle moves adiabatically in the vertical direction so that a layer of water that appears to be unstable near the surface may be stable (as determined by in situ determination) at great depth. A local potential density, which is simply the vertical integral of the in situ stability, is derived. This quantity gives a precise picture of gravitational stability in the vertical direction. Some distributions of local potential density are shown.Originally published May 15, 1972, in the Journal of Marine Research 30(2), 227???255.

Trends in phytoplankton communities within large marine ecosystems diverge from the global ocean

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Kevin D. Friedland ◽  
John R. Moisan ◽  
Aurore A. Maureaud ◽  
Damian C. Brady ◽  
Andrew J. Davies ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chlorophyll Concentration ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Fishing Effort ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
Large Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Phytoplankton Communities ◽  
The World

Large marine ecosystems (LMEs) are highly productive regions of the world ocean under anthropogenic pressures; we analyzed trends in sea surface temperature (SST), cloud fraction (CF), and chlorophyll concentration (CHL) over the period 1998–2019. Trends in these parameters within LMEs diverged from the world ocean. SST and CF inside LMEs increased at greater rates inside LMEs, whereas CHL decreased at a greater rates. CHL declined in 86% of all LMEs and of those trends, 70% were statistically significant. Complementary analyses suggest phytoplankton functional types within LMEs have also diverged from those characteristic of the world ocean, most notably, the contribution of diatoms and dinoflagellates, which have declined within LMEs. LMEs appear to be warming rapidly and receiving less solar radiation than the world ocean, which may be contributing to changes at the base of the food chain. Despite increased fishing effort, fishery yields in LMEs have not increased, pointing to limitations related to productivity. These changes raise concerns over the stability of these ecosystems and their continued ability to support services to human populations.

Danian Mollusks from the Prince Creek Formation, Northern Alaska, and Implications for Arctic Ocean Paleogeography

1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (S35) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louie Marincovich
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Molluscan Fauna ◽  
Endemic Genera ◽  
Northern Alaska

The marine molluscan fauna of the Prince Creek Formation near Ocean Point, northern Alaska, is of Danian age. It is the only diverse and abundant Danian molluscan fauna known from the Arctic Ocean realm, and is the first evidence for an indigenous Paleocene shallow-water biota within a discrete Arctic Ocean Basin faunal province.A high percentage of endemic species, and two endemic genera, emphasize the degree to which the Arctic Ocean was geographically isolated from the world ocean during the earliest Tertiary. Many of the well-preserved Ocean Point mollusks, however, also occur in Danian faunas of the North American Western Interior, the Canadian Arctic Islands, Svalbard, and northwestern Europe, and are the basis for relating this Arctic Ocean fauna to that of the Danian world ocean.The Arctic Ocean was a Danian refugium for some genera that became extinct elsewhere during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. At the same time, this nearly landlocked ocean fostered the evolution of new taxa that later in the Paleogene migrated into the world ocean by way of the northeastern Atlantic. The first Cenozoic occurrences are reported for the bivalves Integricardium (Integricardium), Oxytoma (Hypoxytoma), Placunopsis, Tancredia (Tancredia), and Tellinimera, and the oldest Cenozoic records given for the bivalves Gari (Garum), Neilo, and Yoldia (Cnesterium). Among the 25 species in the molluscan fauna are four new gastropod species, Amauropsis fetteri, Ellipsoscapha sohli, Mathilda (Fimbriatella) amundseni, and Polinices (Euspira) repenningi, two new bivalve genera, Arcticlam and Mytilon, and 15 new bivalve species, Arcticlam nanseni, Corbula (Caryocorbula) betsyae, Crenella kannoi, Cyrtodaria katieae, Gari (Garum) brouwersae, Integricardium (Integricardium) keenae, Mytilon theresae, Neilo gryci, Nucula (Nucula) micheleae, Nuculana (Jupiteria) moriyai, Oxytoma (Hypoxytoma) hargrovei, Placunopsis rothi, Tancredia (Tancredia) slavichi, Tellinimera kauffmani, and Yoldia (Cnesterium) gladenkovi.

scholarly journals Marine Heatwaves

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 313-342
Author(s):  
Eric C.J. Oliver ◽  
Jessica A. Benthuysen ◽  
Sofia Darmaraki ◽  
Markus G. Donat ◽  
Alistair J. Hobday ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Area ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Physical Mechanisms ◽  
In Situ Data ◽  
Societal Needs ◽  
The World ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
Background Trend

Ocean temperature variability is a fundamental component of the Earth's climate system, and extremes in this variability affect the health of marine ecosystems around the world. The study of marine heatwaves has emerged as a rapidly growing field of research, given notable extreme warm-water events that have occurred against a background trend of global ocean warming. This review summarizes the latest physical and statistical understanding of marine heatwaves based on how they are identified, defined, characterized, and monitored through remotely sensed and in situ data sets. We describe the physical mechanisms that cause marine heatwaves, along with their global distribution, variability, and trends. Finally, we discuss current issues in this developing research area, including considerations related to thechoice of climatological baseline periods in defining extremes and how to communicate findings in the context of societal needs.

Part V Regional Perspectives on Global Ocean Governance, 16 The Role of the World Ocean Council and the Ocean Business Community in Global Ocean Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holthus Paul
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Ocean Governance ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Goals

This chapter discusses the role of the World Ocean Council (WOC) and the international ocean business community in global ocean governance (GOG). It first provides an overview of the institutional development and profile of the WOC before considering the work and role and work of the WOC on ocean governance with and for the ocean business community. It then examines the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to ocean business and the WOC, as well as the size, complexity trends in the ocean economy and ocean business community, which are fundamental to understanding their importance to GOG. It also analyses GOG issues relevant to the ocean business community and WOC that the United Nations and its associated bodies must address and concludes with an assessment of the role of the ocean business community and WOC in the future of the GOG agenda.

scholarly journals An algorithm for estimating Absolute Salinity in the global ocean

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. McDougall ◽  
D. R. Jackett ◽  
F. J. Millero
Keyword(s):  
Sea Water ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Seawater Sample ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Correlation Relationship ◽  
Salinity Anomaly ◽  
The World ◽  
Standard Composition ◽  
The Absolute

Abstract. To date, density and other thermodynamic properties of seawater have been calculated from Practical Salinity, S P. It is more accurate however to use Absolute Salinity, S A (the mass fraction of dissolved material in seawater). Absolute Salinity S A can be expressed in terms of Practical Salinity S P as S A=(35.165 04 g kg-1/35)S P+δ S A(φ, λ, p) where δ S A is the Absolute Salinity Anomaly as a function of longitude φ, latitude λ and pressure. When a seawater sample has standard composition (i.e. the ratios of the constituents of sea salt are the same as those of surface water of the North Atlantic), the Absolute Salinity Anomaly is zero. When seawater is not of standard composition, the Absolute Salinity Anomaly needs to be estimated; this anomaly is as large as 0.025 g kg−1 in the northernmost North Pacific. Here we provide an algorithm for estimating Absolute Salinity Anomaly for any location (φ, λ, p) in the world ocean. To develop this algorithm we use the Absolute Salinity Anomaly that is found by comparing the density calculated from Practical Salinity to the density measured in the laboratory. These estimates of Absolute Salinity Anomaly however are limited to the number of available observations (namely 811). To expand our data set we take advantage of approximate relationships between Absolute Salinity Anomaly and silicate concentrations (which are available globally). We approximate the laboratory-determined values of δ S A of the 811 seawater samples as a series of simple functions of the silicate concentration of the seawater sample and latitude; one function for each ocean basin. We use these basin-specific correlations and a digital atlas of silicate in the world ocean to deduce the Absolute Salinity Anomaly globally and this is stored as an atlas, δ S A (φ, λ, p). This atlas can be interpolated to the latitude, longitude and pressure of a seawater sample to estimate its Absolute Salinity Anomaly. For the 811 samples studied, ignoring the Absolute Salinity Anomaly results in a standard error in S A of 0.0107 g kg-1. Using our algorithm for δ S A reduces the error to 0.0048 g kg−1, reducing the mean square error by a factor of five. The number of sea water samples used to develop the correlation relationship is limited, and we hope that the algorithm and error can be improved as further data becomes available.

scholarly journals Revisiting the disappearance of terrestrial dissolved organic matter in the ocean: a <i>δ</i><sup>13</sup>C study

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3707-3719 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Lalonde ◽  
A. V. Vähätalo ◽  
Y. Gélinas
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Solar Radiation ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Photochemical Reactions ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Terrestrial Organic Matter ◽  
The World ◽  
Radiation Induced ◽  
Simulated Solar Radiation

Abstract. Organic carbon (OC) depleted in 13C is a widely used tracer for terrestrial organic matter (OM) in aquatic systems. Photochemical reactions can, however, change δ13C of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) when chromophoric, aromatic-rich terrestrial OC is selectively mineralized. We assessed the robustness of the δ13C signature of DOC (δ13CDOC) as a tracer for terrestrial OM by estimating its change during the photobleaching of chromophoric DOM (CDOM) from 10 large rivers. These rivers cumulatively account for approximately one-third of the world's freshwater discharge to the global ocean. Photobleaching of CDOM by simulated solar radiation was associated with the photochemical mineralization of 16 to 43% of the DOC and, by preferentially removing compounds depleted in 13C, caused a 1 to 2.9‰ enrichment in δ13C in the residual DOC. Such solar-radiation-induced photochemical isotopic shift could bias the calculations of terrestrial OM discharge in coastal oceans towards the marine end-member. Shifts in terrestrial δ13CDOC should be taken into account when constraining the terrestrial end-member in global calculation of terrestrially derived DOM in the world ocean.

Was the Atlantic a predominantly Polar Ocean during the last glacial?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marleen Lausecker ◽  
Freya Hemsing ◽  
Thomas Krengel ◽  
Julius Förstel ◽  
Andrea Schröder-Ritzrau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The Last Glacial

&lt;p&gt;The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is marked by significant cooling of the global ocean, which was recently estimated to 2.6&amp;#176;C using noble gases trapped in ice cores (1). This cooling is not equally distributed throughout the world oceans, since global ocean circulation models predict regional temperature anomalies during the LGM of up to 7&amp;#176;C (annually and zonally averaged) when compared to modern interior ocean temperature (2). The oceans deep interior thus became haline stratified (3) due to the drop in temperature to near freezing and the global increase in salinity from ice sheet growth. In contrast to a deepening of the modern thermocline as a result of anthropogenic global warming, cooling causes the thermocline to rise in the sub-tropics as more polar waters enter the mid-depth ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here we present glacial thermocline temperature reconstructions since the LGM based on the Li/Mg ratio in aragonite skeletons of precisely dated cold-water corals. Corals have been collected from 300-1000m water depths from sites in the northern and southern Atlantic (62&amp;#176;N to 25&amp;#176;S) and demonstrate synchronous 5 - 7&amp;#176;C glacial cooling, and a dramatic shoaling of the thermocline. Through the deglaciation the warming of the upper thermocline ocean occurs early in the southern hemisphere followed by fluctuating warming and thermocline deepening in the northern Hemisphere, which supports the oceanic climate seesaw proposed by Stocker and Johnson in 2003 (4). We thus propose dramatic changes in export of polar waters towards the Equator and augmented subsurface ocean stratification leading to a mostly polar Atlantic with a shallow permanent thermocline. This shoaling possibly increased the rate of nutrient recycling causing higher biological surface ocean activity and the cooling promoted carbon storage. During the glacial, we assume an atmospheric forcing, such as equatorward displacement of the Hadley circulation, to steer the glacial polar water advance as mid-depth boundary currents in the northern and southern hemisphere to effectively spread the cold water through the entire mid-depth Atlantic.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Bereiter et al.: Mean global ocean temperatures during the last glacial transition. Nature &lt;strong&gt;553&lt;/strong&gt;, 39-44 (2018).&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Ballarotta et al.: Last Glacial Maximum world ocean simulations at eddy-permitting and coarse resolutions: do eddies contribute to a better consistency between models and palaeoproxies?, Clim. Past &lt;strong&gt;9&lt;/strong&gt;, 2669-2686 (2013).&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Adkins et al.: The Salinity, Temperature, and d18O of the Glacial Deep Ocean. Science &lt;strong&gt;298&lt;/strong&gt;, 1769-1773 (2002).&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Stocker and Johnsen: A minimum thermodynamic model for the bipolar seesaw, Paleoceanography &lt;strong&gt;18&lt;/strong&gt;, 1087 (2003).&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt;

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