scholarly journals Interactive comment on “Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients in the Western Mediterranean Sea (2004-2017)” by Malek Belgacem et al.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Lange
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
Western Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients

scholarly journals Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients in the Western Mediterranean Sea (2004–2017)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malek Belgacem ◽  
Jacopo Chiggiato ◽  
Mireno Borghini ◽  
Bruno Pavoni ◽  
Gabriella Cerrati ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
Marginal Seas ◽  
Western Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
Climate Shifts ◽  
Quality Control Techniques

Abstract. Long-term time-series are a fundamental prerequisite to understand and detect climate shifts and trends. Understanding the complex interplay of changing ocean variables and the biological implication for marine ecosystems requires extensive data collection for monitoring and hypothesis testing and validation of modelling products. In marginal seas, such as Mediterranean Sea, there are still monitoring gaps, both in time and in space. To contribute filling these gaps, an extensive dataset of dissolved inorganic nutrients profiles (nitrate, NO3; phosphate, PO43−; and silicate, SiO2) have been collected between 2004 and 2017 in the Western Mediterranean Sea and subjected to quality control techniques to provide to the scientific community a publicly available, long-term, quality controlled, internally consistent biogeochemical data product. The database includes 870 stations of dissolved inorganic nutrients sampled during 24 cruises, including temperature and salinity. Details of the quality control (primary and secondary quality control) applied are reported. The data are available in PANGAEA (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.904172, Belgacem et al. 2019).

scholarly journals Climatological distribution of dissolved inorganic nutrients in the Western Mediterranean Sea (1981–2017)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malek Belgacem ◽  
Katrin Schroeder ◽  
Alexander Barth ◽  
Charles Troupin ◽  
Bruno Pavoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
Data Product ◽  
Western Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Nutrient Variability

Abstract. The Western MEDiterranean Sea BioGeochemical Climatology (BGC-WMED) presented here is a product derived from in situ observations. Annual mean gridded nutrient fields for the period 1981–2017, and its sub-periods 1981–2004 and 2005–2017, on a horizontal 1/4° × 1/4° grid have been produced. The biogeochemical climatology is built on 19 depth levels and for the dissolved inorganic nutrients nitrate, phosphate and orthosilicate. To generate smooth and homogeneous interpolated fields, the method of the Variational Inverse Model (VIM) was applied. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the comparability of the data product with the observational data. The BGC-WMED has then been compared to other available data products, i.e. the medBFM biogeochemical reanalysis of the Mediterranean Sea and the World Ocean Atlas18 (WOA18) (its biogeochemical part). The BGC-WMED product supports the understanding of inorganic nutrient variability in the western Mediterranean Sea, in space and in time, but can also be used to validate numerical simulations making it a reference data product.

scholarly journals Climatological distribution of dissolved inorganic nutrients in the western Mediterranean Sea (1981–2017)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 5915-5949
Author(s):  
Malek Belgacem ◽  
Katrin Schroeder ◽  
Alexander Barth ◽  
Charles Troupin ◽  
Bruno Pavoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
Data Product ◽  
Western Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
World Ocean Atlas ◽  
Nutrient Variability

Abstract. The Western MEDiterranean Sea BioGeochemical Climatology (BGC-WMED, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.930447) (Belgacem et al., 2021) presented here is a product derived from quality-controlled in situ observations. Annual mean gridded nutrient fields for the period 1981–2017 and its sub-periods 1981–2004 and 2005–2017 on a horizontal 1/4∘ × 1/4∘ grid have been produced. The biogeochemical climatology is built on 19 depth levels and for the dissolved inorganic nutrients nitrate, phosphate and orthosilicate. To generate smooth and homogeneous interpolated fields, the method of the variational inverse model (VIM) was applied. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the comparability of the data product with the observational data. The BGC-WMED was then compared to other available data products, i.e., the MedBFM biogeochemical reanalysis of the Mediterranean Sea and the World Ocean Atlas 2018 (WOA18) (its biogeochemical part). The new product reproduces common features with more detailed patterns and agrees with previous records. This suggests a good reference for the region and for the scientific community for the understanding of inorganic nutrient variability in the western Mediterranean Sea, in space and in time, but our new climatology can also be used to validate numerical simulations, making it a reference data product.

scholarly journals Climatological distribution of dissolved inorganic nutrients in the Western Mediterranean Sea (1981-2017)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malek Belgacem ◽  
Jacopo Chiggiato ◽  
Katrin Schroeder ◽  
Alexander Barth ◽  
Charles Troupin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
Inorganic Nutrient ◽  
Homogeneous Distribution ◽  
Data Product ◽  
Western Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
In Situ Observations

<p>Ocean life relies on the loads of dissolved inorganic nutrients (nitrate, phosphate and silicate) and other micro-nutrients into the euphotic layer. They fuel phytoplankton growth that maintains the equilibrium of the food web. Ocean circulation and physical processes continually drive the large -scale distribution of chemicals toward a homogeneous distribution (Williams and Follows, 2003). The biological and biochemical processes counteract this tendency. Therefore, describing nutrient dynamics is important to understand the overall ecosystem functioning.</p><p>At global scale, most of the biogeochemical descriptions are based on model simulations and satellite data, since nutrient in situ observations are generally infrequent and not homogeneously distributed in space and time. Climatological mapping is often used to understand the biogeochemical state of the ocean representing monthly, seasonally or annual averaged fields.</p><p>Within this context, the western Mediterranean Sea climatology (BGC-WMED) presented here is a product derived from in situ observations, derived from various data sources: in total, 2253 in-situ inorganic nutrient profiles over the period 1981-2017 have been used (Medar/MEDATLAS, Fichaut et al., 2003; the CNR-WMED biogeochemical dataset, Belgacem et al., 2020; SeaDataNet data product, https://www.seadatanet.org; Mediterranean Ocean Observing System for the Environment, MOOSE, http://www.moose-network.fr/).</p><p>Annual mean gridded nutrient fields for the period 1981-2017, and sub-periods 1981-2004 and 2005-2017, on a horizontal 1/4° × 1/4° grid have been produced. The biogeochemical climatology is built on 19 depth levels and for the dissolved inorganic nutrients nitrate, phosphate and orthosilicate. To generate smooth and homogeneous interpolated fields, an advanced N-dimensional version of DIVA, DIVAnd v2.5.1 (Barth et al., 2014), which is based on the variational inverse method (VIM) (Brasseur et al., 1996), has been used.</p><p>A sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the comparability of the data product with the observational data. The BGC-WMED has then been compared to other available data products, i.e. the medBFM biogeochemical reanalysis and the biogeochemical component of WOA18.</p><p>Keywords: Mediterranean Sea, climatology, inorganic nutrient, in situ observations. </p>

scholarly journals Dissolved inorganic nutrients in the western Mediterranean Sea (2004–2017)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1985-2011
Author(s):  
Malek Belgacem ◽  
Jacopo Chiggiato ◽  
Mireno Borghini ◽  
Bruno Pavoni ◽  
Gabriella Cerrati ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
Marginal Seas ◽  
Data Product ◽  
Western Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
Climate Shifts

Abstract. Long-term time series are a fundamental prerequisite to understanding and detecting climate shifts and trends. Understanding the complex interplay of changing ocean variables and the biological implication for marine ecosystems requires extensive data collection for monitoring, hypothesis testing, and validation of modelling products. In marginal seas, such as the Mediterranean Sea, there are still monitoring gaps, both in time and in space. To contribute to filling these gaps, an extensive dataset of dissolved inorganic nutrient observations (nitrate, phosphate, and silicate) was collected between 2004 and 2017 in the western Mediterranean Sea and subjected to rigorous quality control techniques to provide to the scientific community a publicly available, long-term, quality-controlled, internally consistent biogeochemical data product. The data product includes 870 stations of dissolved inorganic nutrients, including temperature and salinity, sampled during 24 cruises. Details of the quality control (primary and secondary quality control) applied are reported. The data are available in PANGAEA (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.904172, Belgacem et al., 2019).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document