Macrobenthic Mollusca of the Prince Gustav Channel, Eastern Antarctic Peninsula: An Area Undergoing Colonisation

In 2018 RRS James Clark Ross investigated the marine benthic biodiversity of the Prince Gustav Channel area which separates the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula from James Ross Island. The southern end of this channel had been covered by the Prince Gustav Ice Shelf until its collapse in 1995. Benthic samples were collected by an epibenthic sledge at six stations (200–1,200 m depth) in the channel and adjacent Duse Bay. In total 20,307 live collected mollusc specimens belonging to 50 species and 4 classes (Solenogastres, Bivalvia, Gastropoda, and Scaphopoda) were identified. The area may be characterised by it’s low species richness (ranging from 7 to 39 species per station) but high abundances (specifically of the Scaphopods with 11,331 specimens). The functional traits of the community were dominated by motile development and mobility type. Assemblage analyses of the molluscan species abundances within the Prince Gustav Channel stations sit distinct, with no pattern by depth or location. However, when bivalve assemblages were analysed with reference to the wider Weddell Gyre region (15 stations from 300 to 2,000 m depth), the Prince Gustav Channel sits distinct from the other Weddell Gyre stations with a higher dissimilarity between the deeper or more geographically distant areas. The Prince Gustav Channel is undergoing colonisation following the recent ice shelf collapse. With many Antarctic ice shelves threatened under climate warming, this area, with future monitoring, may serve as a case study of benthic faunal succession.

Assessing the Biological Carbon Pump in the Weddell Gyre

<p>Biological processes in the subpolar Southern Ocean play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, mediating CO<sub>2 </sub>exchange between the atmosphere and the densest waters of the global ocean. While historical perspectives have centred the importance of shelf-sea regions, recent reframing emphasises the role of the open ocean, and the cyclonic gyres. Here, we investigate the operation of the biological carbon pump (BCP) in the Weddell Gyre using satellite ocean colour and bio-Argo floats. We find first that a significant proportion (>54 %) of the inter-annual variability in NPP was explained by the area of open (ice-free) water. Spatial patterns suggest that peak productivity is associated with the ice edge. The seasonal decline in NPP occurs before ice cover returns, suggesting that other controls are limiting annual NPP (e.g. the exhaustion of iron). Comparing the shelf region to the open ocean, the shelf was seen to have higher rates of productivity, but NPP in the relatively less productive open ocean region accounted for ~95% of total carbon uptake each year. The total NPP in the Weddell Gyre (97-197 Tg C yr<sup>-1</sup>) is sufficient to supply the BCP-derived carbon that was previously observed to be exported from the region in Circumpolar Deep Water (~80 Tg C yr<sup>-1</sup>). NPP in the open ocean Weddell Gyre could thus provide the major source of carbon exported from the Weddell Gyre to the deep ocean via the horizontal circulation.</p>

Diagnosing the vorticity balances of the Weddell Gyre

<p>Antarctic Bottom Water formed in the Weddell Sea is transported by the Weddell Gyre (WG) into the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). From here, this water is exported to the world ocean and influences the global overturning circulation. Studying the dynamics of the WG could therefore improve our understanding of the Southern Ocean carbon and energy budget.</p><p>The dynamics of the WG in a NEMO global model is investigated at various resolutions. The WG transport is largest at intermediate resolution (R4) and only the low-resolution model (R1) has a transport close to observations. We attempt to identify the physical processes responsible for this difference by studying the vorticity diagnostics. These physical processes include (but are not limited to) wind stress curl, lateral friction and bottom pressure torques.  </p><p>A textbook understanding of gyres relies on the idea of vorticity balance and this idea is extended to identify the physical processes spinning the WG up and down. We integrate the vorticity diagnostics outputted by NEMO over the area enclosed by the WG streamlines. These integrations are equal to the work done by separate forces on fluid parcels circulating around the gyre.</p><p>In the future we also hope to apply this analysis to an idealised model representing the Weddell Sea. This model will also use NEMO but have analytic forcing, bathymetry and a prescribed ACC.</p>

Variability of Sea-Air Carbon Dioxide Flux in Autumn Across the Weddell Gyre and Offshore Dronning Maud Land in the Southern Ocean

Sea surface fugacity of carbon dioxide (fCO2ssw) was measured across the Weddell gyre and the eastern sector in the Atlantic Southern Ocean in autumn. During the occupation between February and April 2019, the region of the study transect was a potential ocean CO2 sink. A net CO2 flux (FCO2) of −6.2 (± 8; sink) mmol m–2 d–1 was estimated for the entire study region, with the largest average CO2 sink of −10.0 (± 8) mmol m–2 d–1 in the partly ice-covered Astrid Ridge (AR) region near the coast at 68°S and −6.1 (± 8) mmol m–2d–1 was observed in the Maud Rise (MR) region. A CO2 sink was also observed south of 66°S in the Weddell Sea (WS). To assess the main drivers describing the variability of fCO2ssw, a correlation model using fCO2 and oxygen saturation was considered. Spatial distributions of the fCO2 saturation/O2 saturation correlations, described relative to the surface water properties of the controlling variables (chlorophyll a, apparent oxygen utilization (AOU), sea surface temperature, and sea surface salinity) further constrained the interplay of the processes driving the fCO2ssw distributions. Photosynthetic CO2 drawdown significantly offsets the influence of the upwelling of CO2-rich waters in the central Weddell gyre and enhanced the CO2 sink in the region. FCO2 of −6.9 mmol m–2 d–1 estimated for the Weddell gyre in this study was different from FCO2 of −2.5 mmol m–2 d–1 in autumn estimated in a previous study. Due to low CO2 data coverage during autumn, limited sea-air CO2 flux estimates from direct sea-surface CO2 observations particularly for the Weddell gyre region are available with which to compare the values estimated in this study. This highlights the importance of increasing seasonal CO2 observations especially during autumn/winter to improving the seasonal coverage of flux estimates in the seasonal sea ice-covered regions of the Southern Ocean.

Multidecadal Warming and Density Loss in the Deep Weddell Sea, Antarctica

The World Ocean is estimated to store more than 90% of the excess energy resulting from man-made greenhouse gas–driven radiative forcing as heat. Uncertainties of this estimate are related to undersampling of the subpolar and polar regions and of the depths below 2000 m. Here we present measurements from the Weddell Sea that cover the whole water column down to the sea floor, taken by the same accurate method at locations revisited every few years since 1989. Our results show widespread warming with similar long-term temperature trends below 700-m depth at all sampling sites. The mean heating rate below 2000 m exceeds that of the global ocean by a factor of about 5. Salinity tends to increase—in contrast to other Southern Ocean regions—at most sites and depths below 700 m, but nowhere strongly enough to fully compensate for the warming effect on seawater density, which hence shows a general decrease. In the top 700 m neither temperature nor salinity shows clear trends. A closer look at the vertical distribution of changes along an approximately zonal and a meridional section across the Weddell Gyre reveals that the strongest vertically coherent warming is observed at the flanks of the gyre over the deep continental slopes and at its northern edge where the gyre connects to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). Most likely, the warming of the interior Weddell Sea is driven by changes of the Weddell Gyre strength and its interaction with the ACC.