Application of two way nesting model to upscale sediment processes of the Southern Bight of the North Sea: full model validation

The BRAIN project FaCE-iT (Functional biodiversity in a Changing sedimentary Environment: Implications for biogeochemistry and food webs in a managerial setting) funded by BELSPO aims at evaluating the influence of offshore wind farms settlements and dredging activities on the distribution of sediment grain size over the Southern Bight of the North Sea (SBNS) and the Belgian Coastal Zone (BCZ), as well as associated impacts on biodiversity and biogeochemistry.In this framework an implementation of the tri-dimensional hydrodynamical and sediment transport model ROMS-COAWST was set-up to conduct scenario experiment relating offshore activities to resulting alteration of the seafloor structure. This implementation combines high resolution nested grids covering the Belgian Coastal Zone, embedded into a coarser grid covering the Southern Bight of the North Sea and is forced by ECMWF ERA-Interim data at the air-sea interface, CMEMS data at the open boundaries, TPXO data to introduce/force the tidal impact, and consider the discharge of four main rivers. Currently, the work focuses on assessing the skills of this modelling system to resolve the dynamics of the complex shallow and highly tidal region. The 3-year climatological run for 2006-2009 was performed to test the model ability to simulate the interannual dynamics. The model skills were evaluated by validation against remote-sensing temperature fields, tidal elevations and currents at the Meetnet pylons, and in situ temperature and salinity data provided by the Lifewatch network. We evaluate how grid refinement and different set-up of the nesting strategy enhance essential model skills in relation with sediment transport The further step will be to confront the sediment transport dynamics stemming from the nested system to that resolved from the coarser parent alone. A diagenetic model developed in the frame of FaCE-iT will be joint with the sediment model in order to upscale locally derived alteration of the biogeochemistry and benthic functionality stemming from seafloor texture alteration.Functional biodiversity in a Changing sedimentary Environment: Implications for biogeochemistry and food webs in a managerial setting (FaCE-It

Ensemble analysis and forecast of ecosystem indicators in the North Atlantic using ocean colour observations and prior statistics from a stochastic NEMO–PISCES simulator

This study is anchored in the H2020 SEAMLESS project (https://www.seamlessproject.org, last access: 29 January 2024), which aims to develop ensemble assimilation methods to be implemented in Copernicus Marine Service monitoring and forecasting systems, in order to operationally estimate a set of targeted ecosystem indicators in various regions, including uncertainty estimates. In this paper, a simplified approach is introduced to perform a 4D (space–time) ensemble analysis describing the evolution of the ocean ecosystem. An example application is provided, which covers a limited time period in a limited subregion of the North Atlantic (between 31 and 21∘ W, between 44 and 50.5∘ N, between 15 March and 15 June 2019, at a 1/4∘ and a 1 d resolution). The ensemble analysis is based on prior ensemble statistics from a stochastic NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean)–PISCES simulator. Ocean colour observations are used as constraints to condition the 4D prior probability distribution. As compared to classic data assimilation, the simplification comes from the decoupling between the forward simulation using the complex modelling system and the update of the 4D ensemble to account for the observation constraint. The shortcomings and possible advantages of this approach for biogeochemical applications are discussed in the paper. The results show that it is possible to produce a multivariate ensemble analysis continuous in time and consistent with the observations. Furthermore, we study how the method can be used to extrapolate analyses calculated from past observations into the future. The resulting 4D ensemble statistical forecast is shown to contain valuable information about the evolution of the ecosystem for a few days after the last observation. However, as a result of the short decorrelation timescale in the prior ensemble, the spread of the ensemble forecast increases quickly with time. Throughout the paper, a special emphasis is given to discussing the statistical reliability of the solution. Two different methods have been applied to perform this 4D statistical analysis and forecast: the analysis step of the ensemble transform Kalman filter (with domain localization) and a Monte Carlo Markov chain (MCMC) sampler (with covariance localization), both enhanced by the application of anamorphosis to the original variables. Despite being very different, the two algorithms produce very similar results, thus providing support to each other's estimates. As shown in the paper, the decoupling of the statistical analysis from the dynamical model allows us to restrict the analysis to a few selected variables and, at the same time, to produce estimates of additional ecological indicators (in our example: phenology, trophic efficiency, downward flux of particulate organic matter). This approach can easily be appended to existing operational systems to focus on dedicated users' requirements, at a small additional cost, as long as a reliable prior ensemble simulation is available. It can also serve as a baseline to compare with the dynamical ensemble forecast and as a possible substitute whenever useful.</p

6-Bromo-1-(1,2-propadien­yl)-3-(2-propyn­yl)-1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2(3H)-one

The reaction of propargyl bromide and 6-bromo-1,3-dihydro­imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-one in refluxing dimethyl­formamide yields the title compound, C12H8BrN3O, which features nitro­gen-bound propadienyl and propynyl substituents. The imidazolopyridine fused ring is planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.012 Å); the propadienyl chain is coplanar with the fused ring as it is conjugated with it, whereas the propynyl chain is not as the nitro­gen-bound C atom is a methyl­ene linkage. The acetyl­enic H atom is hydrogen bonded to the carbonyl O atom of an adjacent mol­ecule, forming a helical chain runnning along the b axis

6-Bromo-1,3-di-2-propynyl-1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2(3H)-one

The room-temperature reaction of propargyl bromide and 6-bromo-1,3-dihydro­imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-one in dimethyl­formamide yields the title compound, C12H8BrN3O, which features nitro­gen-bound propynyl substituents. The imidazopyridine fused ring is almost planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.011 Å); the propynyl chains point in opposite directions relative to the fused ring. One acetyl­enic H atom is hydrogen bonded to the carbonyl O atom of an inversion-related mol­ecule, forming a dimer; adjacent dimers are linked by a second acetyl­ene–pyridine C—H⋯N inter­action, forming a layer motif

Population dynamics in compressible flows

Organisms often grow, migrate and compete in liquid environments, as well as on solid surfaces. However, relatively little is known about what happens when competing species are mixed and compressed by fluid turbulence. In these lectures we review our recent work on population dynamics and population genetics in compressible velocity fields of one and two dimensions. We discuss why compressible turbulence is relevant for population dynamics in the ocean and we consider cases both where the velocity field is turbulent and when it is static. Furthermore, we investigate populations in terms of a continuos density field and when the populations are treated via discrete particles. In the last case we focus on the competition and fixation of one species compared to anotherComment: 16 pages, talk delivered at the Geilo Winter School 201

Do submesoscale frontal processes ventilate the oxygen minimum zone off Peru?

The Peruvian upwelling system encompasses the most intense and shallowest oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) in the ocean. This system shows pronounced submesoscale activity like filaments and fronts. We carried out glider-based observations off Peru during austral summer 2013 to investigate whether submesoscale frontal processes ventilate the Peruvian OMZ. We present observational evidence for the subduction of highly oxygenated surface water in a submesoscale cold filament. The subduction event ventilates the oxycline but does not reach OMZ core waters. In a regional submesoscale-permitting model we study the pathways of newly upwelled water. About 50% of upwelled virtual floats are subducted below the mixed layer within 5 days emphasizing a hitherto unrecognized importance of subduction for the ventilation of the Peruvian oxycline

Submesoscale Instabilities in Mesoscale Eddies

Submesoscale processes have been extensively studied in observations and simulations of fronts. Recent idealized simulations show that submesoscale instabilities also occur in baroclinic mesoscale cyclones and anticyclones. The instabilities in the anticyclone grow faster and at coarser grid resolution than in the cyclone. The instabilities lead to larger restratification in the anticyclone than in the cyclone. The instabilities also lead to changes in the mean azimuthal jet around the anticyclone from 2-km resolution, but a similar effect only occurs in the cyclone at 0.25-km resolution. A numerical passive tracer experiment shows that submesoscale instabilities lead to deeper subduction in the interior of anticyclonic than cyclonic eddies because of outcropping isopycnals extending deeper into the thermocline in anticyclones. An energetic analysis suggests that both vertical shear production and vertical buoyancy fluxes are important in anticyclones but primarily vertical buoyancy fluxes occur in cyclones at these resolutions. The energy sources and sinks vary azimuthally around the eddies caused by the asymmetric effects of the Ekman buoyancy flux. Glider transects of a mesoscale anticyclone in the Tasman Sea show that water with low stratification and high oxygen concentrations is found in an anticyclone, in a manner that may be consistent with the model predictions for submesoscale subduction in mesoscale eddies

The chlorophyll seasonal dynamics in the Black Sea as inferred from Biogeochemical-Argo floats

Biogeochemical-Argo (BGC-Argo) floats offer the opportunity to investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of chlorophyll a (Chla) profiles. In the Black Sea, the unusual abundance of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and the absence of oxygen below ∼80-100m require a revision of the classic formulation used to link the fluorescence signal and the algal chlorophyll concentration (e.g. Xing et al., 2017). Indeed, the very high content of CDOM in the basin is thought to be responsible for the apparent increase of Chla concentrations at depth, where it should be zero due to the absence of light. Here, the classic formulation to link fluorescence and Chla is revised based on a reference Chla dataset sampled during a scientific cruise onboard RV Akademik and analysed with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Then, using the established equation to remove the contribution of CDOM to the fluorescence signal, we estimated the Chla profiles from 4 BGC-Argo floats during the period 2014-2017. All Chla profiles were thus highly quality controlled by using the Argo documentation (Schmechtig et al., 2015). Especially, we removed bad data (e.g. spikes, outliers) and we corrected the Non-Photochemical Quenching effect, a photoprotective mechanism resulting in a decrease in the fluorescence signal at the surface. The Chla profiles are categorized based on fitting algorithms (e.g. sigmoid, exponential, gaussian) and empirical criteria. They display a large variety of shapes across the seasons (e.g. homogeneity in the mixed layer, subsurface maximum, double peaks below the surface, etc.) with roughly homogeneous profiles dominating between November and February while subsurface maxima are present during the rest of the year, with in summer a clearly-marked deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM). We then investigate the formation mechanism of DCMs based on the hysteresis hypothesis for the temperate ocean proposed by Navarro et al., (2013). For this, we looked at the correlation between the position of DCMs and the potential density anomaly of the mixed layer when it is maximum in winter, usually between February and March. We show that DCMs are highly correlated with the potential density anomaly of the previous winter mixed layer where a winter bloom initiated while the correlation with the 10% and 1% light levels is poor. This is in agreement with the hysteresis hypothesis that assumes that in regions where a bloom forms in late winter/early spring, this bloom remains established at a fixed density (i.e. the density of the mixed layer when it is maximum) until the end of summer acting as a barrier for the diffusion of nutrients from below and preventing the occurrence of deeper blooms due to a shading effect. This bloom is finally progressively eroded in autumn, when the depth of the mixed layer increases again