Observing infrastructure FRAM: Year-round multidisciplinary and multi-platform observations to understand global change effects in Arctic ecosystems

The FRAM (FRontiers in Arctic Marine Monitoring) Ocean Observing System uses a multi-platform approach for year-round multidisciplinary ocean observations in harsh and often ice-covered Arctic ecosystems in Fram Strait and the central Arctic. The implementation by the Alfred Wegener Institute started in 2014 and is currently being finalized. FRAM builds on ~20 years of time-series observations in the area, including the LTER Observatory HAUSGARTEN and an oceanographic mooring array crossing Fram Strait at ~79°N. Observations of physics, biogeochemistry, and ecology extend from the sea ice to the seafloor. Measurements and sampling is carried out with moorings, benthic installations, ice-tethered, and mobile platforms (e.g., under-ice ROVs, AUVs, benthic crawlers, moored winches) in combination with regular research vessel campaigns. Most GOOS-EOVs are recorded to address Global Change and the Arctic amplification in terms of warming, decreasing sea ice extent, and acidification, and the effects on biological and biogeochemical processes, biodiversity, and ecosystem functions. The observational approach is introduced and multidisciplinary observations are shown to demonstrate its strength: Water-column recordings by physical and biogeochemical sensors in the marginal ice zone are combined with observations on particle fluxes and plankton communities from particle traps and automated samplers. Connected to benthic time-lapse imaging as well as ship-based observations of planktic and benthic communities, and benthic biogeochemistry show how surface water productivity patterns are reflected in all ecosystem compartments down to the seafloor. These data sets in combination with existing physical and ecological observations, allow analyses of inter-annual variability and long term changes of Arctic ecosystems as well as predictions of future ecosystem functions and health

Ocean data product integration through innovation-the next level of data interoperability

In the next decade the pressures on ocean systems and the communities that rely on them will increase along with impacts from the multiple stressors of climate change and human activities. Our ability to manage and sustain our oceans will depend on the data we collect and the information and knowledge derived from it. Much of the uptake of this knowledge will be outside the ocean domain, for example by policy makers, local Governments, custodians, and other organizations, so it is imperative that we democratize or open the access and use of ocean data. This paper looks at how technologies, scoped by standards, best practice and communities of practice, can be deployed to change the way that ocean data is accessed, utilized, augmented and transformed into information and knowledge. The current portal-download model which requires the user to know what data exists, where it is stored, in what format and with what processing, limits the uptake and use of ocean data. Using examples from a range of disciplines, a web services model of data and information flows is presented. A framework is described, including the systems, processes and human components, which delivers a radical rethink about the delivery of knowledge from ocean data. A series of statements describe parts of the future vision along with recommendations about how this may be achieved. The paper recommends the development of virtual test-beds for end-to-end development of new data workflows and knowledge pathways. This supports the continued development, rationalization and uptake of standards, creates a platform around which a community of practice can be developed, promotes cross discipline engagement from ocean science through to ocean policy, allows for the commercial sector, including the informatics sector, to partner in delivering outcomes and provides a focus to leverage long term sustained funding. The next 10 years will be “make or break” for many ocean systems. The decadal challenge is to develop the governance and co-operative mechanisms to harness emerging information technology to deliver on the goal of generating the information and knowledge required to sustain oceans into the future

Smart Arctic

Der Arktische Ozean erzählt uns einiges über den Klimawandel - jeder sollte ihm zuhören können! Zwischen Grönland, Spitzbergen und der Zentral-Arktis liegt die Fram-Straße. Sie ist das Tor zur Arktis - nicht nur für den Menschen, sondern auch für die warmen Wassermassen des Atlantiks. Der Klimawandel verändert diese schwer zugängliche Region gerade massiv. Um die Folgen in der Fram-Straße und der Zentral-Arktis beobachten zu können, errichtet das Alfred-Wegener-Institut das modulare Arktis Observatorium FRAM. Modernste Messplattformen, Tiefsee-Robotik sowie neueste IT-Infrastuktur und Open Data policy öffnen das Tor zur Arktis nun auch für die Digitale Gesellschaft. Es wird bald möglich sein z.T. in Echtzeit zu verfolgen, wie sich die Umwelt in der Arktis verändert, auf dem Eis, unter dem Eis, im Wasser und am Meeresboden

FRontiers in Arctic Marine Monitoring 2017

Overview on the modular observatory FRAM which is since 2014 being build up in Fram-Strait and the Central Arctic by the Alfred Wegner Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)

Die jährliche Dynamik pelagischer Kohlenstoffflüsse in einem flachen Gezeitenbecken

In aquatic ecosystems, phytoplankton primary production, zooplankton grazing, and pelagic respiration are important processes of carbon dynamics. The aim of this study is to quantify the annual dynamics of pelagic primary production, zooplankton grazing, and respiration in a shallow coastal system and to investigate possible benthic impacts. Pelagic primary production, zooplankton grazing, and respiration were investigated as weekly/monthly time series over a one year period in the northern Wadden Sea. Studies were related to the Sylt long term time series, providing data on temperature, salinity, inorganic and organic nutrients, chlorophyll a and suspended matter concentrations (e.g. MARTENS&ELBRÄCHTER 1998). This study was conducted in the framework of the European Research Project COSA (Coastal Sands as Biocatalytical Filters) to relate the temporal dynamics of pelagic carbon dynamics with benthic processes

Influence of cell size and DNA content on growth rate and photosystem II function in cryptic species of Ditylum brightwellii.

DNA content and cell volume have both been hypothesized as controls on metabolic rate and other physiological traits. We use cultures of two cryptic species of Ditylum brightwellii (West) Grunow with an approximately two-fold difference in genome size and a small and large culture of each clone obtained by isolating small and large cells to compare the physiological consequences of size changes due to differences in DNA content and reduction in cell size following many generations of asexual reproduction. We quantified the growth rate, the functional absorption cross-section of photosystem II (PSII), susceptibility of PSII to photoinactivation, PSII repair capacity, and PSII reaction center proteins D1 (PsbA) and D2 (PsbD) for each culture at a range of irradiances. The species with the smaller genome has a higher growth rate and, when acclimated to growth-limiting irradiance, has higher PSII repair rate capacity, PSII functional optical absorption cross-section, and PsbA per unit protein, relative to the species with the larger genome. By contrast, cell division rates vary little within clonal cultures of the same species despite significant differences in average cell volume. Given the similarity in cell division rates within species, larger cells within species have a higher demand for biosynthetic reductant. As a consequence, larger cells within species have higher numbers of PSII per unit protein (PsbA), since PSII photochemically generates the reductant to support biosynthesis. These results suggest that DNA content, as opposed to cell volume, has a key role in setting the differences in maximum growth rate across diatom species of different size while PSII content and related photophysiological traits are influenced by both growth rate and cell size

Steady-state acclimated log₂ growth rate (μ±2SE, n≥3) as a function of irradiance for big (B, large open symbols) and small (S, small closed symbols) isolates from two species, P1 (squares) and P2 (circles) of <i>Ditylum brightwellii</i>.

<p><i>Ditylum brightwellii</i> P2 has 1.93±0.37 times the DNA content of P1.</p

Light challenge experiments conducted on <i>Ditylum brightwellii</i> P1S, P1B, P2S, and P2B (left to right) acclimated to 37 (top panels) and 287 µmol photons m

<p>^−<b>2</b><b> s</b>^−<b>1</b><b> (bottom panels).</b> PSII repair capacity is estimated from the difference in <i>F</i>_V/<i>F</i>_M between the control (filled symbol) and lincomycin (open symbol) treatments. The susceptibility to photoinactivation is estimated from the change in <i>F</i>_V/<i>F</i>_M in the lincomycin treatment. Vertical dashed lines indicate the start (<i>t</i> = 0) and end (<i>t</i> = 90) of the high light challenge. <i>F</i>_V/<i>F</i>_M measurements are relative to <i>F</i>_V/<i>F</i>_M at t = 0.</p

Size-scaling exponents, <i>b</i>, from a linear regression of log growth rate µ = <i>a</i>+<i>b</i> log <i>V</i> using a different intercept, <i>a</i>, for each growth irradiance (not shown).

<p>A) Different metabolic size-scaling exponents are calculated for P1 and P2. B) Separate size-scaling exponents are calculated within and across the two species of <i>Ditylum brightwellii</i>, assuming that P2 has 2-times the DNA content and volume of P1.</p