Depth profiles of amino-acids in porewater of sediments from the Norwegian - Greenland sea

Dissolved free amino acids (DFAA) and dissolved combined amino acids (DCAA) were determined in the porewater of sediment cores from the Norwegian-Greenland Sea (water depth from 1000 to 3300 m). Concentrations in the sediment column were generally found to decrease with depth. The amino acid composition of DFAA and DCAA was remarkably constant. The relative contributions of acidic amino acids decrease with depth, however. Composition patterns for samples for water depth 1000-2000 m and for deep-sea samples (water depth > 3000 m) show characteristic differences. Some secondary concentration maxima several centimeters below the sediment-water interface are found, probably related to the bioturbation activity of benthic macrofaun

The International Intercomparison Exercise of Underway fCO2 Systems During the R/V Meteor Cruise 36/1 in the North Atlantic Ocean

Measurements of the fugacity of carbon dioxide (fCO2) in surface seawater are an important part of studies of the global carbon cycle and its anthropogenic perturbation. An important step toward the thorough interpretation of the vast amount of available fCO2 data is the establishment of a database system that would make sure measurements more widely available for use in understanding the basin- and global-scale distribution of fCO2 and its influence on the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2. Such an effort, however, is based on knowledge of data sets from different laboratories. Currently, however, there is not much known about this subject

Alkalinity determination by potentiometry - intercalibration using three different methods

Seawater was sampled from different depths in the North Atlantic Ocean (Canary Islands region) and distributed among three different labs for the determination of titration alkalinity. Analysis was performed by potentiometric methods, involving titration in a closed cell, titration in an open cell and a two end-point acid addition method. The precision, which is the sample reproducibility taken from the mean standard deviation for replicate measurements, was between 0.45 and 0.90 µmol kg(-1) for the individual labs. Accuracy, here taken as the deviation for the values of a lab from the mean of all three, was mostly below 1 µmol kg(-1) and never exceeded 0.1% of the sample value. Mean standard deviation for all labs and all samples was 0.87 µmol kg(-1), once the individual methods were calibrated using certified reference material (CRM). Without CRM calibration, the mean standard deviation would increase to 2.8 µmol k(-1). The conclusion is that current high precision methods for alkalinity measurements calibrated with CRMs are able to reach similar accuracy as the measurement of total dissolved inorganic carbon by coulometry and therefore allow for the precise determination of the oceanic carbon dioxide system by using the two measured parameters

Anthropogenic CO₂ and CFCs in the North Atlantic Ocean - a comparison of man-made tracers

We compare estimates of the anthropogenic CO2 content of seawater samples from the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean calculated on the basis of a back-calculation technique with measurements of the chlorofluorocarbon CFC-11. Estimated anthropogenic CO2 concentrations are in the range 10–80 µmol kg-1, while CFC-11 concentrations cover the full range from below detection limit to > 5 pmol kg-1 in waters at atmospheric equilibrium. The majority of the data points show a linear correlation between anthropogenic CO2 concentrations and CFC-11 saturation, which can only be explained by the strongly advective nature of the North Atlantic Ocean. Only deep eastern basin samples deviate from this general observation in that they show still significant concentrations of anthropogenic CO2 where CFC-11 is no longer detectable. In order to remove the influence of the Revelle factor reflected in the anthropogenic CO2 concentrations we have calculated 'excess' pCO2, showing an even tighter linear correlation with atmospheric equilibrium concentrations of CFC-11

Strong CO2 emissions from the Arabian Sea during South-West Monsoon

The partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) was measured during the 1995 South-West Monsoon in the Arabian Sea. The Arabian Sea was characterized throughout by a moderate supersaturation of 12–30 µatm. The stable atmospheric pCO2 level was around 345 µatm. An extreme supersaturation was found in areas of coastal upwelling off the Omani coast with pCO2 peak values in surface waters of 750 µatm. Such two-fold saturation (218%) is rarely found elsewhere in open ocean environments. We also encountered cold upwelled water 300 nm off the Omani coast in the region of Ekman pumping, which was also characterized by a strongly elevated seawater pCO2 of up to 525 µatm. Due to the strong monsoonal wind forcing the Arabian Sea as a whole and the areas of upwelling in particular represent a significant source of atmospheric CO2 with flux densities from around 2 mmol m−2 d−1 in the open ocean to 119 mmol m−2 d−1 in coastal upwelling. Local air masses passing the area of coastal upwelling showed increasing CO2 concentrations, which are consistent with such strong emissions

On the penetration of anthropogenic CO2 into the North Atlantic Ocean

The penetration of anthropogenic or “excess” CO2 into the North Atlantic Ocean was studied along WOCE‐WHP section A2 from 49°N/11°W to 43°N/49°W using hydrographic data obtained during the METEOR cruise 30–2 in October/November 1994. A backcalculation technique based on measurements of temperature, salinity, oxygen, alkalinity, and total dissolved inorganic carbon was applied to identify the excess CO2. Everywhere along the transect surface water contained almost its full component of anthropogenic CO2 ( ∼62 μmol kg−1). Furthermore, anthropogenic CO2 has penetrated through the entire water column in the western basin of the North Atlantic Ocean. Even in the deepest waters (5000 m) of the western basin a mean value of 10.4 μmol kg−1 excess CO2 was calculated. The maximum penetration depth of excess CO2 in the eastern basin of the North Atlantic Ocean was ∼3500 m with values falling below 5 μmol kg−1 in greater depths. These results compare well with distributions of carbontetrachloride. They are also in agreement with the current understanding of the role of the “global ocean conveyor belt” for the uptake of anthropogenic CO2 into the deep ocean