On the Flow of Modified Warm Deep Water toward the Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf, Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Enhanced basal melt rates have been observed at many ice shelves around Antarctica in the last decade, which has mostly been attributed to an increased transport of warm mid-depth water onto the continental shelf and ultimately into the ice shelf cavities. This thesis investigates the seasonal flow of warm water toward the Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS), which is by volume the largest ice shelf in Antarctica. While today the large continental shelf in front of FRIS is covered with cold and dense water, model studies have suggested the potential for an increased flow of Modified Warm Deep Water (MWDW) toward and into the FRIS cavity, via the Filchner Trough. Moored time series, ship-based CTD data and numerical modelling are used to study the seasonal hydrography and controlling processes on the southern Weddell Sea continental shelf

Understanding physical drivers of the 2015/16 marine heatwaves in the Northwest Atlantic

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Perez, E., Ryan, S., Andres, M., Gawarkiewicz, G., Ummenhofer, C. C., Bane, J., & Haines, S. Understanding physical drivers of the 2015/16 marine heatwaves in the Northwest Atlantic. Scientific Reports, 11(1), (2021): 17623, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97012-0.The Northwest Atlantic, which has exhibited evidence of accelerated warming compared to the global ocean, also experienced several notable marine heatwaves (MHWs) over the last decade. We analyze spatiotemporal patterns of surface and subsurface temperature structure across the Northwest Atlantic continental shelf and slope to assess the influences of atmospheric and oceanic processes on ocean temperatures. Here we focus on MHWs from 2015/16 and examine their physical drivers using observational and reanalysis products. We find that a combination of jet stream latitudinal position and ocean advection, mainly due to warm core rings shed by the Gulf Stream, plays a role in MHW development. While both atmospheric and oceanic drivers can lead to MHWs they have different temperature signatures with each affecting the vertical structure differently and horizontal spatial patterns of a MHW. Northwest Atlantic MHWs have significant socio-economic impacts and affect commercially important species such as squid and lobster.The work was supported by a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Summer Student Fellowship (to E.P.) through the National Science Foundation (NSF) REU under grant OCE-1852460, a Feodor-Lynen Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the WHOI Postdoctoral Scholar program (to S.R.), NSF grants OCE-1924041 (to M.A.) and OCE-1851261 (to G.G.) and OCE-1558920 (to J.B. and H. Seim at the Univ. of North Carolina), ONR grant N-14-19-1-2646 (to G.G.), and the James E. and Barbara V. Moltz Fellowship for Climate-Related Research (to C.C.U.)

Spatial Structuring and Life History Connectivity of Antarctic Silverfish Along the Southern Continental Shelf of the Weddell Sea

A multi-disciplinary approach was employed to examine a physical-biological population hypothesis for a critical forage species, the Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarctica. Caccavo et al. (2018; Sci Rep 8:17856) had shown strong gene flow along the westward Antarctic Slope Current, in addition to spatially recurring length modes that provided evidence for episodic connectivity. In this paper, otolith nucleus chemistry from a subset of fish collected in the southern Weddell Sea as part of a hydrographic survey of the Filchner Trough system was used to test between connectivity scenarios. Nucleus chemistry, which reflects environmental exposure during early life, showed significant spatial structuring despite homogeneity in microsatellite allele frequencies. Mg:Ca and Sr:Ca differentiated length modes, and Mg:Ca showed significant contrasts between Atka Bay, Halley Bay, and Filchner Trough. Physical-biological mechanisms may help reconcile structuring shown by otolith chemistry, length, and abundance data with prior evidence of gene flow. Such mechanisms include self-recruitment shaped by circulation associated with the Filchner Trough, fluctuations in mixing between immigrant and locally recruited fish, and feeding opportunities between inflowing Modified Warm Deep Water and outflowing Ice Shelf Water. The results illustrate how comparisons between multi-disciplinary techniques based on integrated sampling designs that incorporate hydrography can enhance understanding of population structure and connectivity around the Southern Ocean

Habitat-based density models of pack-ice seal distribution in the southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Climate variability and changes in sea ice dynamics have caused several ice-obligate or krill-dependent populations of marine predators to decline, eliciting concern about their demographic persistence and the indirect ecological consequences that predator depletions may have on marine ecosystems. Pack-ice seals are dominant ice-obligate predators in the Antarctic marine ecosystem, but there is considerable uncertainty about their abundance and population trends. We modelled the density and distribution of pack-ice seals as a function of environmental covariates in the southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Our density surface modelling approach used data from aerial surveys of pack-ice seals collected in the 2013/14 austral summer. Crabeater seals Lobo don carcinophaga, the most numerous pack-ice seal we observed, occurred at the highest densities in areas with extensive sea ice near the continental shelf break, but were almost absent in areas of similar sea ice concentration in the southern extent of the Weddell Sea. The highest densities of Weddell seals Leptonychotes weddelli, which were less abundant than crabeater seals within the pack-ice habitat, were predicted to occur over the continental shelf, near the shelf break. The distribution of both seal species broadly corresponded with the distribution and relative abundance of their main prey (Antarctic krill Euphausia superba and Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarctica) obtained from concurrent ecosystem surveys. Ross seals Ommatophoca rossii and leopard seals Hydrurga leptonyx were not detected at all and are apparently rare within the southern Weddell Sea. These results can contribute to biodiversity assessments in the context of marine protected area planning in this region of the Southern Ocean

On the warm inflow at the eastern boundary of the Weddell Gyre

The Weddell Sea plays an important role for the global oceans and climate by being one of the biggest production and export areas of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) enters the Weddell Gyre (WG) at its eastern boundary. Then called Warm Deep Water (WDW), it is a major contributor to the formation of deep and bottom waters due to ocean-ice shelf interactions in the southern and soutwestern Weddell Sea. Hydrographic data collected between 0 and 30°E on the RV Polarstern cruise ANT XX/2 reveals a two-core structure for the eastern inflow of warm water at roughly 20°E but not further downstream at the Greenwich meridian (GM). Model results and climatological fields suggest that the two cores represent two separate modes of warm inflow. One mode is driven by eddy mixing in the northeastern corner of the WG and the other one is an advective mode, forming the southern branch of the inflow which extends beyond 30°E before turning westward. Both pathways are likely to carry waters from different origins within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), where more ventilated CDW is found at the Southern Boundary (SB) compared to the centre. The southern route shows considerable interannual variability in the model. A variable inflow of two types of CDW together with admixed recirculated and cooler waters from the Weddell Sea can potentially contribute to the observed variability and warming trend of WDW over the last decade at the GM