Icebergs boost phytoplankton growth in the Southern Ocean

Icebergs which calve from the Antarctic ice shelves and drift in the Southern Ocean deliver fresh water, dust and minerogenic particles to the surface ocean along the iceberg's path. Each of these components may have an effect on growth conditions for phytoplankton, as might the mechanical effects of the iceberg keel disturbing the water. Although anecdotal evidence and small-scale surveys suggest that drifting icebergs increase local primary production, no large-scale studies have reported on this possibility in detail. A combination of satellite and automated iceberg tracking data presented here shows that the probability of increased surface phytoplankton biomass was two-fold higher in the wake of a tracked iceberg compared to background biomass fluctuations. Only during the month of February were the effects of icebergs on surface biomass likely to be negative. These results confirm icebergs as a factor affecting phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean and highlight the need for detailed process studies so that responses to future changes in the Antarctic ice sheets may be predicted

Rapid submarine ice melting in the grounding zones of ice shelves in West Antarctica.

Enhanced submarine ice-shelf melting strongly controls ice loss in the Amundsen Sea embayment (ASE) of West Antarctica, but its magnitude is not well known in the critical grounding zones of the ASE's major glaciers. Here we directly quantify bottom ice losses along tens of kilometres with airborne radar sounding of the Dotson and Crosson ice shelves, which buttress the rapidly changing Smith, Pope and Kohler glaciers. Melting in the grounding zones is found to be much higher than steady-state levels, removing 300-490 m of solid ice between 2002 and 2009 beneath the retreating Smith Glacier. The vigorous, unbalanced melting supports the hypothesis that a significant increase in ocean heat influx into ASE sub-ice-shelf cavities took place in the mid-2000s. The synchronous but diverse evolutions of these glaciers illustrate how combinations of oceanography and topography modulate rapid submarine melting to hasten mass loss and glacier retreat from West Antarctica

Carbon dynamics of the Weddell Gyre, Southern Ocean

The accumulation of carbon within the Weddell Gyre and its exchanges across the gyre boundaries are investigated with three recent full-depth oceanographic sections enclosing this climatically important region. The combination of carbonmeasurements with ocean circulation transport estimates from a box inverse analysis reveals that deepwater transports associated with Warm Deep Water (WDW) and Weddell Sea Deep Water dominate the gyre’s carbon budget, while a dual-cell vertical overturning circulation leads to both upwelling and the delivery of large quantities of carbon to the deep ocean. Historical sea surface pCO2 observations, interpolated using a neural network technique, confirm the net summertime sink of 0.044 to 0.058 ± 0.010 Pg C / yr derived from the inversion. However, a wintertime outgassing signal similar in size results in a statistically insignificant annual air-to-sea CO2 flux of 0.002± 0.007 Pg C / yr (mean 1998–2011) to 0.012 ± 0.024 Pg C/ yr (mean 2008–2010) to be diagnosed for the Weddell Gyre. A surface layer carbon balance, independently derived fromin situ biogeochemical measurements, reveals that freshwater inputs and biological drawdown decrease surface ocean inorganic carbon levels more than they are increased by WDW entrainment, resulting in an estimated annual carbon sink of 0.033 ± 0.021 Pg C / yr. Although relatively less efficient for carbon uptake than the global oceans, the summertime Weddell Gyre suppresses the winter outgassing signal, while its biological pump and deepwater formation act as key conduits for transporting natural and anthropogenic carbon to the deep ocean where they can reside for long time scales

numerische Untersuchungen der Transport- und Austauschprozesse in der Weddell-Scotia-Konfluenz-Zone

WSDW, water mass spreading, numerical model, lagrangian trajectories, Weddell Scotia Confluence. - The deep Scotia Sea is filled with ventilated Weddell Sea Deep Water (WSDW). This in turn is an essential contributor to the ventilation of the World Ocean abyss. A primitive equation, hydrostatic, ocean general circulation model (BRIOS1.1) with terrain-following coordinate is used to investigate the water mass export from the Weddell Sea. The model is circumpolar focusing on the Weddell Sea, with particularly high resolution (2̃0 km) in the DOVETAIL area. The northern limb of the Weddell Gyre exhibits an eastward Weddell Sea Deep Water transport across 44ʿW of 24 Sv. Export rates of Weddell Sea Deep Water through gaps in theSouth Scotia Ridge are estimated to be 6.4 Sv with a semi-annual cycle of ± 0.6 Sv, which can be correlated to atmospheric cyclone activity and Weddell Gyre strength. Sensitivity studies considering extreme sea ice conditions in the Weddell Sea show higher (lower) exports in years of minimum (maximum) winter sea ice extent. This can be attributed to the local change of the surface stress achieved by wind and ice. Lagrangian ...thesi

Role of tides on the formation of the Antarctic Slope Front at the Weddell-Scotia Confluence

© 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged. The structure of the Antarctic Slope Front (ASF) and the associated Antarctic Slope Current (ASC) on the Scotia Sea side of the Weddell-Scotia Confluence (WSC) is described using data from a hydrographic survey and three 1 year long moorings across the continental slope. The ASC in this region flows westward along isobaths with an annual mean speed of ∼0.2 m s-1, with time variability dominated by the K1 and O1 tidal diurnal constituents, a narrowband oscillation with ∼2-week period attributable to the spring/neap tidal cycle, and seasonal variability. Realistic and idealized high-resolution numerical simulations are used to determine the contribution of tides to the structure of the ASF and the speed of the ASC. Two simulations forced by realistic atmospheric forcing and boundary conditions integrated with and without tidal forcing show that tidal forcing is essential to reproduce the measured ASF/ASC cross-slope structure, the time variability at our moorings, and the reduced stratification within the WSC. Two idealized simulations run with tide-only forcing, one with a homogeneous ocean and the other with initial vertical stratification that is laterally homogeneous, show that tides can generate the ASC and ASF through volume flux convergence along the slope initiated by effects including the Lagrangian component of tidal rectification and mixing at the seabed and in the stratified ocean interior. Climate models that exclude the effects of tides will not correctly represent the ASF and ASC or their influence on the injection of intermediate and dense waters from the WSC to the deep ocean. Key Points: Tides set mean properties of Antarctic Slope Front in Weddell-Scotia Confluence Volume convergence by tidal rectification, plus mixing, creates Slope Current Shelf water properties in Weddell-Scotia Confluence modified by tidesThis research was supported by the Spanish Research and Innovation (I+D+I) National Plan (CGL2007-28783-e/ANT, CTM2008-04623-E/ANT, CTM2009-08287-E/ANT, and CTM2011-14056-E), the National Science Foundation (ANT-0818061, ANT-0830398, and OCE-0961405), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX08AN67G and ECCO2 project), and the NASA Postdoctoral Program administered by Oak Ridge Associated UniversitiesPeer Reviewe

Abundance of copepods from multinet samples during POLARSTERN cruise ANT-XXII/2 (ISPOL)

The mesozooplankton community, with special emphasis on calanoid copepods, was studied with respect to its species composition, abundance, vertical distribution and developmental structure during the ISPOL expedition to the ice covered western Weddell Sea. Stratified zooplankton tows were carried out nine times between December 1, 2004 and January 2, 2005 with a multiple opening-closing net between 0 and 1000 m depth. Copepods were by far the most abundant taxon contributing more than 94% of the total mesozooplankton. Numerical dominants were cyclopoid copepods, mostly Oncaea spp. A total of 66 calanoid copepod species were identified, but the calanoid copepod community was characterised by the dominance of only a few species. The most numerous species was Microcalanus pygmaeus, which comprised on average 70% of all calanoids. Calanoides acutus and Metridia gerlachei represented other abundant calanoid species contributing an average of 8 and 7%, respectively. All other species comprised less than 3%. The temporal changes in the abundance and population structure of M. pygmaeus and M. gerlachei were small while a shift in the stage frequency distribution of C. acutus was observed during the study: CIV dominated the C. acutus population with 48 to 50% during the first week of December, while CV comprised 48% in late December. CI and CII of C. acutus were absent in the samples and males occurred only in very low numbers in greater depths. In M. gerlachei, CI was not found, whereas all developmental stages of M. pygmaeus occurred throughout the study. All three species showed migratory behaviour, and they occurred in upper water layers towards the end of the investigation. This vertical ascent was most pronounced in C. acutus and relatively weak in the other two species. In M. pygmaeus and M. gerlachei, copepodite stages were responsible for the upward migration in late December, while the vertical distribution of adults did not change. In C. acutus all abundant developmental stages (CIV, CV and females) ascended to upper water layers. Almost exclusively (93%) medium- and semi-ripe females of C. acutus and M. gerlachei were found, and only 3 - 4% of the ovaries were ripe. The absence of CI and the low number of ripe females indicate that the main reproductive period had not started in C. acutus and M. gerlachei until the end of our study in early January. In contrast, the high portion of CI and CII of M. pygmaeus suggests that reproduction of this species had started in October-November and hence, before the onset of the phytoplankton bloom in the water. The community structure did not differ between stations with one exception on December 26, when the station was strongly influenced by the continental shelf

(Table 1) Iceberg characteristics and start and end date and location of iceberg buoys in the Weddell Sea

The drift of 52 icebergs tagged with GPS buoys in the Weddell Sea since 1999 has been investigated with respect to prevalent drift tracks, sea ice/iceberg interaction, and freshwater fluxes. Buoys were deployed on small- to medium-sized icebergs (edge lengths <= 5 km) in the southwestern and eastern Weddell Sea. The basin-scale iceberg drift of this size class was established. In the western Weddell Sea, icebergs followed a northward course with little deviation and mean daily drift rates up to 9.5 ± 7.3 km/d. To the west of 40°W the drift of iceberg and sea ice was coherent. In the highly consolidated perennial sea ice cover of 95% the sea ice exerted a steering influence on the icebergs and was thus responsible for the coherence of the drift tracks. The northward drift of buoys to the east of 40°W was interrupted by large deviations due to the passage of low-pressure systems. Mean daily drift rates in this area were 11.5 ± 7.2 km/d. A lower threshold of 86% sea ice concentration for coherent sea ice/iceberg movement was determined by examining the sea ice concentration derived from Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) satellite data. The length scale of coherent movement was estimated to be at least 200 km, about half the value found for the Arctic Ocean but twice as large as previously suggested. The freshwater fluxes estimated from three iceberg export scenarios deduced from the iceberg drift pattern were highly variable. Assuming a transit time in the Weddell Sea of 1 year, the iceberg meltwater input of 31 Gt which is about a third of the basal meltwater input from the Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf but spreads across the entire Weddell Sea. Iceberg meltwater export of 14.2 × 103 m3 s-1, if all icebergs are exported, is in the lower range of freshwater export by sea ice