Methane in the Baltic and North Seas and a reassessment of the marine emissions of methane

During three measurement campaigns on the Baltic and North Seas, atmospheric and dissolved methane was determined with an automated gas chromatographic system. Area-weighted mean saturation values in the sea surface waters were 113 ± 5% and 395 ± 82% (Baltic Sea, February and July 1992) and 126 ± 8% (south central North Sea, September 1992). On the bases of our data and a compilation of literature data the global oceanic emissions of methane were reassessed by introducing a concept of regional gas transfer coefficients. Our estimates computed with two different air-sea exchange models lie in the range of 11-18 Tg CH4 yr-1. Despite the fact that shelf areas and estuaries only represent a small part of the world's ocean they contribute about 75% to the global oceanic emissions. We applied a simple, coupled, three-layer model to numerically simulate the time dependent variation of the oceanic flux to the atmosphere. The model calculations indicate that even with increasing tropospheric methane concentration, the ocean will remain a source of atmospheric methane

Northern Monterey Bay upwelling shadow front : observations of a coastally and surface-trapped buoyant plume

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 114 (2009): C12013, doi:10.1029/2009JC005623.During the upwelling season in central California, northwesterly winds along the coast produce a strong upwelling jet that originates at Point Año Nuevo and flows southward across the mouth of Monterey Bay. A convergent front with a mean temperature change of 3.77 ± 0.29°C develops between the warm interior waters and the cold offshore upwelling jet. To examine the forcing mechanisms driving the location and movement of the upwelling shadow front and its effects on biological communities in northern Monterey Bay, oceanographic conditions were monitored using cross-shelf mooring arrays, drifters, and hydrographic surveys along a 20 km stretch of coast extending northwestward from Santa Cruz, California, during the upwelling season of 2007 (May–September). The alongshore location of the upwelling shadow front at the northern edge of the bay was driven by: regional wind forcing, through an alongshore pressure gradient; buoyancy forces due to the temperature change across the front; and local wind forcing (the diurnal sea breeze). The upwelling shadow front behaved as a surface-trapped buoyant current, which is superimposed on a poleward barotropic current, moving up and down the coast up to several kilometers each day. We surmise that the front is advected poleward by a preexisting northward barotropic current of 0.10 m s−1 that arises due to an alongshore pressure gradient caused by focused upwelling at Point Año Nuevo. The frontal circulation (onshore surface currents) breaks the typical two-dimensional wind-driven, cross-shelf circulation (offshore surface currents) and introduces another way for water, and the material it contains (e.g., pollutants, larvae), to go across the shelf toward shore.Funded primarily by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Economía y sostenibilidad azul

Línea de InvestigaciónLa economía depende del consumo de habitantes y la producción de las empresas, no obstante, existen factores ambientales y culturales que ponen en riesgo la sostenibilidad de los proyectos y de la vida en el planeta, la economía azul presenta metodologías innovadoras capaces de generar un entorno de bienestar y propone la transformación de problemas en soluciones usando como insumos.1. Resumen 2. Palabras Clave 3. Introducción 4. Desarrollo 5. Conclusiones 6. Referencias bibliográficasEspecializaciónEspecialista en Análisis y Administración Financier

Application of Satellites to Chemical Oceanography

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ba-1985-0209.ch019Of the sensors now on satellites, none has been directly useful to chemical oceanography; however, concentrations of any chemical species that covary with temperature can be inferred from satellite measurements of temperature. This relationship is illustrated with satellite IR imagery off central California where large-scale changes in physical, chemical, and biological properties can occur and are frequently focused along frontal boundaries of upwelling systems. High inverse correlations of temperature with normally nonconservative plant nutrients, nitrate and phosphate, are used to calibrate satellite IR images as chemical maps yielding standard deviations of 14 and 7%, respectively. Chemical maps with satellite-derived maps of chlorophyll reveal a regional relationship between phytoplankton and chemical structure in the California coastal zone and the importance of chemical fronts as sites of chemical exchange and primary production

Resume of Eugene Dewees Traganza, 1973

Naval Postgraduate School Faculty Resum

Seawater carbonate chemistry and calcification in the Bahama Bank, 1964-1965

Carbon dioxide is lost from the ocean by calcium carbonate precipitation (-p), photosynthesis (-b) and gas evasion at the sea surface (-g). Among the most active sites are warm shallow seas. In this paper seasonal studies on the Great Bahama Bank relate these processes in an equation which takes into account the indirect effects of advection (a), evaporation (e), and eddy diffusion (d). Calcium carbonate precipitation is very seasonal and accounts for about half of the total losses. The delta sum CO2/deltaCa ratio is always about 1.87 on the bank. A high summer carbonate loss is inversely correlated with summer increases of chlorinity and temperature suggesting that CaCO3 is precipitated inorganically or biogenic production of CaCO3 is regulated by these parameters or both

A Summary of Selected Literature Condensed and Edited by Eugene D. Traganza

Prepared for: Commander, Naval Ocean Systems Center San Diego, Californiahttp://archive.org/details/useoftemperature12tra