Marine Biodiversity in South Africa: An Evaluation of Current States of Knowledge

Continental South Africa has a coastline of some 3,650 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of just over 1 million km2. Waters in the EEZ extend to a depth of 5,700 m, with more than 65% deeper than 2,000 m. Despite its status as a developing nation, South Africa has a relatively strong history of marine taxonomic research and maintains comprehensive and well-curated museum collections totaling over 291,000 records. Over 3 million locality records from more than 23,000 species have been lodged in the regional AfrOBIS (African Ocean Biogeographic Information System) data center (which stores data from a wider African region). A large number of regional guides to the marine fauna and flora are also available and are listed

Interoceaan uitwisseling, thermohaliene circulatie en de monidiale verandering van de circulatie in de Atlantische oceaan: satelietwaarnemingen en modellering

Abstract niet beschikbaarClimate variability at decadal to centennial time scales is coupled to variations in the Ocean's global scale circulation and associated thermohaline transports. Interocean exchange of heat and salt around South Africa is thought to be a key link in the maintenance of the global overturning circulation of the ocean. It takes place at the Agulhas Retroflection, largely by the intermittent shedding of enormous rings that penetrate into the South Atlantic Ocean. This makes it extremely hard to estimate the inter ocean fluxes. Estimates of direct Agulhas leakage from hydrographic and tracer data range between 2 and 10 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3s-1). The average ring shedding frequency, determined from satellite information, is approximately six rings per year. Their associated interocean volume transport is between 0.5 and 1.5 Sv per ring. A number of Agulhas rings have been observed to cross the South Atlantic. They decay exponentially to less than half their initial size (measured by their available potential energy) within 1000 km from the shedding region. Consequently, most of their properties mix into the surroundings of the Benguela region, probably feeding directly into the upper (warm) limb of the global thermohaline circulation. The most recent observations suggest that in the present situation Agulhas water and Antarctic Intermediate Water are about equally important sources for the Benguela Current. Variations in the strength of these may lead to anomalous stratification and stability of the Atlantic at decadal and longer timescales. Modelling studies suggest that the Indian-Atlantic interocean exchange is strongly related to the structure of the wind field over the South Indian Ocean. This leads in the mean to a subtropical supergyre wrapping around the subtropical gyres of the South Indian and Atlantic Oceans. However, local dynamical processes in the highly nonlinear regime around South Africa appear to play a crucial role in inhibiting the connection between the two oceans. The regional bottom topography also seems to play an important role in locking the Agulhas Currents' retroflection. State-of-the-art global and regional "eddy-permitting" models show a reasonably realistic representation of the mean Agulhas system; but the mesoscale variability and the local geometrical and topographic features that determine largely the interocean fluxes still need considerable improvement. In this report we review most of the above mentioned aspects of the interocean exchange around South Africa and report on the main contribution from this NRP II project to: the estimation of the fluxes into the South Atlantic from different types of observations, our present level of understanding of the exchange's dynamics and forcing, its representation in state-of-the-art models, and, finally, the impact of the Indian-Atlantic fluxes on regional and global scale both within the Atlantic Ocean and in interaction with the overlying atmosphere as part of the global climate system.SG-NO

Vigorous exchange between the Indian and Atlantic oceans at the end of the past five glacial periods

The magnitude of heat and salt transfer between the Indian and Atlantic oceans through 'Agulhas leakage' is considered important for balancing the global thermohaline circulation1-3. Increases or reductions of this leakage lead to strengthening or weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning and associated variation of North Atlantic Deep Water formation4-6. Here we show that modern Agulhas waters, which migrate into the south Atlantic Ocean in the form of an Agulhas ring, contain a characteristic assemblage of planktic foraminifera. We use this assemblage as a modern analogue to investigate the Agulhas leakage history over the past 550,000 years from a sediment record in the Cape basin. Our reconstruction indicates that Indian-Atlantic water exchange was highly variable: enhanced during present and past interglacials and largely reduced during glacial intervals. Coherent variability of Agulhas leakage with northern summer insolation suggests a teleconnection to the monsoon system. The onset of increased Agulhas leakage during late glacial conditions took place when glacial ice volume was maximal, suggesting a crucial role for Agulhas leakage in glacial terminations, timing of interhemispheric climate change7 and the resulting resumption of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation6

The Atlantic Ocean at the last glacial maximum: 2. Reconstructing the current systems with a global ocean model

We use a global ocean general circulation model (OGCM) with low vertical diffusion and isopycnal mixing to simulate the circulation in the Atlantic Ocean at present-day and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The OGCM includes d18O as a passive tracer. Regarding the LGM sea-surface boundary conditions, the temperature is based on the GLAMAP reconstruction, the salinity is estimated from the available d18O data, and the wind-stress is derived from the output of an atmospheric general circulation model. Our focus is on changes in the upper-ocean hydrology, the large-scale horizontal circulation and the d18O distribution. In a series of LGM experiments with a step-wise increase of the sea-surface salinity anomaly in the Weddell Sea, the ventilated thermocline was colder than today by 2 3°C in the North Atlantic Ocean and, in the experiment with the largest anomaly (1.0 beyond the global anomaly), by 4-5°C in the South Atlantic Ocean; furthermore it was generally shallower. As the meridional density gradient grew, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current strengthened and its northern boundary approached Cape of Good Hope. At the same time the southward penetration of the Agulhas Current was reduced, and less thermocline-to-intermediate water slipped from the Indian Ocean along the southern rim of the African continent into the South Atlantic Ocean; the 'Agulhas leakage' was diminished by up to 60% with respect to its modern value, such that the cold water route became the dominant path for North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) renewal. It can be speculated that the simulated intensification of the Benguela Current and the enhancement of NADW upwelling in the Southern Ocean might reduce the import of silicate into the Benguela System, which could possibly resolve the 'Walvis Opal Paradox'. Although d18Ow was restored to the same surface values and could only reflect changes in advection and diffusion, the resulting d18Oc distribution came close to reconstructions based on fossil shells of benthic foraminifera

On the role of the Agulhas system in ocean circulation and climate

The Atlantic Ocean receives warm, saline water from the Indo-Pacific Ocean through Agulhas leakage around the southern tip of Africa. Recent findings suggest that Agulhas leakage is a crucial component of the climate system and that ongoing increases in leakage under anthropogenic warming could strengthen the Atlantic overturning circulation at a time when warming and accelerated meltwater input in the North Atlantic is predicted to weaken it. Yet in comparison with processes in the North Atlantic, the overall Agulhas system is largely overlooked as a potential climate trigger or feedback mechanism. Detailed modelling experiments—backed by palaeoceanographic and sustained modern observations—are required to establish firmly the role of the Agulhas system in a warming climate