Studies in the Modern Ocean

CTD/hydrocast package descending into the Southern Ocean. Photo Kenemy

The CTD/hydrocast package descending into the Southern Ocean water column from the deck of the South African research icebreaker S.A. Agulhas II, sailing from Cape Town to the Antarctic winter ice edge. Photo: Preston Cosslett Kemeny ’15

 

References

7 Publications
Applied Filters: First Letter Of Title: O Reset
All else equal, if the ocean s “biological [carbon] pump” strengthens, the dissolved oxygen (O2) content of the ocean interior declines. Confidence is now high that the ocean interior as a whole contained less oxygen during the ice ages. This is strong evidence that the ocean s biological pump stored more carbon in the ocean interior during the…
The modern Pacific Ocean hosts the largest oxygen-deficient zones (ODZs), where oxygen concentrations are so low that nitrate is used to respire organic matter. The history of the ODZs may offer key insights into ocean deoxygenation under future global warming. In a 12-My record from the southeastern Pacific, we observe a >10 increase in…
Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient for primary production in the western Arctic Ocean. Measurements of the nitrogen (15N/14N) and oxygen (18O/16O) isotope ratios of nitrate in the southeastern Beaufort Sea provide insight into biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen in the western Arctic Ocean. Nitrate O isotope ratios in the Pacific halocline evidence a…
The surface waters of the modern subarctic Pacific Ocean are isolated from the nutrient-rich waters below by a steep vertical gradient in salinity (halocline), a feature which is a dominant control on upper-ocean stratification in polar environments. The physical processes which maintain the halocline and, in turn, its physical, biological, and…
Deep (>0.8km depth) fracture water with residence time estimates on the order of several Ma from the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa contains up to 40μM of NO 3 -, up to 50mM N 2 (90 times air saturation at surface) and 1 to 400μM NH 3/NH 4 +. To determine whether the oxidized N species were introduced by mining activity, by recharge of…
On the basis of the normalization to phosphate, a significant amount of nitrate is missing from the deep Bering Sea (BS). Benthic denitrification has been suggested previously to be the dominant cause for the BS nitrate deficit. We measured water column nitrate 15N/14N and 18O/16O as integrative tracers of microbial denitrification, together with…
The global ocean’s oxygen inventory is declining in response to global warming, but the future of the low-oxygen tropics is uncertain. We report new evidence for tropical oxygenation during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a warming event that serves as a geologic analog to anthropogenic warming. Foraminifera-bound nitrogen isotopes…