ALBERT

Description: With the increasing anthropogenic impacts on fish habitats, it has become more important to understand which primary resources sustain fish populations. This resource utilization can differ between fish life stages, and individuals can migrate between habitats in search of resources. Such lifetime information is difficult to obtain due to the large spatial and temporal scales of fish behavior. The otolith organic matrix has the potential to indicate this resource utilization and migration with δ13C values of essential amino acids (EAAs), which are a direct indication of the primary producers. In a proof-of-concept study, we selected the Acoupa weakfish, Cynoscion acoupa, as a model fish species with distinct ontogenetic migration patterns. While it inhabits the Brazilian mangrove estuaries during juvenile stages, it moves to the coastal shelf as an adult. Thus, we expected that lifetime resource utilization and migration would be reflected in δ13CEAA patterns and baseline values in C. acoupa otoliths. By analyzing the C. acoupa otolith edges across a size range of 12–119 cm, we found that baseline δ13CEAA values increased with size, which indicated an estuarine to coastal shelf distribution. This trend is highly correlated with inorganic δ13C values. The δ13CEAA patterns showed that estuarine algae rather than mangrove-derived resources supported the juvenile C. acoupa populations. Around the juvenile size of 40 cm, resource utilization overlapped with those of adults and mean baseline δ13CEAA values increased. This trend was confirmed by comparing otolith core and edges, although with some individuals potentially migrating over longer distances than others. Hence, δ13CEAA patterns and baseline values in otoliths have great potential to reconstruct ontogenetic shifts in resource use and habitats. The insight could aid in predictions on how environmental changes affect fish populations by identifying the controlling factors at the base of the food web.

Description: With the increasing anthropogenic impacts on fish habitats, it has become more important to understand which primary resources sustain fish populations. This resource utilization can differ between fish life stages, and individuals can migrate between habitats in search of resources. Such lifetime information is difficult to obtain due to the large spatial and temporal scales of fish behavior. The otolith organic matrix has the potential to indicate this resource utilization and migration with δ13C values of essential amino acids (EAAs), which are a direct indication of the primary producers. In a proof-of-concept study, we selected the Acoupa weakfish, Cynoscion acoupa, as a model fish species with distinct ontogenetic migration patterns. While it inhabits the Brazilian mangrove estuaries during juvenile stages, it moves to the coastal shelf as an adult. Thus, we expected that lifetime resource utilization and migration would be reflected in δ13CEAA patterns and baseline values in C. acoupa otoliths. By analyzing the C. acoupa otolith edges across a size range of 12–119 cm, we found that baseline δ13CEAA values increased with size, which indicated an estuarine to coastal shelf distribution. This trend is highly correlated with inorganic δ13C values. The δ13CEAA patterns showed that estuarine algae rather than mangrove-derived resources supported the juvenile C. acoupa populations. Around the juvenile size of 40 cm, resource utilization overlapped with those of adults and mean baseline δ13CEAA values increased. This trend was confirmed by comparing otolith core and edges, although with some individuals potentially migrating over longer distances than others. Hence, δ13CEAA patterns and baseline values in otoliths have great potential to reconstruct ontogenetic shifts in resource use and habitats. The insight could aid in predictions on how environmental changes affect fish populations by identifying the controlling factors at the base of the food web.

Description: With the increasing anthropogenic impacts on fish habitats, it has become more important to understand which primary resources sustain fish populations. This resource utilization can differ between fish life stages, and individuals can migrate between habitats in search of resources. Such lifetime information is difficult to obtain due to the large spatial and temporal scales of fish behavior. The otolith organic matrix has the potential to indicate this resource utilization and migration with δ13C values of essential amino acids (EAAs), which are a direct indication of the primary producers. In a proof-of-concept study, we selected the Acoupa weakfish, Cynoscion acoupa, as a model fish species with distinct ontogenetic migration patterns. While it inhabits the Brazilian mangrove estuaries during juvenile stages, it moves to the coastal shelf as an adult. Thus, we expected that lifetime resource utilization and migration would be reflected in δ13CEAA patterns and baseline values in C. acoupa otoliths. By analyzing the C. acoupa otolith edges across a size range of 12–119 cm, we found that baseline δ13CEAA values increased with size, which indicated an estuarine to coastal shelf distribution. This trend is highly correlated with inorganic δ13C values. The δ13CEAA patterns showed that estuarine algae rather than mangrove-derived resources supported the juvenile C. acoupa populations. Around the juvenile size of 40 cm, resource utilization overlapped with those of adults and mean baseline δ13CEAA values increased. This trend was confirmed by comparing otolith core and edges, although with some individuals potentially migrating over longer distances than others. Hence, δ13CEAA patterns and baseline values in otoliths have great potential to reconstruct ontogenetic shifts in resource use and habitats. The insight could aid in predictions on how environmental changes affect fish populations by identifying the controlling factors at the base of the food web.

Description: With the increasing anthropogenic impacts on fish habitats, it has become more important to understand which primary resources sustain fish populations. This resource utilization can differ between fish life stages, and individuals can migrate between habitats in search of resources. Such lifetime information is difficult to obtain due to the large spatial and temporal scales of fish behavior. The otolith organic matrix has the potential to indicate this resource utilization and migration with δ13C values of essential amino acids (EAAs), which are a direct indication of the primary producers. In a proof-of-concept study, we selected the Acoupa weakfish, Cynoscion acoupa, as a model fish species with distinct ontogenetic migration patterns. While it inhabits the Brazilian mangrove estuaries during juvenile stages, it moves to the coastal shelf as an adult. Thus, we expected that lifetime resource utilization and migration would be reflected in δ13CEAA patterns and baseline values in C. acoupa otoliths. By analyzing the C. acoupa otolith edges across a size range of 12–119 cm, we found that baseline δ13CEAA values increased with size, which indicated an estuarine to coastal shelf distribution. This trend is highly correlated with inorganic δ13C values. The δ13CEAA patterns showed that estuarine algae rather than mangrove-derived resources supported the juvenile C. acoupa populations. Around the juvenile size of 40 cm, resource utilization overlapped with those of adults and mean baseline δ13CEAA values increased. This trend was confirmed by comparing otolith core and edges, although with some individuals potentially migrating over longer distances than others. Hence, δ13CEAA patterns and baseline values in otoliths have great potential to reconstruct ontogenetic shifts in resource use and habitats. The insight could aid in predictions on how environmental changes affect fish populations by identifying the controlling factors at the base of the food web.

Description: The Lagrangian method-where current location and intensity are determined by tracking the movement of flow along its path-is the oldest technique for measuring the ocean circulation. For centuries, mariners used compilations of ship drift data to map out the location and intensity of surface currents along major shipping routes of the global ocean. In the mid-20th century, technological advances in electronic navigation allowed oceanographers to continuously track freely drifting surface buoys throughout the ice-free oceans and begin to construct basin-scale, and eventually global-scale, maps of the surface circulation. At about the same time, development of acoustic methods to track neutrally buoyant floats below the surface led to important new discoveries regarding the deep circulation. Since then, Lagrangian observing and modeling techniques have been used to explore the structure of the general circulation and its variability throughout the global ocean, but especially in the Atlantic Ocean. In this review, Lagrangian studies that focus on pathways of the upper and lower limbs of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), both observational and numerical, have been gathered together to illustrate aspects of the AMOC that are uniquely captured by this technique. These include the importance of horizontal recirculation gyres and interior (as opposed to boundary) pathways, the connectivity (or lack thereof) of the AMOC across latitudes, and the role of mesoscale eddies in some regions as the primary AMOC transport mechanism. There remain vast areas of the deep ocean where there are no direct observations of the pathways of the AMOC.

Description: Carbonate buildups and mounds are impressive biogenic structures throughout Earth history. In the recent NE Atlantic, cold-water coral (CWC) reefs form giant carbonate mounds of up to 300 m of elevation. The expansion of these coral carbonate mounds is paced by climatic changes during the past 2.7 Myr. Environmental control on their development is directly linked to controls on its main constructors, the reef-building CWCs. Seawater density has been identified as one of the main controlling parameter of CWC growth in the NE Atlantic. One possibility is the formation of a pycnocline above the carbonate mounds, which is increasing the hydrodynamic regime, supporting elevated food supply, and possibly facilitating the distribution of coral larvae. The potential to reconstruct past seawater densities from stable oxygen isotopes of benthic foraminifera has been further developed: a regional equation gives reliable results for three different settings, peak interglacials (e.g., Holocene), peak glacials (e.g., Last Glacial Maximum), and intermediate setting (between the two extremes). Seawater densities are reconstructed for two different NE Atlantic CWC carbonate mounds in the Porcupine Seabight indicating that the development of carbonate mounds is predominantly found at a seawater density range between 27.3 and 27.7 kg m−3 (σΘ notation). Comparable to recent conditions, we interpret the reconstructed density range as a pycnocline serving as boundary layer, on which currents develop, carrying nutrition and possibly coral larvae. The close correlation of CWC reef growth with reconstructed seawater densities through the Pleistocene highlights the importance of pycnoclines and intermediate water mass dynamics.

Description: The complex deglacial to Holocene oceanographic development in the Gulf of Guayaquil (Eastern Equatorial Pacific) is reconstructed for sea surface and subsurface ocean levels from (isotope) geochemical proxies based on marine sediment cores. At sea surface, southern sourced Cold Coastal Water and tropical Equatorial Surface Water/Tropical Surface Water are intimately related. In particular since ~10 ka, independent sea surface temperature proxies capturing different seasons emphasize the growing seasonal contrast in the Gulf of Guayaquil, which is in contrast to ocean areas further offshore. Cold Coastal Water became rapidly present in the Gulf of Guayaquil during the austral winter season in line with the strengthening of the Southeast Trades, while coastal upwelling off Peru gradually intensified and expanded northward in response to a seasonally changing atmospheric circulation pattern affecting the core locations intensively since 4 ka BP. Equatorial Surface Water, instead, was displaced and Tropical Surface Water moved northward together with the Equatorial Front. At subsurface, the presence of Equatorial Under Current-sourced Equatorial Subsurface Water was continuously growing, prominently since ~10–8 ka B.P. During Heinrich Stadial 1 and large parts of the Bølling/Allerød, and similarly during short Holocene time intervals at ~5.1–4 ka B.P. and ~1.5–0.5 ka B.P., the admixture of Equatorial Subsurface Water was reduced in response to both short-term weakening of Equatorial Under Current strength from the northwest and emplacement by tropical Equatorial Surface Water, considerably warming the uppermost ocean layers.

Description: High-latitude cold-water coral (CWC) reefs are particularly susceptible due to enhanced CO2 uptake in these regions. Using precisely dated (U/Th) CWCs (Lophelia pertusa) retrieved during research cruise POS 391 (Lopphavet 70.6°N, Oslofjord 59°N) we applied boron isotopes (δ11B), Ba/Ca, Li/Mg and U/Ca ratios to reconstruct the environmental boundary conditions of CWC reef growth. The sedimentary record from these CWC reefs reveals a lack of corals between ∼ 6.4 and 4.8 ka. The question remains if this phenomenon is related to changes in the carbonate system or other causes. The initial postglacial setting had elevated Ba/Ca ratios, indicative of meltwater fluxes showing a decreasing trend towards cessation at 6.4 ka with a oscillation pattern similar to continental glacier fluctuations. Downcore U/Ca ratios reveal an increasing trend, which is outside the range of modern U/Ca variability in L. pertusa, suggesting changes of seawater pH near 6.4 ka. The reconstructed BWT at Lopphavet reveals a striking similarity to Barent Sea-Surface and sub-Sea-Surface-Temperature records. We infer that meltwater pulses weakened the North Atlantic Current system resulting in southward advances of cold and CO2 rich Arctic waters. A corresponding shift in the δ11B record from ∼ 25.0‰ to ∼ 27.0 ‰ probably implies enhanced pH-up regulation of the CWCs due to the higher pCO2 concentrations of ambient seawater, which hastened Mid-Holocene CWC reef decline on the Norwegian Margin.

Description: Continental slopes are areas of high primary productivity, in particular where strong winds allow cold, nutrient‐laden deep water to upwell. The seafloor in upwelling areas is affected by repeated large submarine landslides, but the special environmental conditions have as yet not been taken into account in the analysis of these landslides. We show evidence for a potential link between environmental conditions and landslide occurrence for the Cap Blanc Slide Complex in the center of the Cap Blanc upwelling zone. Ocean Drilling Program Site 658 was drilled inside the slide complex, and its integration with high‐resolution seismic lines reveals that the onset of sliding postdates the onset of glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere. The sediment associated with failure surfaces of all seven slide events comprises of diatom ooze, the conditions for the formation of which are only met at the end of glacials. Preconditioning of the slope in the Cap Blanc Slide Complex is thus climatically controlled. We conclude that the presence of ooze formed under specific environmental conditions is an important factor in preconditioning slopes to fail in the Cap Blanc Slide Complex and potentially also at other continental slopes with high primary productivity.