ALBERT

Description: The only known population of coelacanths, in the Comores, western Indian Ocean, is endangered by human predation. Historical catch data from Grande Comore reveal that annual catch rates increased steadily from 1954 until the 1970s. This trend was temporarily interrupted due to an international policy introducing motorized boats and promoting offshore fishing techniques. Coelacanths are only caught from traditional unmotorized outrigger canoes as an incidental by-catch of deep water line fishing. A complete survey of all motorized and unmotorized vessels in 1995 at Grande Comore in comparison to earlier years indicated that a recent decreased use of motors and increase of unmotorized canoe fishing has led to an increase in coelacanth catches. Conservation measures and strategies for reducing the fishing pressure exerted on coelacanths are discussed. The southwest coast of Grande Comore should be designated as a nature reserve and protected area where immediate protection measures should be taken, an opinion which is supported by Comorian authorities.

Description: VHF telemetry was used in November and December 1995 on 8 Humboldt penguins Spheniscus humboldti breeding at Pan de Azúcar Island (26°S, 70°W), Northern Chile, to determine at-sea behaviour of the birds. We obtained 2710 locations, 90% of which were within a radius of 20 km around the island. Mean travelling speed of the birds was 0.92 m s-1 and speed distribution showed peaks at 1.6 and 3 m s-1. Penguins travelling between foraging areas remained submerged for an average of 8.4 s between surfacings, whereas foraging dives lasted on average 61 s. The analysis of 79 complete foraging trips showed that tracks deviated from a straight course, and range (maximum distance from island) was only 0.37 times total horizontal distance swum. Birds did not forage synchronously or in the same foraging areas. However, foraging ranges were correlated between birds, indicating similar search strategies during periods of low food availability. The results obtained here via VHF telemetry agreed well with those of previous studies employing satellite transmitters and data loggers.

Description: The stable carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of particulate organic carbon (POC) was measured in 3 size fractions (POCtotal, POC〉20 µm, POC〈20 µm) during a phytoplankton spring bloom dominated by the diatom Skeletonema costatum in Lindåspollene, a land-locked fjord in southern Norway. In addition to standard parameters for characterizing the phytoplankton bloom (chlorophyll, nutrient, and POC concentrations, and species composition), simultaneous measurements of δ13C of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity and DIC concentration were obtained to determine temporal trends in dissolved carbon dioxide concentration and in carbon isotope fractionation (ε p) of the POC size fractions. The carbon isotope composition of the 〉20 µm size fraction, which was dominated by diatoms, was ca 2o/oo heavier than that of the 〈20 µm fraction, which was mainly composed of flagellates. δ13C of both size fractions increased by about 3o/oo over the course of the bloom. A 5o/oo increase in δ13C-PO Ctotal during the bloom resulted partly from a shift in the phytoplankton community from a flagellate- to a diatom-dominated one. Carbon isotope fractionation of all fractions decreased with declining CO2(aq) concentration (14 to 〉6 µmol l-1). A positive correlation between ε p and [CO2(aq)] in the diatom size fraction was obtained for the period of exponential growth. Deviation from this correlation occurred after the peak in cell density and chlorphyll a (chl a) concentration, when POC still continued to increase, and may be related to changing phytoplankton growth rates or to possible effects of nutrient (nitrate) limitation on ε p. Comparison of these results with those of previous field studies shows that, while an inverse relationship is consistently observed between ε p and the ratio of instantaneous growth rate and CO2 concentration {µi/[CO2(aq)]}, considerable scatter exists in this relationship. While this scatter may have partly resulted from inconsistencies between the different studies in estimating phytoplankton growth rate, it could also reflect that factors other than growth rate and CO2 concentration significantly contribute to determining isotope fractionation by marine phytoplankton in the natural environment

Description: A total of 354 adult European smelts Osmerus eperlanus (L.) were tested for their ability to survive the screen system of the cooling water inflow of a power plant. With increasing number of musculature parasitic third-stage larvae of Pseudoterranova decipiens, the survival rate of O. eperlanus decreased while the total number of externally visible injuries as well as the number of seriously injured specimens increased. The results indicate that even a single specimen of P. decipiens influences resistance and stamina and affects overall mortality of 7 to 20 cm long smelts. The initial effect of the parasites is to reduce swimming speed of infested fish, which leads to more frequent contact of these fish with the fine meshed screen of the cooling water inlet before they are removed by the automatic cleaning system. If the separated fishes are returned to the main stream, it becomes apparent that the cooling water inflow selectively reduces the number of living parasitised smelt in the area. Thus, the number of parasitic third-stage P. decipiens larvae in the local smelt population which are able to complete their life-cycle is also reduced. P. decipiens makes infested smelt more susceptible to negative anthropogenic influences such as cooling water intake or trawl fisheries.

Description: The mean warm water transfer toward the equator along the western boundary of the South Atlantic is investigated, based on a number of ship surveys carried out during 1990–96 with CTD water mass observations and current profiling by shipboard and lowered (with the CTD/rosette) acoustic Doppler current profiler and with Pegasus current profiler. The bulk of the northward warm water flow follows the coast in the North Brazil Undercurrent (NBUC) from latitudes south of 10°S, carrying 23 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) above 1000 m. Out of this, 16 Sv are waters warmer than 7°C that form the source waters of the Florida Current. Zonal inflow from the east by the South Equatorial Current enters the western boundary system dominantly north of 5°S, adding transport northwest of Cape San Roque, and transforming the NBUC along its way toward the equator into a surface-intensified current, the North Brazil Current (NBC). From the combination of moored arrays and shipboard sections just north of the equator along 44°W, the mean NBC transport was determined at 35 Sv with a small seasonal cycle amplitude of only about 3 Sv. The reason for the much larger near-equatorial northward warm water boundary current than what would be required to carry the northward heat transport are recirculations by the zonal current system and the existence of the shallow South Atlantic tropical–subtropical cell (STC). The STC connects the subduction zones of the eastern subtropics of both hemispheres via equatorward boundary undercurrents with the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC), and the return flow is through upwelling and poleward Ekman transport. The persistent existence of a set of eastward thermocline and intermediate countercurrents on both sides of the equator was confirmed that recurred throughout the observations and carry ventilated waters from the boundary regime into the tropical interior. A strong westward current underneath the EUC, the Equatorial Intermediate Current, returns low-oxygen water westward. Consistent evidence for the existence of a seasonal variation in the warm water flow south of the equator could not be established, whereas significant seasonal variability of the boundary regime occurs north of the equator: northwestward alongshore throughflow of about 10 Sv of waters with properties from the Southern Hemisphere was found along the Guiana boundary in boreal spring when the North Equatorial Countercurrent is absent or even flowing westward, whereas during June–January the upper NBC is known to connect with the eastward North Equatorial Countercurrent through a retroflection zone that seasonally migrates up and down the coast and spawns eddies. The equatorial zone thus acts as a buffer and transformation zone for cross-equatorial exchanges, but knowledge of the detailed pathways in the interior including the involved diapycnal exchanges is still a problem.

Description: In the present paper a hydrostatic “reduced gravity” model, generally used to simulate transient bottom-arrested gravity plumes, was coupled with a sediment transport model. The coupled model considers the respective contribution of suspended sediment particles on the buoyancy of a plume and allows one to simulate autosuspension and size-differential deposition of sediments based on the local turbulence and settling velocities. Simulations using the coupled model reveal that sediment-enriched plumes are able to inject both entrained and original shelf water masses into intermediate and bottom layers of an adjacent ocean basin in an ageostrophic dynamical balance. Hence the mechanism described here is more rapid than classic, “seawater” plumes, which are solely driven by surplus density of the water masses. Results suggest that “turbidity” plumes may constitute an important process in the formation and renewal of deep waters in the Arctic Ocean. In case a turbidity plume reaches its level of equilibrium density, deposition of suspended particles causes the density of the interstitial fluid to be lower than the density of the ambient fluid. This initiates upward convection within the water column. The substantial difference between TS- and turbidity plumes is described by model experiments that utilize idealized slope and sediment distributions. A realistic simulation of a turbidity plume cascading down the continental slope of the western Barents Sea is presented. The computed distribution of deposited sediments agrees well with observations in an area of high accumulation of shelf-derived sediments. The frequency of occurrence of sediment-enriched gravity plumes originating from the Barents Sea shelf is estimated from the various geological variables (thickness of sediments at the bottom, grain size composition) measured from bottom sediments samples.

Description: A neural network (NN) has been developed in order to retrieve the cloud liquid water path (LWP) over the oceans from Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) data. The retrieval with NNs depends crucially on the SSM/I channels used as input and the number of hidden neurons—that is, the NN architecture. Three different combinations of the seven SSM/I channels have been tested. For all three methods an NN with five hidden neurons yields the best results. The NN-based LWP algorithms for SSM/I observations are intercompared with a standard regression algorithm. The calibration and validation of the retrieval algorithms are based on 2060 radiosonde observations over the global ocean. For each radiosonde profile the LWP is parameterized and the brightness temperatures (Tb’s) are simulated using a radiative transfer model. The best LWP algorithm (all SSM/I channels except T85V) shows a theoretical error of 0.009 kg m−2 for LWPs up to 2.8 kg m−2 and theoretical “clear-sky noise” (0.002 kg m−2), which has been reduced relative to the regression algorithm (0.031 kg m−2). Additionally, this new algorithm avoids the estimate of negative LWPs. An indirect validation and intercomparison is presented that is based upon SSM/I measurements (F-10) under clear-sky conditions, classified with independent IR-Meteosat data. The NN-based algorithms outperform the regression algorithm. The best LWP algorithm shows a clear-sky standard deviation of 0.006 kg m−2, a bias of 0.001 kg m−2, nonnegative LWPs, and no correlation with total precipitable water. The estimated accuracy for SSM/I observations and two of the proposed new LWP algorithms is 0.023 kg m−2 for LWP ⩽ 0.5 kg m−2.

Description: In the autumn of 1996 the field component of an experiment designed to observe water mass transformation began in the Labrador Sea. Intense observations of ocean convection were taken in the following two winters. The purpose of the experiment was, by a combination of meteorological and oceanographic field observations, laboratory studies, theory, and modeling, to improve understanding of the convective process in the ocean and its representation in models. The dataset that has been gathered far exceeds previous efforts to observe the convective process anywhere in the ocean, both in its scope and range of techniques deployed. Combined with a comprehensive set of meteorological and air-sea flux measurements, it is giving unprecedented insights into the dynamics and thermodynamics of a closely coupled, semienclosed system known to have direct influence on the processes that control global climate.

Description: The roles of ice particle size distributions (SDs) and particle shapes in cirrus cloud solar radiative transfer are investigated by analyzing SDs obtained from optical array probe measurements (particle sizes larger than 20–40 μm) during intensive field observations of the International Cirrus Experiment, the European Cloud and Radiation Experiment, the First ISCCP Regional Experiment, and the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment. It is found that the cloud volume extinction coefficient is more strongly correlated with the total number density than with the effective particle size. Distribution-averaged mean single scattering properties are calculated for hexagonal columns, hexagonal plates, and polycrystals at a nonabsorbing (0.5 μm), moderately absorbing (1.6 μm), and strongly absorbing (3.0 μm) wavelength. At 0.5 μm (1.6 μm) (3.0 μm), the spread in the resulting mean asymmetry parameters due to different SDs is smaller than (comparable to) (smaller than) the difference caused by applying different particle shapes to these distributions. From a broadband solar radiative transfer point of view it appears more important to use the correct particle shapes than to average over the correct size distributions.

Description: A new optical disdrometer has been developed that is optimized for use in high wind speeds, for example, on board ships. The minimal detectable size of droplets is 0.35 mm. Each drop is measured separately with regard to its size and residence time within the sensitive volume. From the available information, the drop size distribution can be calculated with a resolution of 0.05 mm in diameter either by evaluation of the residence time of drops or by drop counting knowing the local wind. Experience shows that using the residence time leads to better results. Rain rates can be determined from the droplet spectra by assuming terminal fall velocity of the drops according to their size. Numerical modeling of disdrometer measurements has been performed, allowing the study of the effect of multiple occupancy of the sensitive volume and grazing incidences on disdrometer measurements. Based on these studies an iterative procedure has been developed to eliminate the impact of these effects on the calculated drop size distributions. This technique may also be applied to any other kind of disdrometer. Long-term simultaneous measurements of the disdrometer and a conventional rain gauge have been used to validate this procedure.

Description: On the basis of the collection of individual marine observations available from the Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Data Set, major parameters of the sea state were evaluated. Climatological fields of wind waves and swell height and period, as well as significant wave height and resultant period are obtained for the North Atlantic Ocean for the period from 1964 to 1993. Validation of the results against instrumental records from National Data Buoy Center buoys and ocean weather station measurements indicate relatively good agreement for wave height and systematic biases in the visually estimated periods that were corrected. Wave age, which is important for wind stress estimates, was evaluated form wave and wind observations. The climatology of wave age indicates younger waves in winter in the North Atlantic midlatitudes and Tropics. Wave age estimates were applied to the calculations of the wind stress using parameterizations from field experiments. Differences between wave-age-based and traditional estimates are not negligible in wintertime in midlatitudes and Tropics where wave-induced stress contributes from 5% to 15% to the total stress estimates. Importance of the obtained effects for ocean circulation and climate variability is discussed.

Description: During a transition period from oxic to anoxic conditions in the bottom water, rates of sulfate reduction and methane production, methane fluxes, as well as concentration profiles of sulfate, sulfide and methane were measured in sediments at a central site of the Gotland Deep (Stn AL 93, 241 m depth), which is regarded as representative for the deepest part of this basin. During this period from 1993 to 1996 oxic conditions in the bottom water prevailed from spring 1994 until summer 1995 with oxygen concentrations decreasing progressively with time. In the sediments methane production occurred primarily in layers below 1 m depth and flux rates of methane to the sediment surface were characterized by a steep concentration gradient from approx. 5 mM at 4 m depth to values close to 30 μM at the surface, determined by diffusion processes and anaerobic oxidation of methane. Both processes were independent of changes at the sediment surface. Differences in the flux rates of methane between the deeper part with a mean value of 259 μmol m-2 d-1 and the upper layers with a mean of 47.7 μmol m-2 d-1 indicate that a considerable proportion of the methane is oxidized within the anoxic horizon of the sediment (71 to 86% in the layer from 40 to 70 cm). Low rates of methane production found within the top 20 cm of the sediment during periods of oxic bottom water increased after depletion of oxygen and resulted in a clear maximum of the methane concentration in the top 2 cm. Sulfate concentrations declined exponentially from values of 11.5 mM in June 1994 and 8.5 mM in October 1995 at the sediment surface to values of 2.5 mM at 20 cm depth and of less than 0.5 mM at 50 to 60 cm depth. High sulfate reduction rates (150 to 250 nmol cm-3 d-1) in the upper part of the sediment (8 to 13 cm) coincided with maxima of sulfide concentrations. During the time period of this investigation an increase of maximum sulfide concentrations in the sediment from 1 to 10 mM was measured together with decreasing oxygen concentrations in the deep water. At the same time sulfate reduction established a small but distinct maximum at the top layer of the sediment (0 to 2 cm). The relative importance of sulfate reduction and methanogenesis in the carbon budget of the Gotland Deep sediments is calculated on the basis of the actual measurements.

Description: In the Gulf of Lions, observations of deep convection have been sporadically carried out over the past three decades, showing significant interannual variability of convection activity. As long time series of meteorological observations of the region are available from coastal stations, heat flux time series for the Gulf of Lions for the individual winters from 1969 to 1994 are derived by calibrating these observations against direct measurements obtained over the convection site. These heat fluxes are also compared against heat fluxes obtained by the French PERIDOT weather model for the winter of 1991/92. A Kraus–Turner one-dimensional mixed layer model is initialized by climatological mean temperature and salinity profiles and then driven by the heat flux time series of the individual years. Resulting convection depths are in satisfactory agreement with existing observational evidence, showing the dominance of interannual variability of local forcing on convection variability. The interannual variability of convection depth causes interannual variations in deep-water properties, and these are also compared with the hydrographic database.

Description: To study the dynamics that may lead to decadal oscillations in the North Pacific a simple coupled model is developed. The ocean is based on the linear, potential vorticity equation for baroclinic planetary waves. The atmosphere is reduced to a nonlocal wind response to thermocline depth anomalies. The wind stress has a spatially fixed structure and its amplitude depends on the thermocline perturbation at one location or in a predefined index region. Such a simple coupled model produces decadal oscillations for suitable parameter choices. For realistic wind stress patterns, the patterns of oceanic variability are similar to those observed. It is determined by the speed of long Rossby waves at the coupling latitude. The period of the oscillation is rather insensitive to the coupling strength and amounts to approximately twice the time the Rossby wave needs to travel from the center of the wind stress curl anomaly to the coupling location. A stochastic component to the atmospheric forcing is incorporated by white noise added to the feedback. With such a forcing, typical oceanic spectra become red with a broad peak at decadal timescales superimposed.

Description: In steady state, the export of photosynthetically fixed organic matter to the deep ocean has to be balanced by an upward flux of nutrients into the euphotic zone1. Indirect geochemical estimates2 of the nutrient supply to surface waters have been substantially higher than direct biological and physical measurements3, particularly in subtropical regions. A possible explanation for the apparent discrepancy is that the sampling strategy of the direct measurements has under-represented episodic nutrient injections forced by mesoscale eddy dynamics, whereas geochemical tracer budgets integrate fluxes over longer time and space scales. Here we investigate the eddy-induced nutrient supply by combining two methods potentially capable of delivering synoptic descriptions of the ocean's state on a basin scale. Remotely sensed sea-surface height data from the simultaneous TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-1 satellite missions are assimilated into a numerical eddy-resolving coupled ecosystem–circulation model of the North Atlantic Ocean. Our results indicate that mesoscale eddy activity accounts for about one-third of the total flux of nitrate into the euphotic zone (taken to represent new production) in the subtropics and at mid-latitudes. This contribution is not sufficient to maintain the observed primary production in parts of the subtropical gyre, where alternative routes of nitrogen supply will have to be considered.

Description: New analytical, circular eddy solutions of the nonlinear, reduced-gravity, shallow-water equations in a rotating system are presented. While previous analytical solutions were limited to the description of pulsons, which are oscillating, frontal, warm-core eddies with paraboloidic shape and linear velocity components, the new solutions describe more general radial structures of eddy shape and azimuthal velocity. In particular, the new solutions, which contain as a subset the circular pulson solution, also allow for the description of circular, frontal, warm-core eddies with small azimuthal velocities at their periphery and/or with motionless cores, which are frequently observed characteristics of warm-core eddies in the World Ocean.

Description: A coupled air–sea mode in the Northern Hemisphere with a period of about 35 years is described. The mode was derived from a multicentury integration with a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model and involves interactions of the thermohaline circulation with the atmosphere in the North Atlantic and interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere in the North Pacific. The authors focus on the physics of the North Atlantic interdecadal variability. If, for instance, the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation is anomalously strong, the ocean is covered by positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. The atmospheric response to these SST anomalies involves a strengthened North Atlantic Oscillation, which leads to anomalously weak evaporation and Ekman transport off Newfoundland and in the Greenland Sea, and the generation of negative sea surface salinity (SSS) anomalies. These SSS anomalies weaken the deep convection in the oceanic sinking regions and subsequently the strength of the thermohaline circulation. This leads to a reduced poleward heat transport and the formation of negative SST anomalies, which completes the phase reversal. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans seem to be coupled via an atmospheric teleconnection pattern and the interdecadal Northern Hemispheric climate mode is interpreted as an inherently coupled air–sea mode. Furthermore, the origin of the Northern Hemispheric warming observed recently is investigated. The observed temperatures are compared to a characteristic warming pattern derived from a greenhouse warming simulation with the authors’ coupled general circulation model and also with the Northern Hemispheric temperature pattern associated with the 35-yr climate mode. It is shown that the recent Northern Hemispheric warming projects well onto the temperature pattern of the interdecadal mode under consideration.

Description: In this study, a hybrid coupled model (HCM) is used to investigate the physics of decadal variability in the North Pacific. This aids in an understanding of the inherent properties of the coupled ocean–atmosphere system in the absence of stochastic forcing by noncoupled variability. It is shown that the HCM simulates a self-sustained decadal oscillation with a period of about 20 yr, similar to that found in both the observations and coupled GCMs. Sensitivity experiments are carried out to determine the relative importance of wind stresses, net surface heat flux, and freshwater flux on the initiation and maintenance of the decadal oscillation in the North Pacific. It is found that decadal variability is a mode of the coupled system and involves interaction of sea surface temperature, upper-ocean heat content, and wind stress. This interaction is mainly controlled by the wind stress but can be strongly modified by the surface heat flux. The effect of the salinity is relatively small and is not necessary to generate the model decadal oscillation in the North Pacific. There are some limitations with this study. First, the effect of a stochastic forcing is not included. Second, a weak negative feedback is needed to run the control experiment for a longer time period. These two areas will be addressed in a future investigation.

Description: In this paper a decadal climate cycle in the North Atlantic that was derived from an extended-range integration with a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model is described. The decadal mode shares many features with the observed decadal variability in the North Atlantic. The period of the simulated oscillation, however, is somewhat longer than that estimated from observations. While the observations indicate a period of about 12 yr, the coupled model simulation yields a period of about 17 yr. The cyclic nature of the decadal variability implies some inherent predictability at these timescales. The decadal mode is based on unstable air–sea interactions and must be therefore regarded as an inherently coupled mode. It involves the subtropical gyre and the North Atlantic oscillation. The memory of the coupled system, however, resides in the ocean and is related to horizontal advection and to the oceanic adjustment to low-frequency wind stress curl variations. In particular, it is found that variations in the intensity of the Gulf Stream and its extension are crucial to the oscillation. Although differing in details, the North Atlantic decadal mode and the North Pacific mode described by M. Latif and T. P. Barnett are based on the same fundamental mechanism: a feedback loop between the wind driven subtropical gyre and the extratropical atmospheric circulation.

Description: The interdecadal variability as simulated by coupled ocean–atmosphere models is reviewed. Emphasis is given to that class of interdecadal variability that arises from ocean–atmosphere interactions. The interdecadal variability simulated can be classified roughly into four classes: tropical interdecadal variability, interdecadal variability that involves both the Tropics and the extratropics as active regions, midlatitudinal interdecadal variability involving the wind-driven ocean gyres, and midlatitudinal interdecadal variability involving the thermohaline circulation. Several coupled models predict the existence of different interdecadal climate cycles, with periods ranging from approximately 10–50 yr. This implies some inherent predictability at decadal timescales, provided that these interdecadal cycles exist in the real climate system.

Description: A ship rain gauge has been developed that can be used under high wind speeds such as those experienced by ships at sea. The instrument has an improved aerodynamic design and an additional lateral collecting surface, which is effective especially with high wind speeds. The ship rain gauge has been calibrated at sea against a specially designed optical disdrometer. An accuracy of 2%–3% has been obtained for 6-hourly sums. The ship rain gauge has also successfully been tested at a test site of the German Weather Service and presently is used on research vessels and voluntary observing ship.