ALBERT

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 4 (2017): 337, doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00337.

Description: The fishery for American lobster is currently the highest-valued commercial fishery in the United States, worth over US$620 million in dockside value in 2015. During a marine heat wave in 2012, the fishery was disrupted by the early warming of spring ocean temperatures and subsequent influx of lobster landings. This situation resulted in a price collapse, as the supply chain was not prepared for the early and abundant landings of lobsters. Motivated by this series of events, we have developed a forecast of when the Maine (USA) lobster fishery will shift into its high volume summer landings period. The forecast uses a regression approach to relate spring ocean temperatures derived from four NERACOOS buoys along the coast of Maine to the start day of the high landings period of the fishery. Tested against conditions in past years, the forecast is able to predict the start day to within 1 week of the actual start, and the forecast can be issued 3–4 months prior to the onset of the high-landings period, providing valuable lead-time for the fishery and its associated supply chain to prepare for the upcoming season. Forecast results are conveyed in a probabilistic manner and are updated weekly over a 6-week forecasting period so that users can assess the certainty and consistency of the forecast and factor the uncertainty into their use of the information in a given year. By focusing on the timing of events, this type of seasonal forecast provides climate-relevant information to users at time scales that are meaningful for operational decisions. As climate change alters seasonal phenology and reduces the reliability of past experience as a guide for future expectations, this type of forecast can enable fishing industry participants to better adjust to and prepare for operating in the context of climate change.

Description: This forecast was initiated with support from NSF Coastal SEES (OCE 1325484) and was developed with funds from NASA EPSCoR through Maine Space Grant Consortium (EP-15-03).

Description: © The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 5 (2018): 158, doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00158.

Description: In autumn 2015, several sources reported observations of large amounts of gelatinous material in a large north Norwegian fjord system, either caught when trawling for other organisms or fouling fishing gear. The responsible organism was identified as a physonect siphonophore, Nanomia cara, while a ctenophore, Beroe cucumis, and a hydromedusa, Modeeria rotunda, were also registered in high abundances on a couple of occasions. To document the phenomena, we have compiled a variety of data from concurrent fisheries surveys and local fishermen, including physical samples, trawl catch, and acoustic data, photo and video evidence, and environmental data. Because of the gas-filled pneumatophore, characteristic for these types of siphonophores, acoustics provided detailed and unique insight to the horizontal and vertical distribution and potential abundances (~0.2–20 colonies·m−3) of N. cara with the highest concentrations observed in the near bottom region at ~320 m depth in the study area. This suggests that these animals were retained and accumulated in the deep basins of the fjord system possibly blooming here because of favorable environmental conditions and potentially higher prey availability compared to the shallower shelf areas to the north. Few cues as to the origin and onset of the bloom were found, but it may have originated from locally resident siphonophores. The characteristics of the deep-water masses in the fjord basins were different compared to the deep water outside the fjord system, suggesting no recent deep-water import to the fjords. However, water-masses containing siphonophores (not necessarily very abundant), may have been additionally introduced to the fjords at intermediate depths, with the animals subsequently trapped in the deeper fjord basins. The simultaneous observations of abundant siphonophores, hydromedusae, and ctenophores in the Lyngen-Kvænangen fjord system are intriguing, but difficult to provide a unified explanation for, as the organisms differ in their biology and ecology. Nanomia and Beroe spp. are holopelagic, while M. rotunda has a benthic hydroid stage. The species also have different trophic ecologies and dietary preferences. Only by combining information from acoustics, trawling, genetics, and local fishermen, were the identity, abundance, and the vertical and horizontal distribution of the physonect siphonophore, N. cara, established.

Description: The work was funded by the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs through the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), while the Research Council of Norway (RCN) is thanked for the financial support through the project The Arctic Ocean Ecosystem—(SI_ARCTIC, RCN 228896). AH was supported by the Norwegian Taxonony Initiative (NTI 70184233) and ForBio Research School funding (RCN 248799 and NTI 70184215).

Description: © The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Beam, J. P., Becraft, E. D., Brown, J. M., Schulz, F., Jarett, J. K., Bezuidt, O., Poulton, N. J., Clark, K., Dunfield, P. F., Ravin, N. V., Spear, J. R., Hedlund, B. P., Kormas, K. A., Sievert, S. M., Elshahed, M. S., Barton, H. A., Stott, M. B., Eisen, J. A., Moser, D. P., Onstott, T. C., Woyke, T., & Stepanauskas, R. Ancestral absence of electron transport chains in Patescibacteria and DPANN. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11, (2020): 1848, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.01848.

Description: Recent discoveries suggest that the candidate superphyla Patescibacteria and DPANN constitute a large fraction of the phylogenetic diversity of Bacteria and Archaea. Their small genomes and limited coding potential have been hypothesized to be ancestral adaptations to obligate symbiotic lifestyles. To test this hypothesis, we performed cell–cell association, genomic, and phylogenetic analyses on 4,829 individual cells of Bacteria and Archaea from 46 globally distributed surface and subsurface field samples. This confirmed the ubiquity and abundance of Patescibacteria and DPANN in subsurface environments, the small size of their genomes and cells, and the divergence of their gene content from other Bacteria and Archaea. Our analyses suggest that most Patescibacteria and DPANN in the studied subsurface environments do not form specific physical associations with other microorganisms. These data also suggest that their unusual genomic features and prevalent auxotrophies may be a result of ancestral, minimal cellular energy transduction mechanisms that lack respiration, thus relying solely on fermentation for energy conservation.

Description: This work was funded by the USA National Science Foundation grants 1441717, 1826734, and 1335810 (to RS); and 1460861 (REU site at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences). RS was also supported by the Simons Foundation grant 510023. TW, FS, and JJ were funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. NR group was funded by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 19-14-00245). SS was funded by USA National Science Foundation grants OCE-0452333 and OCE-1136727. BH was funded by NASA Exobiology grant 80NSSC17K0548.

Description: © The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in O’Brien, J., McParland, E. L., Bramucci, A. R., Ostrowski, M., Siboni, N., Ingleton, T., Brown, M. V., Levine, N. M., Laverock, B., Petrou, K., & Seymour, J. The microbiological drivers of temporally dynamic Dimethylsulfoniopropionate cycling processes in Australian coastal shelf waters. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13, (2022): 894026, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.894026.

Description: The organic sulfur compounds dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) play major roles in the marine microbial food web and have substantial climatic importance as sources and sinks of dimethyl sulfide (DMS). Seasonal shifts in the abundance and diversity of the phytoplankton and bacteria that cycle DMSP are likely to impact marine DMS (O) (P) concentrations, but the dynamic nature of these microbial interactions is still poorly resolved. Here, we examined the relationships between microbial community dynamics with DMS (O) (P) concentrations during a 2-year oceanographic time series conducted on the east Australian coast. Heterogenous temporal patterns were apparent in chlorophyll a (chl a) and DMSP concentrations, but the relationship between these parameters varied over time, suggesting the phytoplankton and bacterial community composition were affecting the net DMSP concentrations through differential DMSP production and degradation. Significant increases in DMSP were regularly measured in spring blooms dominated by predicted high DMSP-producing lineages of phytoplankton (Heterocapsa, Prorocentrum, Alexandrium, and Micromonas), while spring blooms that were dominated by predicted low DMSP-producing phytoplankton (Thalassiosira) demonstrated negligible increases in DMSP concentrations. During elevated DMSP concentrations, a significant increase in the relative abundance of the key copiotrophic bacterial lineage Rhodobacterales was accompanied by a three-fold increase in the gene, encoding the first step of DMSP demethylation (dmdA). Significant temporal shifts in DMS concentrations were measured and were significantly correlated with both fractions (0.2–2 μm and 〉2 μm) of microbial DMSP lyase activity. Seasonal increases of the bacterial DMSP biosynthesis gene (dsyB) and the bacterial DMS oxidation gene (tmm) occurred during the spring-summer and coincided with peaks in DMSP and DMSO concentration, respectively. These findings, along with significant positive relationships between dsyB gene abundance and DMSP, and tmm gene abundance with DMSO, reinforce the significant role planktonic bacteria play in producing DMSP and DMSO in ocean surface waters. Our results highlight the highly dynamic nature and myriad of microbial interactions that govern sulfur cycling in coastal shelf waters and further underpin the importance of microbial ecology in mediating important marine biogeochemical processes.

Description: This research was supported by the Australian Research Council Grants FT130100218 and DP180100838 awarded to JS and DP140101045 awarded to JS and KP, as well as an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship awarded to JO’B.

Description: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Oehler, T., Tamborski, J., Rahman, S., Moosdorf, N., Ahrens, J., Mori, C., Neuholz, R., Schnetger, B., & Beck, M. DSi as a tracer for submarine groundwater discharge. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019): 563, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00563.

Description: Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an important source of nutrients and metals to the coastal ocean, affects coastal ecosystems, and is gaining recognition as a relevant water resource. SGD is usually quantified using geochemical tracers such as radon or radium. However, a few studies have also used dissolved silicon (DSi) as a tracer for SGD, as DSi is usually enriched in groundwater when compared to surface waters. In this study, we discuss the potential of DSi as a tracer in SGD studies based on a literature review and two case studies from contrasting environments. In the first case study, DSi is used to calculate SGD fluxes in a tropical volcanic-carbonate karstic region (southern Java, Indonesia), where SGD is dominated by terrestrial groundwater discharge. The second case study discusses DSi as a tracer for marine SGD (i.e., recirculated seawater) in the tidal flat area of Spiekeroog (southern North Sea), where SGD is dominantly driven by tidal pumping through beach sands. Our results indicate that DSi is a useful tracer for SGD in various lithologies (e.g., karstic, volcanic, complex) to quantify terrestrial and marine SGD fluxes. DSi can also be used to trace groundwater transport processes in the sediment and the coastal aquifer. Care has to be taken that all sources and sinks of DSi are known and can be quantified or neglected. One major limitation is that DSi is used by siliceous phytoplankton and therefore limits its applicability to times of the year when primary production of siliceous phytoplankton is low. In general, DSi is a powerful tracer for SGD in many environments. We recommend that DSi should be used to complement other conventionally used tracers, such as radon or radium, to help account for their own shortcomings.

Description: TO, NM, and the presented case study 1 were funded through the BMBF junior research group SGD-NUT (grant #01LN1307A). Open access publication fees are paid by Leibniz-Centre for Tropical Marine Research internal funds. The presented case study 2 was financially supported by the DFG Research Group “BioGeoChemsitry of Tidal Flats”, the Ph.D. Research Training Group “The ecology of molecules” funded by the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, and the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, University of Oldenburg.

Description: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Palmer, M. D., Durack, P. J., Paz Chidichimo, M., Church, J. A., Cravatte, S., Hill, K., Johannessen, J. A., Karstensen, J., Lee, T., Legler, D., Mazloff, M., Oka, E., Purkey, S., Rabe, B., Sallee, J., Sloyan, B. M., Speich, S., von Schuckmann, K., Willis, J., & Wijffels, S. Adequacy of the ocean observation system for quantifying regional heat and freshwater storage and change. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019): 16, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00416.

Description: Considerable advances in the global ocean observing system over the last two decades offers an opportunity to provide more quantitative information on changes in heat and freshwater storage. Variations in these storage terms can arise through internal variability and also the response of the ocean to anthropogenic climate change. Disentangling these competing influences on the regional patterns of change and elucidating their governing processes remains an outstanding scientific challenge. This challenge is compounded by instrumental and sampling uncertainties. The combined use of ocean observations and model simulations is the most viable method to assess the forced signal from noise and ascertain the primary drivers of variability and change. Moreover, this approach offers the potential for improved seasonal-to-decadal predictions and the possibility to develop powerful multi-variate constraints on climate model future projections. Regional heat storage changes dominate the steric contribution to sea level rise over most of the ocean and are vital to understanding both global and regional heat budgets. Variations in regional freshwater storage are particularly relevant to our understanding of changes in the hydrological cycle and can potentially be used to verify local ocean mass addition from terrestrial and cryospheric systems associated with contemporary sea level rise. This White Paper will examine the ability of the current ocean observing system to quantify changes in regional heat and freshwater storage. In particular we will seek to answer the question: What time and space scales are currently resolved in different regions of the global oceans? In light of some of the key scientific questions, we will discuss the requirements for measurement accuracy, sampling, and coverage as well as the synergies that can be leveraged by more comprehensively analyzing the multi-variable arrays provided by the integrated observing system.

Description: MP was supported by the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme funded by the BEIS and Defra, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant Agreement No. 633211 (AtlantOS). The work of PD was prepared the by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and is a contribution to the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Climate and Environmental Sciences Division, Regional and Global Modeling and Analysis Program. LLNL Release number: LLNL-JRNL-761158. BS and JC was partially supported by the Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research, a joint research center between the QNLM and the CSIRO. BS was also supported by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and CSIRO through the National Environmental Science Program. SC was supported by the IRD and by the French national program LEFE/INSU. SC thanks W. Kessler for suggestions concerning Figure 6. BR was supported by the German Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar-und Meeresforschung (AWI). J-BS was supported by the CNRS/INSU and the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement 637770. SS was supported by the French Institutions ENS, LMD, IPSL, and CNRS/INSU. The work of JW was performed in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Description: © The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Benthuysen, J. A., Oliver, E. C. J., Chen, K., & Wernberg, T. Editorial: advances in understanding marine heatwaves and their impacts. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, (2020): 147, doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00147.

Description: Editorial on the Research Topic Advances in Understanding Marine Heatwaves and Their Impacts In recent years, prolonged, extremely warm water events, known as marine heatwaves, have featured prominently around the globe with their disruptive consequences for marine ecosystems. Over the past decade, marine heatwaves have occurred from the open ocean to marginal seas and coastal regions, including the unprecedented 2011 Western Australia marine heatwave (Ningaloo Niño) in the eastern Indian Ocean (e.g., Pearce et al., 2011), the 2012 northwest Atlantic marine heatwave (Chen et al., 2014), the 2012 and 2015 Mediterranean Sea marine heatwaves (Darmaraki et al., 2019), the 2013/14 western South Atlantic (Rodrigues et al., 2019) and 2017 southwestern Atlantic marine heatwave (Manta et al., 2018), the persistent 2014–2016 “Blob” in the North Pacific (Bond et al., 2015; Di Lorenzo and Mantua, 2016), the 2015/16 marine heatwave spanning the southeastern tropical Indian Ocean to the Coral Sea (Benthuysen et al., 2018), and the Tasman Sea marine heatwaves in 2015/16 (Oliver et al., 2017) and 2017/18 (Salinger et al., 2019). These events have set new records for marine heatwave intensity, the temperature anomaly exceeding a climatology, and duration, the sustained period of extreme temperatures. We have witnessed the profound consequences of these thermal disturbances from acute changes to marine life to enduring impacts on species, populations, and communities (Smale et al., 2019). These marine heatwaves have spurred a diversity of research spanning the methodology of identifying and quantifying the events (e.g., Hobday et al., 2016) and their historical trends (Oliver et al., 2018), understanding their physical mechanisms and relationships with climate modes (e.g., Holbrook et al., 2019), climate projections (Frölicher et al., 2018), and understanding the biological impacts for organisms and ecosystem function and services (e.g., Smale et al., 2019). By using sea surface temperature percentiles, temperature anomalies can be quantified based on their local variability and account for the broad range of temperature regimes in different marine environments. For temperatures exceeding a 90th-percentile threshold beyond a period of 5-days, marine heatwaves can be classified into categories based on their intensity (Hobday et al., 2018). While these recent advances have provided the framework for understanding key aspects of marine heatwaves, a challenge lies ahead for effective integration of physical and biological knowledge for prediction of marine heatwaves and their ecological impacts. This Research Topic is motivated by the need to understand the mechanisms for how marine heatwaves develop and the biological responses to thermal stress events. This Research Topic is a collection of 18 research articles and three review articles aimed at advancing our knowledge of marine heatwaves within four themes. These themes include methods for detecting marine heatwaves, understanding their physical mechanisms, seasonal forecasting and climate projections, and ecological impacts.

Description: We thank the contributing authors, reviewers, and the editorial staff at Frontiers in Marine Science for their support in producing this issue. We thank the Marine Heatwaves Working Group (http://www.marineheatwaves.org/) for inspiration and discussions. This special issue stemmed from the session on Advances in Understanding Marine Heat Waves and Their Impacts at the 2018 Ocean Sciences meeting (Portland, USA).

Description: © The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Gosselin, K. M., Nelson, R. K., Spivak, A. C., Sylva, S. P., Van Mooy, B. A. S., Aeppli, C., Sharpless, C. M., O’Neil, G. W., Arrington, E. C., Reddy, C. M., & Valentine, D. L. Production of two highly abundant 2-methyl-branched fatty acids by blooms of the globally significant marine cyanobacteria Trichodesmium erythraeum. ACS Omega, 6(35), (2021): 22803–22810, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c03196.

Description: The bloom-forming cyanobacteria Trichodesmium contribute up to 30% to the total fixed nitrogen in the global oceans and thereby drive substantial productivity. On an expedition in the Gulf of Mexico, we observed and sampled surface slicks, some of which included dense blooms of Trichodesmium erythraeum. These bloom samples contained abundant and atypical free fatty acids, identified here as 2-methyldecanoic acid and 2-methyldodecanoic acid. The high abundance and unusual branching pattern of these compounds suggest that they may play a specific role in this globally important organism.

Description: This work was funded with grants from the National Science Foundation grants OCE-1333148, OCE-1333162, and OCE-1756254 and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (IR&D). GCxGC analysis made possible by WHOI’s Investment in Science Fund.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 7 (2016): 941, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.00941.

Description: Pockmarks are crater-like depression on the seafloor associated with hydrocarbon ascent through muddy sediments in continental shelves around the world. In this study, we examine the diversity and distribution of benthic microbial communities at shallow-water pockmarks adjacent to the Middle Adriatic Ridge. We integrate microbial diversity data with characterization of local hydrocarbons concentrations and sediment geochemistry. Our results suggest these pockmarks are enriched in sedimentary hydrocarbons, and host a microbial community dominated by Bacteria, even in deeper sediment layers. Pockmark sediments showed higher prokaryotic abundance and biomass than surrounding sediments, potentially due to the increased availability of organic matter and higher concentrations of hydrocarbons linked to pockmark activity. Prokaryotic diversity analyses showed that the microbial communities of these shallow-water pockmarks are unique, and comprised phylotypes associated with the cycling of sulfur and nitrate compounds, as well as numerous know hydrocarbon degraders. Altogether, this study suggests that shallow-water pockmark habitats enhance the diversity of the benthic prokaryotic biosphere by providing specialized environmental niches.

Description: This work was partially supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations [C-DEBI, grant OCE-0939564] awarded to DG, by National Science Foundation grant OCE 11-24141 to CV, and European Science Foundation EuroDeep BIOFUN grant CTM2007-28739-E to EM. This article commits to EU HERMIONE [contract no. 226354] and CoCoNet [contract no. 287844] programs, and the Italian MIUR flag Ritmare within the National Research Program 2011–2013.

Description: © The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Tuchen, F., Brandt, P., Hahn, J., Hummels, R., Krahmann, G., Bourlès, B., Provost, C., McPhaden, M., & Toole, J. Two decades of full-depth current velocity observations from a moored observatory in the central equatorial Atlantic at 0°N, 23°W. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, (2022): 910979, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910979.

Description: Regional climate variability in the tropical Atlantic, from interannual to decadal time scales, is inevitably connected to changes in the strength and position of the individual components of the tropical current system with impacts on societally relevant climate hazards such as anomalous rainfall or droughts over the surrounding continents (Bourlès et al., 2019; Foltz et al., 2019). Furthermore, the lateral supply of dissolved oxygen in the tropical Atlantic upper-ocean is closely linked to the zonal current bands (Brandt et al., 2008; Brandt et al., 2012; Burmeister et al., 2020) and especially to the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) and its long-term variations with potential implications for regional marine ecosystems (Brandt et al., 2021). The eastward flowing EUC is located between 70 to 200 m depth and forms one of the strongest tropical currents with maximum velocities of up to 1 m s-1 and maximum variability on seasonal time scales (Brandt et al., 2014; Johns et al., 2014). In the intermediate to deep equatorial Atlantic, variability on longer time scales is mainly governed by alternating, vertically-stacked, zonal currents (equatorial deep jets (EDJs); Johnson and Zhang, 2003). At a fixed location, the phases of these jets are propagating downward with time, implying that parts of their energy must propagate upward towards the surface (Brandt et al., 2011). In fact, a pronounced interannual cycle of about 4.5 years, that is associated with EDJs, is projected onto surface parameters such as sea surface temperature or precipitation (Brandt et al., 2011) further demonstrating the importance of understanding equatorial circulation variability and its role in tropical climate variability.

Description: This study was funded by EU H2020 under grant agreement 817578 TRIATLAS project, by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft as part of the Sonderforschungsbereich754 “Climate–Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean” and through several research cruises with RV Meteor, RV Maria S. Merian, RV L'Atalante, and RV Sonne and by the Deutsche Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) as part of the projects RACE (03F06518) and by the European Union 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement 603521. Moored velocity observations were acquired in cooperation with the PIRATA project supported by NOAA (USA), IRD and Meteo-France (France), INPE (Brazil) and the Brazil Navy. This research was performed while FPT held an NRC Research Associateship Award at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. FPT, PB, JH, RH, and GK are grateful for continuing support from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. MM acknowledges the support of NOAA; PMEL contribution no. 5359. JT's contributions to this study were supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.