Particle size of Saharan dust in the Atlantic Ocean, from October 2012 to November 2013

Mineral dust has a large impact on regional and global climate, depending on its particle size. Especially in the Atlantic Ocean downwind of the Sahara, the largest dust source on earth, the effects can be substantial but are poorly understood. This study focuses on seasonal and spatial variations in particle size of Saharan dust deposition across the Atlantic Ocean, using an array of submarine sediment traps moored along a transect at 12° N. We show that the particle size decreases downwind with increased distance from the Saharan source, due to higher gravitational settling velocities of coarse particles in the atmosphere. Modal grain sizes vary between 4 and 33 µm throughout the different seasons and at five locations along the transect. This is much coarser than previously suggested and incorporated into climate models. In addition, seasonal changes are prominent, with coarser dust in summer, and finer dust in winter and spring. Such seasonal changes are caused by transport at higher altitudes and at greater wind velocities during summer than in winter. Also the latitudinal migration of the dust cloud, associated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone, causes seasonal differences in deposition as the summer dust cloud is located more to the north, and more directly above the sampled transect. Furthermore, increased precipitation and more frequent dust storms in summer coincide with coarser dust deposition. Our findings contribute to understanding Saharan dust transport and deposition relevant for the interpretation of sedimentary records for climate reconstructions, as well as for global and regional models for improved prediction of future climate.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

Stomach content records for pelagic fish (herring, mackerel, blue whiting, albacore and bluefin tuna) in the northeast Atlantic

Fish stomach content records extracted from the DAPSTOM 4.5 database (held at the UK Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science - CEFAS). Data collated as part of the EU Euro-Basin project and specifically concerning herring (Clupea harengus), mackerel (Scomber scombrus), blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou), albacore (Thunnus alalunga) and bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus). The data set consist of 20720 records - collected throughout the northeast Atlantic, between 1906 and 2011 - mostly during routine fisheries monitoring research cruises.

Annotated record and chemical composition of Mn deposits from R/V Mahi Cruise Abyssal Hills 69 stations

A University of Hawaii oceanographic cruise, Abyssal Hills 69, with the R/V Mahi, was carried out to study the association of manganese nodules with an abyssal hill. Manganese nodules from three dredge hauls on an abyssal hill located at 36°W and 157°W exhibited differences in morphology and composition between stations only three miles apart. The morphology of the nodules suggests that nodules from a single site have similar morphologies because they began growth at the same time, probably because of a volcanic event. Differences in morphology between stations indicate a local supply of elements. Atomic absorption analysis for manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, and copper revealed that nodules nearest to a probable fault line and source of volcanism have a, lower manganese to iron ratio than nodules farther removed. This finding supports the theory that volcanism contributes to the formation of some nodules. Additional evidence showing association with volcanism consists of volcanic nuclei in nodules, crusts formed on layers of volcanic ash, and basalt encrusted to various degrees. The variation in cobalt, nickel, and copper contents Gt the nodules from a single dredge is two-to threefold, but iron content is more uniiorm. Four of the six cores from the area increased in manganese concentration with depth, suggesting that diffusion is concentrating manganese in the upper zone of the sediments or in nodules. The author concludes that volcanism is contributing to the formation of nodules by supplying nuclei and transition elements, but is not necessary for the formation of manganese nodules.

(Table 1) Uranium at DSDP Hole 69-504B pore water

Basalt formation waters collected from Hole 504B at sub-basement depths of 194, 201, 365, and 440 meters show inverse linear relationships between 87Sr/86Sr and Ca, 87Sr/86Sr and Sr, and K and Ca. If the Ca content of a fully reacted formation water end-member is assumed to be 1340 ppm, the K, Sr, and 87Sr/86Sr values for the end-member are 334 ppm, 7.67 ppm, and 0.70836, respectively. With respect to contemporary seawater at Hole 504B, K is depleted by 13%, Sr is enriched by 2.7%, and 87Sr/86Sr is depleted by 0.8%. The Sr/Ca ratio of the formation water (0.0057) is much lower than that of seawater (0.018) but is similar to the submarine hot spring waters from the Galapagos Rift and East Pacific Rise and to geothermal brines from Iceland. At the intermediate temperatures represented by the Hole 504B formation waters (70°-105°C), the interaction between seawater and the ocean crust produces large solution enrichments in Ca, the addition of a significant basalt Sr isotope component accompanied by only a minor elemental Sr component, and the removal from solution of seawater K. The Rb, Cs, and Ba contents of the formation waters appear to be affected by contamination, possibly from drilling muds.

(Table 1) Uranium at DSDP Hole 69-504B pore water

Measurements of U concentration and 234U/238U ratio were made in five water samples from Deep Sea Drilling Project Hole 504B.The results indicate that a loss of U had occurred either during sampling or during the storage of the samples, probably as a result of adsorption by rust particles or by the walls of the sampling system. Within analytical uncertainty, the 234U/238U ratios in the samples were identical to those in unreacted seawater. Thus, it is not possible to detect any U exchange that may have occurred during the reaction of the solutions with the basement formation. Improvement in sampling technique is a necessity for future studies of uranium and probably other trace elements in drill hole water samples.

Geochemistry and minerals at DSDP Legs 68-70 Holes

The compositions of natural glasses and phenocrysts in basalts from Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 501, 504, and 505, near the Costa Rica Rift, constitute evidence for the existence of a periodically replenished axial magma chamber that repeatedly erupted lavas of remarkably uniform composition. Magma compositions were affected by three general components: (1) injected magmas carrying (in decreasing order of abundance) Plagioclase, olivine, and chrome-spinel phenocrysts (spinel assemblage); (2) injected magmas carrying Plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and olivine phenocrysts, but no spinel (clinopyroxene assemblage); and (3) moderately evolved hybrids in the magma chamber itself. The compositions of the injected phenocrysts and minerals in glomerocrysts are as follows: Plagioclase - An85-94; olivine - Fo87-89; clinopyroxene - high Cr2O3 (0.7-1.1%), endiopside (Wo42En51Fs7), and aluminous chromian spinel (Cr/Cr + Al = 0.3). These minerals resemble those thought to occur in upper mantle sources (9 kbars and less) of ocean-ridge basalts and to crystallize in magmas near those sources. In the magma chamber, more sodic Plagioclase (An79-85), less magnesian olivine (Fo81-86) and low-Cr2O3 (0.1-0.4%) clinopyroxene formed rims on these crystals, grew as other phenocrysts, and formed cumulus segregations on the walls and floors of the magma chamber. In the spinel-assemblage magmas, magnesiochromite (Cr/Cr + Al = 0.4-0.5) also formed. Some cumulus segregations were later entrained in lavas as xenoliths. The glass compositions define 16 internally homogeneous eruptive units, 13 of which are in stratigraphic order in a single hole, Hole 504B, which was drilled 561.5 meters into the ocean crust. These units are defined as differing from each other by more than analytical uncertainty in one or more oxides. However, many of the glass groups in Hole 504B show virtually no differences in TiO2 contents, Mg/Mg + Fe2+, or normative An/An + Ab, all of which are sensitive indicators of crystallization differentiation. The differences are so small that they are only apparent in the glass compositions; they are almost completely obscured in whole-rock samples by the presence of phenocrysts and the effects of alteration. Moreover, several of the glass units at different depths in Hole 504B are compositionally identical, with all oxides falling within the range of analytical uncertainty, with only small variations in the rest of the suite. The repetition of identical chemical types requires (1) very regular injection of magmas into the magma chamber, (2) extreme similarity of injected magmas, and (3) displacement of very nearly the same proportion of the magmas in the chamber at each injection. Numerical modeling and thermal considerations have led some workers to propose the existence of such conditions at certain types of spreading centers, but the lava and glass compositions at Hole 504B represent the first direct evidence revealed by drilling of the existence of a compositionally nearly steady-state magma chamber, and this chapter examines the processes acting in it in some detail. The glass groups that are most similar are from clinopyroxene-assemblage lavas, which have a range of Mg/Mg + Fe2"1" of 0.59 to 0.65. Spinel-assemblage basalts are less evolved, with Mg/Mg + Fe2+ of 0.65 to 0.69, but both types have nearly identical normative An/An + Ab (0.65-0.66). However, the two lava types contain megacrysts (olivine, Plagioclase, clinopyroxene) that crystallized from melts with Mg/Mg + Fe2+ values of 0.70 to 0.72. Projection of glass compositions into ternary normative systems suggests that spinel-assemblage magmas originated deeper in the mantle than clinopyroxene-assemblage magmas, and mineral data indicate that the two types followed different fractionation paths before reaching the magma chamber. The two magma types therefore represent neither a low- nor a high-pressure fractionation sequence. Some of the spinel-assemblage magmas may have had picritic parents, but were coprecipitating all of the spinel-assemblage phenocrysts before reaching the magma chamber. Clinopyroxene-assemblage magmas did not have picritic parents, but the compositions of phenocrysts suggest that they originated at about 9 kbars, near the transition between plagioclase peridotite and spinel peridotite in the mantle. Two glass groups have higher contents of alkalis, TiO2, and P2O5 than the others, evidently as a result of the compositions of mantle sources. Eruption of these lavas implies that conduits and chambers containing magmas from dissimilar sources were not completely interconnected on the Costa Rica Rift. The data are used to draw comparisons with the East Pacific Rise and to consider the mechanisms that may have prevented the eruption of ferrobasalts at these sites.

Seasonal variations in surface metabolite composition of Fucus vesiculosus and Fucus serratus sampled at outer Kiel Fjord (August 2012 - July 2013)

The chemical composition of surface associated metabolites of two Fucus species (Fucus vesiculosus and Fucus serratus) was analysed by means of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to describe temporal patterns in chemical surface composition. Method: The two perennial brown macroalgae F. vesiculosus and F. serratus were sampled monthly at Bülk, outer Kiel Fjord, Germany (54°27'21 N / 10°11'57 E) over an entire year (August 2012 - July 2013). Per month and species six non-fertile Fucus individuals were collected from mixed stands at a depth of 0.5 m under mid water level. For surface extraction approx. 50 g of the upper 5-10 cm apical thalli tips were cut off per species. The surface extraction of Fucus was performed according to the protocol of de Nys and co-workers (1998) with minor modifications (see Rickert et al. 2015). GC/EI-MS measurements were performed with a Waters GCT premier (Waters, Manchester, UK) coupled to an Agilent 6890N GC equipped with a DB-5 ms 30 m column (0.25 mm internal diameter, 0.25 mM film thickness, Agilent, USA). The inlet temperature was maintained at 250°C and samples were injected in split 10 mode. He carrier gas flow was adjusted to 1 ml min-1. Alkanes were used for referencing of retention times. For further details (GC-MS sample preparation and analysis) see the related publication (Rickert et al. submitted to PLOS ONE).

E-RUN version 1.1: Observational gridded runoff estimates for Europe, link to data in NetCDF format (69 MB)

River runoff is an essential climate variable as it is directly linked to the terrestrial water balance and controls a wide range of climatological and ecological processes. Despite its scientific and societal importance, there are to date no pan-European observation-based runoff estimates available. Here we employ a recently developed methodology to estimate monthly runoff rates on regular spatial grid in Europe. For this we first assemble an unprecedented collection of river flow observations, combining information from three distinct data bases. Observed monthly runoff rates are first tested for homogeneity and then related to gridded atmospheric variables (E-OBS version 12) using machine learning. The resulting statistical model is then used to estimate monthly runoff rates (December 1950 - December 2015) on a 0.5° x 0.5° grid. The performance of the newly derived runoff estimates is assessed in terms of cross validation. The paper closes with example applications, illustrating the potential of the new runoff estimates for climatological assessments and drought monitoring.

Description of manganese nodules and crust collected from the Hakuho Maru Cruise KH-69-2, April-June, 1969, in the Japan Trench and Sea of Japan areas

The cores and dredges described in this report were taken on the KH-69-2 Expedition in April-June, 1969 by the Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo from the Hakuho Maru. A total of 12 cores and dredges sites have been recovered.

(Table 1) Strontium concentration and isotope ratios of carbonates from DSDP Holes 69-504B as well as 83-504B and fish debris samples from Indian and Pacific Ocean sediments

Recent revisions of the geological time scale by Kent and Gradstein (in press) suggest that, on the average, Cretaceous magnetic anomalies are approximately 10 m.y. older than in Larson and Hilde's (1975) previous time scale. These revised basement ages change estimates for the duration of alteration in the ocean crust, based on the difference between secondary-mineral isochron ages and magnetic isochron-crustal ages, from 3 to approximately 13 m.y. In addition to the revised time scale, Burke et al.'s (1982) new data on the temporal variation of 87Sr/86Sr in seawater allow a better understanding of the timing of alteration and more realistic determinations of water/rock ratios during seawater-basalt interaction. Carbonates from all DSDP sites which reached Layer 2 of Atlantic crust (Sites 105, 332, 417, and 418) are deposited within 10-15 m.y. of crustal formation from solutions with 87Sr/86Sr ratios identical to unaltered or contemporaneous seawater. Comparisons of the revised seawater curve with the 87Sr/86Sr of basement carbonates is consistent with a duration of approximately 10-15 m.y. for alteration in the ocean crust. Our preliminary Sr and 87Sr/86Sr data for carbonates from Hole 504B, on 5.9-m.y.-old crust south of the Costa Rica Rift, suggest that hydrous solutions from which carbonates precipitated contained substantial amounts of basaltic Sr. For this reason, carbonate 87Sr/86Sr cannot be used to estimate the duration of alteration at this site. A basalt-dominated alteration environment at Hole 504B is consistent with heat-flow evidence which indicates rapid sediment burial of crust at the Costa Rica Rift, sealing it from access by seawater and resulting in unusually low water/rock ratios during alteration.

(Table 1) Downhole variation of potassium, apparent K-Ar age, and inert gas abundances at DSDP Holes 69-504B, 70-504B and 83-504B

Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and K2O were measured in representative samples of holocrystalline basalt from DSDP Hole 504B. No hiatus in inert gas abundance is recognized at the base of the "oxic" alteration zone and the extent rather than the nature of alteration appears to determine these abundances. When the inert gas abundances are separately plotted against K2O, two distinct trends of loss emerge, one for alteration involving K-gain, the other for K-loss. Apparent whole-rock K-Ar ages are anomalous in the upper 50 m of basement, and below 300 m sub-basement. In the intervening zone of basement, celadonization adds sufficient potassium and eliminates enough "primary" 40Ar early in the history of the basalts for "excess" 40Ar to become subordinate to radiogenic 40Ar in basalts showing potassium enrichment greater than 0.2%. Stratigraphically correct K-Ar ages are obtained, therefore, from K-enriched basalts of the oxic alteration zone.