Bacterial production in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in March and April 2008 during SES_GR1

The dataset is based on samples collected in the framework of the project SESAME, in the Ionian, Libyan and Aegean Sea during March- April 2008. The objectives were to measure the standing stocks and calculate the production of the microbial compartment of the food web, describe the vertical distribution pattern and characterize its structure and function through the water column. Bacterial production was estimated by the 3H-leucine method (Kirchman et al. 1986, Kirchman 1993). At each depth, duplicate samples and a control were incubated with 20 nM L-[4,5 3H]-leucine. Samples were incubated in the dark, at in situ temperature.

Varved sediments of the Arabian Sea

The upper Holocene marine section from a kasten core taken from the oxygen minimum zone off Karachi (Pakistan) at water depth 700 m contains continuously laminated sediments with a sedimentation rate of 1.2 mm/yr and a unique record of monsoonal climatic variability covering the past 5000 years. Our chronostratigraphy is based on varve counts verified by conventional and AMS14C dating. Individual hemipelagic varve couplets are about 0.8-1.5 mm thick, with light-colored terrigenous laminae (A) deposited mainly during the winter monsoon alternating with dark-colored laminae (B) rich in marine organic matter, coccoliths, and fish debris that reflect deposition during the high-productivity season of the late summer monsoon (August-October). Precipitation and river runoff appear to control varve thickness and turbidite frequency. We infer that precipitation decreased in the river watershed (indicated by thinning varves) after 3500-4000 yr B.P. This is about the time of increasing aridification in the Near East and Middle East, as documented by decreasing Nile River runoff data and lake-level lowstands between Turkey and northwestern India. This precipitation pattern continued until today with precipitation minima about 2200-1900 yr B.P., 1000 yr B.P., and in the late Middle Ages (700-400 yr B.P.), and precipitation maxima in the intervening periods. As documented by spectral analysis, the thickness of varve couplets responds to the average length of a 250-yr cycle, a 125-yr cycle, the Gleissberg cycle of solar activity (95 yr), and a 56-yr cycle of unknown origin. Higher frequency cycles are also present at 45, 39, 29-31, and 14 yr. The sedimentary gray-value also shows strong variability in the 55-yr band plus a 31-yr cycle. Because high-frequency cyclicity in the ENSO band (ca. 3.5 and 5 yr) is only weakly expressed, our data do not support a straightforward interaction of the Pacific ENSO with the monsoon-driven climate system of the Arabian Sea.

Oceanographic data in the Greenland Sea and around Svalbard in 1991-1993

The Arctic Ocean is connected with the North Atlantic Ocean by the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard. The strait is located in the northern part of the Greenland Sea. In the eastern part of the strait, warm saline water flows northward as the West Spitsbergen Current; while in the western part, cold less-saline water flows southward as the East Greenland Current. The northwestern part of the Greenland Sea is normally covered with sea ice even in summer. Furthermore, this region is regarded as a major area where the Arctic sea ice is discharged into mid latitude oceans. Thus, this area plays an important role in heat and salt exchange processes in the Arctic marine system. The reveal exchange processes of water masses and ocean-atmosphere interaction in high-latitude oceans, a number of international research programs have been focused on the Greenland Sea and its surrounding waters. As one of the international Arctic research programs, oceanographic studies have been executed in cooperation with the Norsk Polarinstitutt and other institutes under the leadership of the National Institute of Polar Research since 1991. Japanese scientists have been carrying out field observations in and around Svalbard. The observations include not only physical measurements but also biological surveys. This report presents physical oceanographic data obtained in the Greenland Sea in 1992 and 1993, and data around Svalbard from 1991 to 1993.

Mats of psychrophilic thiotrophic bacteria associated with cold seeps of the Barents Sea

This study focused on the bacterial diversity associated with microbial mats of deep-sea cold seeps at the Norwegian continental margin. Study sites included the Storegga and Nyegga areas as well as the Håkon Mosby mud volcano, where the mats occurred at temperatures permanently close to the freezing point of seawater. Two visually different mat types, i.e. small gray mats and extensive white mats, were studied with the aim to determine the identity of the mat-forming sulfide oxidizers, and to investigate which environmental factors (e.g. sulfate reduction and methane oxidation rates) shown here could explain the observed diversity. Sequence data have been submitted to the EMBL database under accession No. FR847864-FR847887 (giant sulfur bacteria), No. FR827864 (Menez Gwen filament; see Supplementary Material) and No. FR875365-FR877509 (except FR875905; remaining partial sequences).

Lithology, biostratigraphy, and geochemistry of the Black Sea sediments, DSDP Leg 42 (pt. 2) data

The monograph presents results of deep-sea drilling in the Black Sea carried out in 1975. Detailed lithological, biostratigraphic and geochemical studies of Miocene-Holocene sediments have been carried out by specialists from institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University and other organizations. Drilling results are compared with geophysical data. Geological history of the Black Sea basin is considered as well.

(Table 1) Distribution of copper porphyrins and other pigments in deep-sea sediments

Copper porphyrins have been isolated from deep-sea sediments collected during six legs of the Deep Sea Drilling Project-International Program of Ocean Drilling. These pigments are present in depositional areas receiving high inputs of terrestrially derived oxidized organic matter. Such areas include the Black Sea, the Bay of Biscay, the Blake-Bahama Basin, and slumped Miocene deposits off Cape Bojador on the west coast of Africa.