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The photic zone, euphotic zone, epipelagic zone, or sunlight zone is the uppermost layer of a body of water that receives sunlight, allowing phytoplankton to perform photosynthesis. It undergoes a series of physical, chemical, and biological processes that supply nutrients into the upper water column. The photic zone is home to the majority of aquatic life due to the activity of the phytoplankton. The thicknesses of the photic and euphotic zones vary with the intensity of sunlight as a function of season and latitude and with the degree of water turbidity. The bottommost, or aphotic, zone is the region of perpetual darkness that lies beneath the photic zone and includes most of the ocean waters.
Coccolithophores, or coccolithophorids, are single-celled organisms which are part of the phytoplankton, the autotrophic (self-feeding) component of the plankton community. They form a group of about 200 species, and belong either to the kingdom Protista, according to Robert Whittaker's five-kingdom system, or clade Hacrobia, according to a newer biological classification system. Within the Hacrobia, the coccolithophores are in the phylum or division Haptophyta, class Prymnesiophyceae. Coccolithophores are almost exclusively marine, are photosynthetic, and exist in large numbers throughout the sunlight zone of the ocean.
Phytoplankton are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν, meaning 'plant', and, meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'.
The biological pump (or ocean carbon biological pump or marine biological carbon pump) is the ocean's biologically driven sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere and land runoff to the ocean interior and seafloor sediments. In other words, it is a biologically mediated process which results in the sequestering of carbon in the deep ocean away from the atmosphere and the land. The biological pump is the biological component of the "marine carbon pump" which contains both a physical and biological component. It is the part of the broader oceanic carbon cycle responsible for the cycling of organic matter formed mainly by phytoplankton during photosynthesis (soft-tissue pump), as well as the cycling of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) formed into shells by certain organisms such as plankton and mollusks (carbonate pump).
Coccoliths are individual plates or scales of calcium carbonate formed by coccolithophores and cover the cell surface arranged in the form of a spherical shell, called a coccosphere.
A polynya is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice. It is a loanword from the Russian полынья, which refers to a natural ice hole and was adopted in the 19th century by polar explorers to describe navigable portions of the sea.
Emiliania huxleyi is a species of coccolithophore found in almost all ocean ecosystems from the equator to sub-polar regions, and from nutrient rich upwelling zones to nutrient poor oligotrophic waters. It is one of thousands of different photosynthetic plankton that freely drift in the photic zone of the ocean, forming the basis of virtually all marine food webs. It is studied for the extensive blooms it forms in nutrient-depleted waters after the reformation of the summer thermocline. Like other coccolithophores, E. huxleyi is a single-celled phytoplankton covered with uniquely ornamented calcite disks called coccoliths. Individual coccoliths are abundant in marine sediments although complete coccospheres are more unusual. In the case of E. huxleyi, not only the shell, but also the soft part of the organism may be recorded in sediments. It produces a group of chemical compounds that are very resistant to decomposition. These chemical compounds, known as alkenones, can be found in marine sediments long after other soft parts of the organisms have decomposed. Alkenones are most commonly used by earth scientists as a means to estimate past sea surface temperatures.
Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), is an organosulfur compound with the formula (CH3)2S+CH2CH2COO−. This zwitterionic metabolite can be found in marine phytoplankton, seaweeds, and some species of terrestrial and aquatic vascular plants. It functions as an osmolyte as well as several other physiological and environmental roles have also been identified. DMSP was first identified in the marine red alga Polysiphonia fastigiata.
High-nutrient, low-chlorophyll (HNLC) regions are regions of the ocean where the abundance of phytoplankton is low and fairly constant despite the availability of macronutrients. Phytoplankton rely on a suite of nutrients for cellular function. Macronutrients are generally available in higher quantities in surface ocean waters, and are the typical components of common garden fertilizers. Micronutrients are generally available in lower quantities and include trace metals. Macronutrients are typically available in millimolar concentrations, while micronutrients are generally available in micro- to nanomolar concentrations. In general, nitrogen tends to be a limiting ocean nutrient, but in HNLC regions it is never significantly depleted. Instead, these regions tend to be limited by low concentrations of metabolizable iron. Iron is a critical phytoplankton micronutrient necessary for enzyme catalysis and electron transport.
Ice algae are any of the various types of algal communities found in annual and multi-year sea, and terrestrial lake ice or glacier ice.
Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) or methylthiomethane is an organosulfur compound with the formula (CH3)2S. The simplest thioether, it is a flammable liquid that boils at 37 °C (99 °F) and has a characteristic disagreeable odor. It is a component of the smell produced from cooking of certain vegetables, notably maize, cabbage, beetroot, and seafoods. It is also an indication of bacterial contamination in malt production and brewing. It is a breakdown product of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), and is also produced by the bacterial metabolism of methanethiol.
The CLAW hypothesis proposes a negative feedback loop that operates between ocean ecosystems and the Earth's climate. The hypothesis specifically proposes that particular phytoplankton that produce dimethyl sulfide are responsive to variations in climate forcing, and that these responses act to stabilise the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere. The CLAW hypothesis was originally proposed by Robert Jay Charlson, James Lovelock, Meinrat Andreae and Stephen G. Warren, and takes its acronym from the first letter of their surnames.
Methylophaga thiooxydans is a methylotrophic bacterium that requires high salt concentrations for growth. It was originally isolated from a culture of the algae Emiliania huxleyi, where it grows by breaking down dimethylsulfoniopropionate from E. hexleyi into dimethylsulfide and acrylate. M. thiooxydans has been implicated as a dominant organism in phytoplankton blooms, where it consumes dimethylsulfide, methanol and methyl bromide released by dying phytoplankton. It was also identified as one of the dominant organisms present in the plume following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and was identified as a major player in the breakdown of methanol in coastal surface water in the English channel.
CICE is a computer model that simulates the growth, melt and movement of sea ice. It has been integrated into many coupled climate system models as well as global ocean and weather forecasting models and is often used as a tool in Arctic and Southern Ocean research. CICE development began in the mid-1990s by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), and it is currently maintained and developed by a group of institutions in North America and Europe known as the CICE Consortium. Its widespread use in earth system science in part owes to the importance of sea ice in determining Earth's planetary albedo, the strength of the global thermohaline circulation in the world's oceans, and in providing surface boundary conditions for atmospheric circulation models, since sea ice occupies a significant proportion (4-6%) of earth's surface. CICE is a type of cryospheric model.
The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) was a five-year scientific research program that investigated aspects of phytoplankton dynamics in ocean ecosystems, and how such dynamics influence atmospheric aerosols, clouds, and climate. The study focused on the sub-arctic region of the North Atlantic Ocean, which is the site of one of Earth's largest recurring phytoplankton blooms. The long history of research in this location, as well as relative ease of accessibility, made the North Atlantic an ideal location to test prevailing scientific hypotheses in an effort to better understand the role of phytoplankton aerosol emissions on Earth's energy budget.
Particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) can be contrasted with dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), the other form of inorganic carbon found in the ocean. These distinctions are important in chemical oceanography. Particulate inorganic carbon is sometimes called suspended inorganic carbon. In operational terms, it is defined as the inorganic carbon in particulate form that is too large to pass through the filter used to separate dissolved inorganic carbon.
The Great Calcite Belt (GCB) refers to a region of the ocean where there are high concentrations of calcite, a mineral form of calcium carbonate. The belt extends over a large area of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. The calcite in the Great Calcite Belt is formed by tiny marine organisms called coccolithophores, which build their shells out of calcium carbonate. When these organisms die, their shells sink to the bottom of the ocean, and over time, they accumulate to form a thick layer of calcite sediment.
Patricia K. Quinn is a atmospheric chemist working at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's Pacific Marine Environmental Lab. She is known for her work on the impact of atmospheric aerosol particles on air quality and climate.
Mary-Louise Elizabeth Timmermans is a marine scientist known for her work on the Arctic Ocean. She is the Damon Wells Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Yale University.
Phyllis Jean Stabeno is a physical oceanographer known for her research on the movement of water in polar regions. She has led award-winning research projects in the Arctic and was noted for a distinguished scientific career by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
References
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- ↑ "Paty Matrai - Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences". www.bigelow.org. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
- ↑ Matrai, Patricia A.; Keller, Maureen D. (1993-08-01). "Dimethylsulfide in a large-scale coccolithophore bloom in the Gulf of Maine". Continental Shelf Research. 13 (8): 831–843. Bibcode:1993CSR....13..831M. doi: 10.1016/0278-4343(93)90012-M . ISSN 0278-4343.
- ↑ Samarrai, Fariss (Spring 1995). "Little alga has big place in global climate". Sea Frontiers; Miami. Vol. 41, no. 1. p. 15 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ Matrai, P. A.; Keller, M. D. (1994). "Total organic sulfur and dimethylsulfoniopropionate in marine phytoplankton: intracellular variations". Marine Biology. 119 (1): 61–68. Bibcode:1994MarBi.119...61M. doi:10.1007/BF00350107. ISSN 0025-3162. S2CID 85286768.
- ↑ Matrai, Patricia A.; Vernet, María (1997-10-15). "Dynamics of the vernal bloom in the marginal ice zone of the Barents Sea: Dimethyl sulfide and dimethylsulfoniopropionate budgets". Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 102 (C10): 22965–22979. Bibcode:1997JGR...10222965M. doi: 10.1029/96JC03870 .
- ↑ Zhang, Jinlun; Spitz, Yvette H.; Steele, Michael; Ashjian, Carin; Campbell, Robert; Berline, Léo; Matrai, Patricia (2010). "Modeling the impact of declining sea ice on the Arctic marine planktonic ecosystem". Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 115 (C10): 2009JC005387. Bibcode:2010JGRC..11510015Z. doi: 10.1029/2009JC005387 . hdl: 1912/4286 . ISSN 0148-0227.
- ↑ Lee, Younjoo J.; Matrai, Patricia A.; Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M.; Saba, Vincent S.; Antoine, David; Ardyna, Mathieu; Asanuma, Ichio; Babin, Marcel; Bélanger, Simon; Benoît-Gagné, Maxime; Devred, Emmanuel; Fernández-Méndez, Mar; Gentili, Bernard; Hirawake, Toru; Kang, Sung-Ho (2015). "An assessment of phytoplankton primary productivity in the Arctic Ocean from satellite ocean color/in situ chlorophyll- a based models". Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 120 (9): 6508–6541. Bibcode:2015JGRC..120.6508L. doi:10.1002/2015JC011018. ISSN 2169-9275. PMC 5014238 . PMID 27668139.
- ↑ Arrigo, Kevin R.; Matrai, Patricia A.; van Dijken, Gert L. (2011). "Primary productivity in the Arctic Ocean: Impacts of complex optical properties and subsurface chlorophyll maxima on large-scale estimates". Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 116 (C11): 2011JC007273. Bibcode:2011JGRC..11611022A. doi: 10.1029/2011JC007273 . ISSN 0148-0227.
- ↑ Fish, Jen (2001-06-20). "Researchers get polar view of climate". Portland Press Herald. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-12-31.
- ↑ Grape, Nancy (2001-06-20). "How to open a child's mind forever". Portland Press Herald. p. 9. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
- ↑ "ASLO Fellows". ASLO. Retrieved 2022-12-31.