Search results for "Ocean gyre"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
Millenial-scale paleoenviromental changes in the central Mediterranean during the Last Interglacial: comparison with European and North Atlantic reco…
2010
Abstract The environment of the central Mediterranean Sea is investigated on the basis of high-resolution planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossil data (mean sampling resolutions of about 80 and 160 yr, respectively). MIS 5 is characterized by warm, oligotrophic and stratified waters, while coccolithophore communities developed a vertical zonation that, in today's oceans, is typical of the low-latitude gyres. The temperate-subtropical configuration of planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossil assemblages is repeatedly transformed into a temperate-subpolar one during the suborbital cooling episodes C25-C18. A comparison with European pollen sequences and North Atlantic cor…
Different key roles of mesoscale oceanographic structures and ocean bathymetry in shaping larval fish distribution pattern: A case study in Sicilian …
2016
Fish larvae data collected in year 2009 were used to examine the effects of particular environmental conditions on the structure of larvalassemblages in two oligotrophic Mediterranean areas (the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea and the Strait of Sicily). For this purpose, relationships with environmental variables (temperature, salinity and fluorescence), zooplankton biomass, water circulation and bathymetry are discussed. Hydrodynamic conditions resulted very differently between two study areas. The Southern Tyrrhenian Sea was characterized by moderate shallow circulation compared to the Strait of Sicily. In this framework, distribution pattern of larval density in the Tyrrhenian Sea was mainly dri…
Distribution and ecology of the Globigerinoides ruber — Globigerinoides elongatus morphotypes in the Azores region during the late Pleistocene-Holoce…
2018
Abstract Globigerinoides ruber is the dominant taxon in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, nowadays limited to the north by the Azores Current. It is highly sensitive to recent and late Pleistocene Azores Front Current System variability. In this study, we analyse the distribution of five individual morphotypes of the G. ruber – G. elongatus plexus (G. ruber s.s., G. ruber cyclostoma type, G. elongatus, G. elongatus cf.1, G. elongatus pyramidical type) and G. ruber kummerform gr. in a core (ATA13-OF-KT1) collected southwest of the Azores islands and located in a strategical position near the present-day boundary of the Subtropical Gyre/Azores Front Current System (STG/AFCS). Micropaleonto…
ESTIMATION OF OCEANIC PARTICULATE ORGANIC CARBON WITH MACHINE LEARNING
2020
Understanding and quantifying ocean carbon sinks of the planet is of paramount relevance in the current scenario of global change. Particulate organic carbon (POC) is a key biogeochemical parameter that helps us characterize export processes of the ocean. Ocean color observations enable the estimation of bio-optical proxies of POC (i.e. particulate backscattering coefficient, bbp) in the surface layer of the ocean quasi-synoptically. In parallel, the Argo program distributes vertical profiles of the physical properties with a global coverage and a high spatio-temporal resolution. Merging satellite ocean color and Argo data using a neural networkbased method has already shown strong potentia…
Global sea-to-air flux climatology for bromoform, dibromomethane and methyl iodide
2013
Volatile halogenated organic compounds containing bromine and iodine, which are naturally produced in the ocean, are involved in ozone depletion in both the troposphere and stratosphere. Three prominent compounds transporting large amounts of marine halogens into the atmosphere are bromoform (CHBr3), dibromomethane (CH2Br2) and methyl iodide (CH3I). The input of marine halogens to the stratosphere has been estimated from observations and modelling studies using low-resolution oceanic emission scenarios derived from top-down approaches. In order to improve emission inventory estimates, we calculate data-based high resolution global sea-to-air flux estimates of these compounds from surface ob…
The key role played by the Augusta basin (southern Italy) in the mercury contamination of the Mediterranean Sea.
2011
The Augusta basin, located in SE Sicily (southern Italy), is a semi-enclosed marine area, labelled as a highly contaminated site. The release of mercury into the harbour seawater and its dispersion to the blue water, make the Augusta basin a potential source of anthropogenic pollution for the Mediterranean Sea. A mass balance was implemented to calculate the HgT budget in the Augusta basin. Results suggest that an average of ∼0.073 kmol of HgT is released, by diffusion, on a yearly basis, from sediments to the seawater, with a consequent output of 0.162 kmol y(-1) to coastal and offshore waters; this makes the Augusta area an important contributor of mercury to the Mediterranean Sea. Owing …