Improved Method for Calculating Anthropogenic CO2 in the Upper Layer of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre along 175°E

Seawater samples were collected in the North Pacific along 175°E during a cruise of the Northwest Pacific Carbon Cycle Study (NOPACCS) program in 1994. Many properties related to the carbonate system were analyzed. By using well-known ratios to correct for chemical changes in seawater, the CO₂ concentration at a given depth was back calculated to its initial concentration at the time when the water left the surface in winter. We estimated sea-surface CO₂ and titration alkalinity (TA) in present-day winter, from which we evaluated the degree of air-sea CO₂ disequilibrium in winter was. Using a correction factor for air-sea CO₂ disequilibrium in winter, we reconstructed sea-surface CO₂ in pre-industrial times. The difference between the back-calculated initial CO₂ and sea-surface CO₂ in pre-industrial times should correspond to anthropgenic CO₂ input. Although the mixing of different water masses may cause systematic error in the calculation, we found that the nonlinear effect induced by the mixing of different water masses was negligible in the upper layer of the North Pacific subtropical gyre along 175°E. The results of our improved method of assessing the distribution of anthropogenic CO₂ in that region show marked differences from those obtained using the previous back-calculation method.     

Spatial distribution of sister species of vesicomyid bivalves Calyptogena okutanii and Calyptogena soyoae along an environmental gradient in chemosynthetic biological communities in Japan

Vesicomyid bivalves have a substantial biomass in deep-sea chemosynthetic biological communities in the Pacific. Using a novel multiplex-PCR (mPCR) method to identify the co-occurring vesicomyids in Sagami Bay, we analyzed the distribution of Calyptogena okutanii and Calyptogena soyoae along environmental gradients. All the known distributions of C. okutanii indicated the different preferences in salinity and temperature to those of C. soyoae, and in Sagami Bay, depth seemed to be an important environmental factor, too. Although the concentration of hydrogen sulfide in sediment was not examined, our results showed that the distributions of these two Calyptogena clams were affected by salinity and temperature.     

Detecting red tides in the eastern Seto inland sea with satellite ocean color imagery

A multi-spectral classification scheme is proposed to identify water with red tide(s) using satellite ocean color imagery obtained by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS). The study area was the eastern Seto Inland Sea in Japan, where serious red tides frequently occur. “Background Ocean Colors” (BOCs hereafter), or colors of water around a red tide or those of the water before/after a red tide, are calculated as the monthly climatological average of normalized water-leaving radiances (nLw) with 0.01 degree spatial resolution with SeaWiFS imagery. Criteria for detecting red-tide pixels are established from analyses of characteristics of the nLws (in the 443, 490, 510, and 555 nm bands) anomalies from BOCs and the nLw spectra together with the red-tide records in Osaka Bay. The proposed scheme can efficiently indicate the presence or absence of red tides for independent match-ups with 83% accuracy. Additional validations of specific events indicate that the algorithm performed well in the study area. These results suggest that the scheme is appropriate to detect red tides in the optically complex coastal water of the eastern Seto Inland Sea.     

Seasonal variation in the transport of suspended matter in the East China Sea

Seasonal variation in the transport of suspended matter across the East China Sea is investigated with the use of results of field observations and diagnostic numerical experiments. Suspended matter is transported from the shelf edge to the inner shelf in summer and from the inner shelf to the shelf edge in autumn and winter due to the vertical circulation mainly induced by the monsoon wind. The maximum transport of suspended matter from the inner shelf to the shelf edge occurs in autumn.     

Seasonal variation of circulations in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea

Seasonal variation of the water circulations in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea is investigated with use of a robust diagnostic numerical model. Water circulations in four season are calculated diagnostically from the observed water temperature and salinity data from JODC (Japan Oceanographic Data Center) and wind data from COADS (Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set). Counter-clockwise circulations are developed at the upper and middle layers and a clockwise one at the lower layer in the central part of he Yellow Sea in summer. On the other hand, a clockwise circualtion is developed from the surface to the bottom in the Yellow Sea and a counter-clockwise one in, the northern part of the East China Sea in winter.     

Subsurface Water Masses in the Central North Pacific Transition Region: The Repeat Section along the 18° Meridian

A repeat hydrographic section has been maintained over two decades along the 180° meridian across the subarctic-subtropical transition region. The section is naturally divided into at least three distinct zones. In the Subarctic Zone north of 46°N, the permanent halocline dominates the density stratification, supporting a subsurface temperature minimum (STM). The Subarctic Frontal Zone (SFZ) between 42°–46°N is the region where the subarctic halocline outcrops. To the south is the Subtropical Zone, where the permanent thermocline dominates the density stratification, containing a pycnostad of North Pacific Central Mode Water (CMW). The STM water colder than 4°C in the Subarctic Zone is originated in the winter mixed layer of the Bering Sea. The temporal variation of its core temperature lags 12–16 months behind the variations of both the winter sea surface temperature (SST) and the summer STM temperature in the Bering Sea, suggesting that the thermal anomalies imposed on the STM water by wintertime air-sea interaction in the Bering Sea spread over the western subarctic gyre, reaching the 180° meridian within a year or so. The CMW in this section originates in the winter mixed layer near the northern edge of the Subtropical Zone between 160°E and 180°. The CMW properties changed abruptly from 1988 to 1989; its temperature and salinity increased and its potential density decreased. It is argued that these changes were caused by the climate regime shift in 1988/1989 characterized by weakening of the Aleutian Low and the westerlies and increase in the SST in the subarctic-subtropical transition region. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Three-dimensional numerical experiments on tidal exchange through a narrow strait in a homogeneous and a stratified sea

We have investigated the three-dimensional Lagrangian motion of water particles related with tidal exchange between two basins with a constant depth connected through a narrow strait and the effects of density stratification on the exchange processes by tracking a number of the labeled particles. Tide-induced transient eddies (TITEs), which are similar to those in two-dimensional basin, are generated behind the headlands. Upwelling appears around the center of the eddy and sinking around the boundary. When the basins are filled with homogeneous water, a pair of vortices are produced in the vertical cross section of the strait due to bottom stress, with upwellings along the side walls of the strait and sinking in the center of the strait. These circulations form the horizontally convergent field in the cross-strait direction in the upper layers while the horizontal divergence takes place in the bottom layer. These vertical water-motions produce the three-dimensional distribution of velocity shear and phase lag of the tidal current around the strait, and the Lagrangian drifts of water particles become large. As a result, water exchange through the strait is greatly enhanced: The water exchange rate reaches 94.1% which is much larger than that obtained in the vertically integrated two-dimensional model. When the basins are stratified, the stable stratification suppresses the vertical motion so that a pair of vertical vortices are confined in the lower layers. This leads to a decrease in the exchange rate, down to 88.6%. Our numerical results show that the three-dimensional structure of tidal currents should be taken into account in tidal exchange through a narrow strait.     

Jellyfish patch formation investigated by aerial photography and drifter experiment

Jellyfish patch formation is investigated by conducting a drifter experiment combined with aerial photography of a sustained patch of the moon jellyfish in Hokezu Bay, Japan. Jellyfish patches are aggregations of individuals that are caused by a combination of swimming (active influence) and advection by currents (passive influence). The drifter experiment involved the injection of 49 drifters around a distinct surface patch of jellyfish within an area of approximately 300 m × 300 m. The drifters’ motion, caused only by the passive influence, was recorded in a series of 38 aerial photographs taken over approximately 1 h. The ambient uniform current field larger than the patch scale was estimated from the movement of the centroid position of drifters, while the distribution of horizontal divergence and relative vorticity around the patch was estimated from the time-derivative in areas of triangles formed by the drifters. The centroid positions of both drifters and patches moved stably toward the bay head at different speeds. The difference vector between the patch and drifter centroids was directed to the sun, and was opposite to the ambient current. The distributions of vorticity and divergence around patches exhibited inhomogeneity within the patch scale, and the drifters in this nonuniform current field aggregated near the convergence area within 1 h. The results suggest that horizontal patch formation is predominantly influenced by passive factors at the surface of Hokezu Bay. Furthermore, the upward swimming against downwelling may make sustained patch in surface layer.     

Stable carbon isotope distribution of particulate organic matter in the ocean: a model study

The stable carbon isotopic composition of particulate organic matter in the ocean, δ¹³C_POC, shows characteristic spatial variations with high values in low latitudes and low values in high latitudes. The lowest δ¹³C_POC values (−32‰ to −35‰) have been reported in the Southern Ocean, whereas in arctic and subarctic regions δ¹³C_POC values do not drop below −27‰. This interhemispheric asymmetry is still unexplained. Global gradients in δ¹³C_POC are much greater than in δ¹³C_DIC, suggesting that variations in isotopic fractionation during organic matter production are primarily responsible for the observed range in δ¹³C_POC. Understanding the factors that control isotope variability is a prerequisite when applying δ¹³C_POC to the study of marine carbon biogeochemistry. The present model study attempts to reproduce the δ¹³C_POC distribution pattern in the ocean. The three-dimensional (3D) Hamburg Model of the Oceanic Carbon Cycle version 3.1 (HAMOCC3.1) was combined with two different parametrizations of the biological fractionation of stable carbon isotopes. In the first parametrization, it is assumed that the isotopic fractionation between CO₂ in seawater and the organic material produced by algae, _P, is a function of the ambient CO₂ concentration. The two parameters of this function are derived from observations and are not based on an assumption of any specific mechanism. Thus, this parametrization is purely empirical. The second parametrization is based on fractionation models for microalgae. It is supported by several laboratory experiments. Here the fractionation, _P, depends on the CO₂ concentration in seawater and on the (instantaneous) growth rates, μ_i, of the phytoplankton. In the Atlantic Ocean, where most field data are available, both parametrizations reproduce the latitudinal variability of the mean δ¹³C_POC distribution. The interhemispheric asymmetry of δ¹³C_POC can mostly be attributed to the interhemispheric asymmetry of CO₂ concentration in the water. However, the strong seasonal variations of δ¹³C_POC as reported by several authors, can only be explained by a growth rate-dependent fractionation, which reflects variations in the cellular carbon demand.