The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) 4-dimensional variational data assimilation systems: Part II - Performance and application to the California Current System

The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) 4-dimensional variational (4D-Var) data assimilation systems have been systematically applied to the mesoscale circulation environment of the California Current to demonstrate the performance and practical utility of the various components of ROMS 4D-Var. In particular, we present a comparison of three approaches to 4D-Var, namely: the primal formulation of the incremental strong constraint approach; the dual formulation “physical-space statistical analysis system”; and the dual formulation indirect representer approach. In agreement with theoretical considerations all three approaches converge to the same ocean circulation estimate when using the same observations and prior information. However, the rate of convergence of the dual formulation was found to be inferior to that of the primal formulation. Other aspects of the 4D-Var performance that relate to the use of multiple outer-loops, preconditioning, and the weak constraint are also explored. A systematic evaluation of the impact of the various components of the 4D-Var control vector (i.e. the initial conditions, surface forcing and open boundary conditions) is also presented. It is shown that correcting for uncertainties in the model initial conditions exerts the largest influence on the ability of the model to fit the available observations. Various important diagnostics of 4D-Var are also examined, including estimates of the posterior error, the information content of the observation array, and innovation-based consistency checks on the prior error assumptions. Using these diagnostic tools, we find that more than 90% of the observations assimilated into the model provide redundant information. This is a symptom of the large percentage of satellite data that are used and to some extent the nature of the data processing employed. This is the second in a series of three papers describing the ROMS 4D-Var systems.     

Grazing suppression of dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) accumulation in iron-fertilised, sub-Antarctic waters

The impact of in situ iron fertilisation on the production of particulate dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSPp) and its breakdown product dimethyl sulphide (DMS) was monitored during the SOLAS air-sea gas exchange experiment (SAGE). The experiment was conducted in the high nitrate, low chlorophyll (HNLC) waters of the sub-Antarctic Southern Ocean (46.7°S 172.5°E) to the south-east of New Zealand, during March-April, 2004. In addition to monitoring net changes in the standing stocks of DMSPp and DMS, a series of dilution experiments were used to determine the DMSPp production and consumption rates in relation to increased iron availability. In contrast to previous experiments in the Southern Ocean, DMS concentrations decreased over the course of the 15-d iron-fertilisation experiment, from an integrated volume-specific concentration in the mixed layer on day 0 of 0.78 nM (measured values 0.65-0.91 nM) to 0.46 nM (measured values 0.42-0.47 nM) by day 15, in parallel with the surrounding waters. DMSPp, chlorophyll a and the abundance of photosynthetic picoeukaryotes exhibited indiscernible or only moderate increases in response to the raised iron availability, despite an obvious physiological response by the phytoplankton. High specific growth rates of DMSPp, equivalent to 0.8-1.2 doublings d⁻¹, occurred at the simulated 60% light level of the dilution experiments. Despite the high production rates, DMSPp accumulation was suppressed in part by microzooplankton grazers who consumed between 61% d⁻¹ and 126% d⁻¹ of the DMSPp production. Temporal trends in the rates of production and consumption illustrated a close coupling between the DMSP-producing phytoplankton and their microzooplankton grazers. Similar grazing and production rates were observed for the eukaryotic picophytoplankton that dominated the phytoplankton biomass, partial evidence that picoeukaryotes contributed a substantial proportion of the DMSP synthesis. These rates for DMSPp and picoeukaryotes were considerably higher than for chlorophyll a, indicating higher cycling rates of the DMSP-producing taxa than for the bulk phytoplankton community. When compared to the total phytoplankton community, there was no evidence of selection against the DMSP-containing phytoplankton by the microzooplankton grazers; the opposite appeared to be the case. SAGE demonstrated that increased iron availability in the HNLC waters of the Southern Ocean does not invariably lead to enhanced DMS sea-air flux. The potential suppression of DMSPp accumulation by grazers needs to be taken into account in future attempts to elevate DMS emission through in situ iron fertilisation and in understanding the hypothesised link between levels of Aeolian iron deposition in the Southern Ocean, DMS emission and global albedo.     

Altered feeding habits and strategies of a benthic forage fish (Fundulus heteroclitus) in chronically polluted tidal salt marshes

Responses in feeding ecology of a benthic forage fish, mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus), to altered prey resources were investigated in chronically polluted salt marshes (the Arthur Kill-AK, New York, USA). The diet niche breadth of the AK populations of mummichogs was significantly lower than that of the reference population, reflecting reduced benthic macroinfaunal species diversity. Most of the AK populations also had 2-3 times less food in their gut than the reference population. This disparity in gut fullness among the populations appeared to be partly due to ingested prey size shifts; some of the AK populations ingested fewer large prey than the reference population. Furthermore, benthic assemblages were strongly associated with sediment-associated mercury; gut fullness of the AK populations also significantly decreased with increasing mercury body burdens. These results indicate that chronic pollution may have directly (chemical bioaccumulation) and indirectly (reduced prey availability) altered the feeding ecology of mummichogs.     

Melting relationships in CaO-CO2 and MgO-CO2 to 36 kilobars with comments on CO2 in the mantle

The melting curves of CaCO₃ and MgCO₃ have been extended to pressures of 36 kb by experiments in piston-cylinder apparatus. At 30 kb, the melting temperatures of calcite and magnesite are 1610°C and 1585°C, respectively. New data for the magnesite dissociation reaction permit the location of an invariant point for the assemblage magnesite + periclase + liquid + vapor near 26 kb-1550°C. New data are also presented for the calcite-aragonite transition at 800°C, 950°C and 1100°C. At pressures above 36–50 kb, calcite and magnesite melt at temperatures lower than the solidus of dry mantle peridotite. Natural and experimental evidence suggests that carbon dioxide in the Earth's mantle could be present in a variety of forms: (a) a free vapor phase, (b) vapor dissolved in silicate magma, (c) crystalline carbonate, (d) carbonatite liquid, (e) carbon-bearing silicate analogs, or (f) carbonato-silicates (such as scapolite, spurrite, tilleyite, and related compounds).     

Diatoms and aquatic palynomorphs in surface sediments of the White Sea bays as indicators of sedimentation in marginal filters of rivers

Diatom algae, aquatic palynomorphs, and the grain-size of surface sediments from bays of the White Sea were investigated in a program dedicated to the study of marginal filters (MF) in the Severnaya Dvina, Onega, and Kem rivers. Three microalgal assemblages are established in surface sediments, which replace each other successively with distance from river mouths and are characterized by a gradual decrease in a share of freshwater species of diatoms and Chlorophyceae algae, significantly varying concentrations of marine diatoms and dinocysts due to changes in water salinity, grain-size composition of sediments, quantitative distribution of suspended particulate matter (SPM), and water productivity at different marginal filter stages.     

Seasonal Dynamics of Microbial Processes in Bottom Sediments of the Sevastopol Coastal Area

Oceanology - A seasonal study of microbial methane oxidation (MO) and sulfate reduction (SR) processes in bottom sediments was carried out at five stations in the estuarian Sevastopol coastal area,...     

Experimental Studies of Aerosols in the Atmosphere of Semiarid Landscapes of Kalmykia: 1. Microphysical Parameters and Mass Concentration of Aerosol Particles

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - This paper summarizes the results of long-term (2004–2016) comprehensive experimental studies of microphysical parameters and the mass...     

Development of a Software Package for Environmental Risk Assessment Based on Materials of Repeated Remote Surveys

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - This paper presents the development of a model version of a software package for analyzing the dynamics of dangerous exogenous processes in view of the...