Predicting the optical properties of the West Florida Shelf: resolving the potential impacts of a terrestrial boundary condition on the distribution of colored dissolved and particulate matter

Predicting the distribution of Inherent Optical Properties (IOPs) in the water column requires predicting the physical, chemical, biological, and optical interactions in a common framework that facilitates feedback responses. This work focuses on the development of ecological and optical interaction equations embedded in a 2D hindcast model of the shallow water optical properties on the West Florida Shelf (WFS) during late summer/fall of 1998. This 2D simulation of the WFS includes one case with a Loop Current intrusion above the 40-m isobath and one with the Loop Current intrusion in addition to a periodic terrestrial nutrient supply below the 10-m isobath. The ecological and optical interaction equations are an expansion of a previously developed model for open ocean conditions (Bissett, W.P., Carder, K.L., Walsh, J.J., Dieterle, D.A., 1999a. Carbon cycling in the upper waters of the Sargasso Sea: II. Numerical simulation of apparent and inherent optical properties. Deep-Sea Research, Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 46 (2), 271–317; Bissett, W.P., Walsh, J.J., Dieterle, D.A., Carder, K.L., 1999b. Carbon cycling in the upperwaters of the Sargasso Sea: I. Numerical simulation of differential carbon and nitrogen fluxes. Deep-Sea Research, Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 46 (2), 205–269). The expansion includes an increase in the number of elemental pools to include silica, phosphorus, and iron, an increase in the number of phytoplankton functional groups, and a redevelopment of the Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) and Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) interaction equations. It was determined from this simulation that while the Loop Current alone was able to predict the water column conditions present during the summer, the Loop Current alone was not enough to simulate the magnitude of optical constituents present in the fall of 1998 when compared to satellite imagery. Simulating terrestrial inorganic and organic nutrients and CDOM pulses coinciding with significant meteorological events and high freshwater pulses released from the major rivers feeding the WFS were required to accurately predict the distribution and scale of the inherent optical properties at the surface during the fall months. Modeling the in situ light field for phytoplankton growth and community competition requires addressing the CDOM optical constituent explicitly. The majority of the annually modeled CDOM on WFS was created via in situ production; however, it was also rapidly removed via advection and photochemical destruction. A pulse of terrestrial nutrient and organic color was required to simulate the dramatic changes in surface color seen in satellite imagery on the WFS. The dynamics of the biogeochemical portion of the simulation demonstrate the importance of nonstoichiometric supplies of terrestrial nutrients on the WFS to the prediction of nutrient and CDOM fluxes.     

Paleontology,sedimentology and paleoenvironment of a new fossiliferous locality of the Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation,Chubut Province,Argentina

A new Late Jurassic assemblage of “conchostracans”, ostracods, bivalves and caddisfly cases from the locality “Estancia La Sin Rumbo”, Chubut Province (Patagonia, Argentina) is recorded. The fossils occur in the upper part of an outcropping 45 m thick volcaniclastic lacustrine sequence of yellowish tuffs and tuffites of the Puesto Almada Member, which is the upper member of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation with U/Pb age of 161 ± 3 Ma. The sequence represents one sedimentary cycle composed of a (lower) hemicycle of expansion and a (higher) hemicycle of contraction of the water body. The invertebrates lived in small freshwater bodies during the periods of expansion of the lake. The occurrence of a great number of small spinicaudatans, associated with mud-cracks, is evidence of dry climatic conditions and suggests several local mortality events. The spinicaudatan record of the fushunograptid–orthestheriid (component of the Eosestheriopsis dianzhongensis fauna) and the presence of Congestheriella rauhuti Gallego and Shen, suggest a Late Jurassic (Oxfordian to Tithonian) age. Caddisfly cases are recorded for the first time in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin.     

Relationships between primary productivity and bottom‐water oxygenation off northwest Africa during the last deglaciation

The upwelling region off northwest Africa is one of the most productive regions in the world ocean. This study details the response of surface‐ and deep‐water environments off Mauritania, northwest Africa, to the rapid climate events of the last deglaciation, especially the Bølling–Allerød (15.5–13.5 ka BP) and Younger Dryas (13.5–11.5 ka BP). A high accumulation rate gravity core GeoB7926‐2, recovered at ～20° N, 18° W, was analysed for the grain size distribution of the terrigenous sediment fraction, the organic carbon content, diatom and benthic foraminifera communities. Humid conditions were observed during the Bølling–Allerød with a high contribution of fluvial sediment input. During the Younger Dryas intensified trade winds caused a larger sediment input of aeolian dust from the Sahara and more intense upwelling with higher primary productivity, as indicated by high diatom concentrations. The abrupt and large increase of organic matter caused low oxygen conditions at the sea floor, reflected by the poor benthic foraminiferal fauna and the dominance of the low‐oxygen‐tolerant foraminiferal species Bulimina exilis. This is surprising since low‐oxygen conditions have not been recorded during modern times at the sea floor in this region, despite present‐day intensive upwelling and high primary productivity. After the Younger Dryas, more humid conditions returned, diatom abundance decreased and B. exilis was replaced by typical deep‐sea species as found in the region today, indicating the return of more oxygenated conditions at the sea floor. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.