Description: This contribution presents the detailed responses to the peer-review of Froese et al. (2019) “Estimating stock status from relative abundance and resilience” (ICES J. Mar. Sci. 2019) which outlined a method called “AMSY” for inferring biomass trends for stocks for which only catch-per-unit-effort and limited ancillary (‘priors’) data are available. The responses emphasize that the required priors are legitimate and straightforward to obtain, thus, making AMSY a method of choice in data-sparse situations. This is also a good example of the role of peer-review in validating and improving science.

Description: The tight program of scientific research cruises usually does not leave enough time for thorough tests of new research equipment and their system components, nor for extensive pilot and handling training. For this reason, ship time was requested for sea trials of two types of autonomous (not tethered) underwater vehicles owned by GEOMAR, the manned 400-meter submersible JAGO and the Hover-AUVs ANTON and LUISE, type Girona500. The aim was to test several technical and operational aspects with both vehicles at locations with differently structured terrain (from flat ground to steep rocky slopes) and to water depths of up to 500 meters. The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily were chosen as test area. The volcanic islands offer sheltered sea conditions at their leeway, and bottom currents are usually weak or absent. Rocky and steep slopes are located in short distances to areas with flat underwater topography, providing ideal test conditions.

Description: The Taputapuatea marae of Ra'iatea is an emblematic landmark known throughout the world and sacred place for the Ma'ohi of Eastern Polynesia and the centre of a vast political- religious-cultural network in the Polynesian triangle. The erected stones constituting the ahu have been described as "limestone slabs" without precision by previous authors. These are in fact microatolls: corals (Porites) living in very shallow water and developing laterally, with a growth in height being limited by the lowest tide at the time of growth. A total of 38 samples were U/Th dated, of which 19 microatolls result in ages between 3 and 5 millennia. These are fossil microatolls that existed at a Holocene sea level of 0.80 m higher than today, when the Polynesians had not yet arrived. Other samples (molluscs, coral filling blocks) date back to the construction of the marae during the 17th-18th centuries. We hypothesize that the erected microatolls of the ahu were collected by Polynesians at the site and that others are still underground. Le marae Taputapuatea de Ra’iatea est un site emblématique mondialement considéré et un lieu sacré pour les Ma’ohi de la Polynésie orientale et le centre d’un vaste réseau politico-religieux-culturel du triangle polynésien. Les pierres érigées constituant l’ahu avaient été nommées « dalles calcaire » sans autre précision par les auteurs précédents. Ce sont des microatolls : coraux (Porites) vivant dans des eaux très peu profondes et se développant latéralement, la croissance en hauteur étant limitée par le bas niveau de la mer. Un total de 38 échantillons ont été datés (U/Th) sur 19 microatolls, donnant des âges de 3 et 5 millénaires. Il s’agit de microatolls fossiles dont l’existence remonte à un niveau de la mer Holocène de 0,80 m plus élevé qu’aujourd’hui, époque où les Polynésiens étaient absents. D’autres datations (mollusques, blocs de remplissage de corail) datent la construction du marae des xviie-xviiie siècles. Nous émettons l’hypothèse que les microatolls fossiles érigés de l’ahu ont été collectés par des Polynésiens sur le site et que d’autres sont toujours sous terre.

Description: The aim of this deliverable is to establish a strategy for the proper exploitation and dissemination of the results obtained in OceanNETs. We develop guidelines for knowledge management and protection as well as dissemination goals and also identify the target audiences and define the relevant communication channels and tools.

Description: The warming of our planet is changing the Arctic dramatically. The area covered by sea-ice is shrinking and the ice that is left is younger and thinner. We took part in an expedition to the Arctic, to study how these changes affect organisms living in and under the ice. Following this expedition, we found that storms can more easily break the thinner ice. Storms form cracks in the sea ice, allowing sunlight to pass into the water below, which makes algal growth possible. Algae are microscopic “plants” that grow in water or sea ice. Storms also brought thick heavy snow, which pushed the ice surface below the water. This flooded the snow and created slush. We discovered that this slush is another good habitat for algae. If Arctic sea ice continues to thin, and storms become more common, we expect that these algal habitats will become more important in the future.

Description: Diatoms are major primary producers in polar environments where they can actively grow under extremely variable conditions. Integrative modeling using a genome-scale model (GSM) is a powerful approach to decipher the complex interactions between components of diatom metabolism and can provide insights into metabolic mechanisms underlying their evolutionary success in polar ecosystems. We developed the first GSM for a polar diatom, Fragilariopsis cylindrus, which enabled us to study its metabolic robustness using sensitivity analysis. We find that the predicted growth rate was robust to changes in all model parameters (i.e., cell biochemical composition) except the carbon uptake rate. Constraints on total cellular carbon buffer the effect of changes in the input parameters on reaction fluxes and growth rate. We also show that single reaction deletion of 20% to 32% of active (nonzero flux) reactions and single gene deletion of 44% to 55% of genes associated with active reactions affected the growth rate, as well as the production fluxes of total protein, lipid, carbohydrate, DNA, RNA, and pigments by less than 1%, which was due to the activation of compensatory reactions (e.g., analogous enzymes and alternative pathways) with more highly connected metabolites involved in the reactions that were robust to deletion. Interestingly, including highly divergent alleles unique for F. cylindrus increased its metabolic robustness to cellular perturbations even more. Overall, our results underscore the high robustness of metabolism in F. cylindrus, a feature that likely helps to maintain cell homeostasis under polar conditions.

Description: Nitrogen fixers, or diazotrophs, play a key role in the carbon and nitrogen cycle of the world oceans, but the controlling mechanisms are not comprehensively understood yet. The present study compares two paradigms on the ecological niche of diazotrophs in an Earth System Model (ESM). In our standard model configuration, which is representative for most of the state-of-the-art pelagic ecosystem models, diazotrophs take advantage of zooplankton featuring a lower food preference for diazotrophs than for ordinary phytoplankton. We compare this paradigm with the idea that diazotrophs are more competitive under oligotrophic conditions, characterized by low (dissolved, particulate, organic and inorganic) phosphorous availability. Both paradigms are supported by observational evidence and lead to a similar good agreement to the most recent and advanced observation-based nitrogen fixation estimate in our ESM framework. Further, we illustrate that the similarity between the two paradigms breaks in a RCP 8.5 anthropogenic emission scenario. We conclude that a more advanced understanding of the ecological niche of diazotrophs is mandatory for assessing the cycling of essential nutrients, especially under changing environmental conditions. Our results call for more in-situ measurements of cyanobacteria biomass if major controls of nitrogen fixation in the oceans are to be dissected.

Description: International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 385 drilled organic-rich sediments with sill intrusions on the flanking regions and in the northern axial graben in Guaymas Basin, a young marginal rift basin in the Gulf of California. Guaymas Basin is characterized by a widely distributed, intense heat flow and widespread off-axis magmatism expressed by a dense network of sill intrusions across the flanking regions, which is in contrast to classical mid-ocean ridge spreading centers. The numerous off-axis sills provide multiple transient heat sources that mobilize buried sedimentary carbon, in part as methane and other hydrocarbons, and drive hydrothermal circulation. The resulting thermal and geochemical gradients shape abundance, composition, and activity of the deep subsurface biosphere of the basin. Drill sites extend over the flanking regions of Guaymas Basin, covering a distance of ~81 km from the from the northwest to the southeast. Adjacent Sites U1545 and U1546 recovered the oldest and thickest sediment successions (to ~540 meters below seafloor [mbsf]; equivalent to the core depth below seafloor, Method A [CSF-A] scale), one with a thin sill (a few meters in thickness) near the drilled bottom (Site U1545), and one with a massive, deeply buried sill (~356–430 mbsf) that chemically and physically affects the surrounding sediments (Site U1546). Sites U1547 and U1548, located in the central part of the northern Guaymas Basin segment, were drilled to investigate a 600 m wide circular mound (bathymetric high) and its periphery. The dome-like structure is outlined by a ring of active vent sites called Ringvent. It is underlain by a remarkably thick sill at shallow depth (Site U1547). Hydrothermal gradients steepen at the Ringvent periphery (Holes U1548A–U1548C), which in turn shifts the zones of authigenic carbonate precipitation and of highest microbial cell abundance toward shallower depths. The Ringvent sill was drilled several times and yielded remarkably diverse igneous rock textures, sediment–sill interfaces, and hydrothermal alteration, reflected by various secondary minerals in veins and vesicles. Thus, the Ringvent sill became the target of an integrated sampling and interdisciplinary research effort that included geological, geochemical, and microbiological specialties. The thermal, lithologic, geochemical, and microbiological contrasts between the two deep northwestern sites (U1545 and U1546) and the Ringvent sites (U1547 and U1548) form the scientific centerpiece of the expedition. These observations are supplemented by results from sites that represent attenuated cold seepage conditions in the central basin (Site U1549), complex and disturbed sediments overlying sills in the northern axial trough (Site U1550), terrigenous sedimentation events on the southeastern flanking regions (Site U1551), and hydrate occurrence in shallow sediments proximal to the Sonora margin (Site U1552). The scientific outcomes of Expedition 385 will (1) revise long-held assumptions about the role of sill emplacement in subsurface carbon mobilization versus carbon retention, (2) comprehensively examine the subsurface biosphere of Guaymas Basin and its responses and adaptations to hydrothermal conditions, (3) redefine hydrothermal controls of authigenic mineral formation in sediments, and (4) yield new insights into many geochemical and geophysical aspects of both architecture and sill–sediment interaction in a nascent spreading center. The generally high quality and high degree of completeness of the shipboard datasets present opportunities for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborations during shore-based studies. In comparison to Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 64 to Guaymas Basin in 1979, sophisticated drilling strategies (for example, the advanced piston corer [APC] and half-length APC systems) and numerous analytical innovations have greatly improved sample recovery and scientific yield, particularly in the areas of organic geochemistry and microbiology. For example, microbial genomics did not exist 40 y ago. However, these technical refinements do not change the fact that Expedition 385 will in many respects build on the foundations laid by Leg 64 for understanding Guaymas Basin, regardless of whether adjustments are required in the near future.

Description: This contribution suggests that the well-documented genetic selection for smaller fish that is the result of decades of sustained, intensive fishing also selects for “skittish” fish with a relatively high metabolic rate. However, skittish fish are highly susceptible to the higher temperature likely to prevail in the next decades in fresh and marine waters, which should contribute to making fisheries more susceptible to the effects of global warming. We submitted a piece to this effect to a leading fisheries/marine science journal, but for reasons that are mentioned in an appendix, we did not agree to having it published along with a contrarian piece. We present here, instead, the article as originally submitted, along with an appendix with our response to the original reviewers’ comments.