Description: The intraplate Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount Chain has long been considered a hotspot track generated by the motion of the Pacific plate over a deep mantle plume, and an ideal feature therefore for studies of volcanic structure, magma supply, plume-crust interaction, flexural loading, and upper mantle rheology. Despite their importance as a major component of the chain, the Emperor Seamounts have been relatively little studied. In this paper, we present the results of an active-source wide-angle reflection and refraction experiment conducted along an ocean-bottom-seismograph (OBS) line oriented perpendicular to the seamount chain, crossing Jimmu guyot. The tomographic P wave velocity model, using ∼20,000 travel times from 26 OBSs, suggests that there is a high-velocity (〉6.0 km/s) intrusive core within the edifice, and the extrusive-to-intrusive ratio is estimated to be ∼2.5, indicating that Jimmu was built mainly by extrusive processes. The total volume for magmatic material above the top of the oceanic crust is ∼5.3 × 104 km3, and the related volume flux is ∼0.96 m3/s during the formation of Jimmu. Under volcanic loading, the ∼5.3-km-thick oceanic crust is depressed by ∼3.8 km over a broad region. Using the standard relationships between Vp and density, the velocity model is verified by gravity modeling, and plate flexure modeling indicates an effective elastic thickness (Te) of ∼14 km. Finally, we find no evidence for large-scale magmatic underplating beneath the pre-existing crust.

Description: Freshwater input from Greenland ice sheet melt has been increasing in the past decades from warming temperatures. To identify the impacts from enhanced meltwater input into the subpolar North Atlantic from 1997 to 2021, we use output from two nearly identical simulations in the eddy-rich model VIKING20X (1/20°) only differing in the freshwater input from Greenland: one with realistic interannually varying runoff increasing in the early 2000s and the other with climatologically (1961–2000) continued runoff. The majority of the additional freshwater remains within the boundary current enhancing the density gradient toward the warm and salty interior waters yielding increased current velocities. The accelerated boundary current shows a tendency to enhanced, upstream shifted eddy shedding into the Labrador Sea interior. Further, the experiments allow to attribute higher stratification and shallower mixed layers southwest of Greenland and deeper mixed layers in the Irminger Sea, particularly in 2015–2018, to the runoff increase in the early 2000s. Key Points The West Greenland Current (WGC) freshens and cools with the observed recent increase in meltwater runoff from Greenland The density gradient across the boundary current intensifies, strengthening the WGC and increasing local eddy formation Enhanced meltwater runoff contributed to an eastward shift in deep convection towards the Irminger Sea (2015–2018) Plain Language Summary Global warming has accelerated the melting of the Greenland ice sheet over the past few decades resulting in enhanced freshwater input into the North Atlantic. The additional freshwater can potentially inhibit deep water formation and have future implications on ocean circulation. To determine the influence from Greenland melt, we compare two high-resolution model experiments all with the same forcing but differing input of Greenland freshwater fluxes from 1997 to 2021. We find that in the experiment with realistically increasing Greenland meltwater, the water becomes fresher and cooler along the continental shelf and boundary of the subpolar gyre. The density difference between the shelf and interior increases with more freshwater, resulting in faster West Greenland Current speeds and enhanced eddy formation. Deeper mixed layers are found in the eastern Irminger Sea, particularly in 2015–2018. From 2009 to 2013, there were shallower mixed layers in the Labrador Sea where less Greenland meltwater was mixed downwards and spread eastward, causing mixed layers to deepen in the Irminger Sea.

Description: Lake Tahoe is an ultra-oligotrophic subalpine lake that is renowned for its clarity. The region experiences little cloud cover and is one of the most UV transparent lakes in the world. As such, it is an ideal environment to study the role of UV radiation in aquatic ecosystems. Long-term trends in Secchi depths showed that water transparency to visible light has decreased in recent decades, but limited data are available on the UV transparency of the lake. Here we examine how ultraviolet radiation varies relative to longer-wavelength photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 400-700 nm, visible wavelengths) horizontally along inshore-offshore transects in the lake and vertically within the water column as well as temporally throughout 2007. UV transparency was more variable than PAR transparency horizontally across the lake and throughout the year. Seasonal patterns of Secchi transparency differed from both UV and PAR, indicating that different substances may be responsible for controlling transparency to UV, PAR, and Secchi. In surface waters, UVA (380 nm) often attenuated more slowly than PAR, a pattern visible in only exceptionally transparent waters with very low dissolved organic carbon. On many sampling dates, UV transparency decreased progressively with depth suggesting surface photobleaching, reductions in particulate matter, increasing chlorophyll a, or some combination of these increased during summer months. Combining these patterns of UV transparency with data on visible light provides a more comprehensive understanding of ecosystem structure, function, and effects of environmental change in highly transparent alpine and subalpine lakes such as Tahoe.

Description: The seasonal and interannual variability of chlorophyll in the Gulf of Mexico open waters is studied using a three‐dimensional coupled physical‐biogeochemical model. A 5 years hindcast driven by realistic open‐boundary conditions, atmospheric forcings, and freshwater discharges from rivers is performed. The use of recent in situ observations allowed an in‐depth evaluation of the model nutrient and chlorophyll seasonal distributions, including the chlorophyll vertical structure. We find that different chlorophyll patterns of temporal variability coexist in the deep basin which thereby cannot be considered as a homogeneous region with respect to chlorophyll dynamics. A partitioning of the Gulf of Mexico open waters based on the winter chlorophyll concentration increase is then proposed. This partition is basically explained by the amount of nutrients injected into the euphotic layer which is highly constrained by the dynamic of the winter mixed layer. The seasonal and interannual variability appears to be affected by the variability of atmospheric fluxes and mesoscale dynamics (Loop Current eddies in particular). Finally, estimates of primary production in the deep basin are provided.

Description: During the SAMUM field campaign in southern Morocco in May and June 2006 density currents generated by evaporative cooling after convective precipitation were frequently observed at the Sahara side of the Atlas Mountain chain. The associated strong surface cold-air outflow during such events has been observed to lead to dust mobilization in the foothills. Here a regional model system is used to simulate a density current case on 3 June 2006 and the subsequent dust emission. The model studies are performed with different parameterization schemes for convection, and with different horizontal model grid resolutions to examine to which extent the model system can be used for reproducing dust emissions in this region. The effect of increasing the horizontal model grid resolution from 14 km to 2.8 km on the strength on the density currents and thus on dust emission is smaller than the differences due to different convection parameterization schemes in this case study. While the results in reproducing the observed density current at the Atlas Mountain varied with different convection parameterizations, the most realistic representation of the density current is obtained at 2.8 km grid resolution at which no parameterization of deep convection is needed.

Description: Submarine landslides pose a hazard to coastal communities and critical seafloor infrastructure, occurring on all of the world's continental margins, from coastal zones to hadal trenches. Offshore monitoring has been limited by the largely unpredictable occurrence of submarine landslides and the need to cover large regions. Recent subsea monitoring has provided new insights into the preconditioning and run-out of submarine landslides using active geophysical techniques. However, these tools measure a small spatial footprint and are power- and memory-intensive, thus limiting long-duration monitoring. Most landslide events remain unrecorded. In this chapter, we first show how passive acoustic and seismologic techniques can record acoustic emissions and ground motions created by terrestrial landslides. This terrestrial-focused research has catalyzed advances in characterizing submarine landslides using onshore and offshore networks of broadband seismometers, hydrophones, and geophones. We discuss new insights into submarine landslide preconditioning, timing, location, velocity, and down-slope evolution arising from these advances. Finally, we outline challenges, emphasizing the need to calibrate seismic and acoustic signals generated by submarine landslides. Passive seismic and acoustic sensing has a strong potential to enable more complete hazard catalogs to be built and open the door to emerging techniques (such as fiber-optic sensing) to fill key knowledge gaps.

Description: Micromonas is a unicellular marine green alga that thrives from tropical to polar ecosystems. We investigated the growth and cellular characteristics of acclimated mid-exponential phase Micromonas commoda RCC299 over multiple light levels and over the diel cycle (14:10 hour light:dark). We also exposed the light:dark acclimated M. commoda to experimental shifts from moderate to high light (HL), and to HL plus ultraviolet radiation (HL+UV), 4.5 hours into the light period. Cellular responses of this prasinophyte were quantified by flow cytometry and changes in gene expression by qPCR and RNA-seq. While proxies for chlorophyll a content and cell size exhibited similar diel variations in HL and controls, with progressive increases during day and decreases at night, both parameters sharply decreased after the HL+UV shift. Two distinct transcriptional responses were observed among chloroplast genes in the light shift experiments: i) expression of transcription and translation-related genes decreased over the time course, and this transition occurred earlier in treatments than controls; ii) expression of several photosystem I and II genes increased in HL relative to controls, as did the growth rate within the same diel period. However, expression of these genes decreased in HL+UV, likely as a photoprotective mechanism. RNA-seq also revealed two genes in the chloroplast genome, ycf2-like and ycf1-like, that had not previously been reported. The latter encodes the second largest chloroplast protein in Micromonas and has weak homology to plant Ycf1, an essential component of the plant protein translocon. Analysis of several nuclear genes showed that the expression of LHCSR2, which is involved in non-photochemical quenching, and five light-harvesting-like genes, increased 30 to >50-fold in HL+UV, but was largely unchanged in HL and controls. Under HL alone, a gene encoding a novel nitrite reductase fusion protein (NIRFU) increased, possibly reflecting enhanced N-assimilation under the 625 μmol photons m-2 s-1 supplied in the HL treatment. NIRFU's domain structure suggests it may have more efficient electron transfer than plant NIR proteins. Our analyses indicate that Micromonas can readily respond to abrupt environmental changes, such that strong photoinhibition was provoked by combined exposure to HL and UV, but a ca. 6-fold increase in light was stimulatory. © 2017 Cuvelier et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Description: The Amazon forests are one of the largest ecosystem carbon pools on Earth. Although more frequent and prolonged future droughts have been predicted, the impacts have remained largely uncertain, as most land surface models (LSMs) fail to capture the vegetation drought responses. In this study, the ability of the LSM JSBACH to simulate the drought responses of leaf area index (LAI) and leaf litter production in the Amazon forests is evaluated against artificial drought experiments. Based on the evaluation, improvements are implemented, including a dependency of leaf growth on leaf carbon allocation and a better representation of drought-dependent leaf shedding. The modified JSBACH is shown to capture the drought responses at two sites and across different regions of the basin. It is then coupled with an atmospheric model to simulate the carbon and biogeophysical feedbacks of drought under future climate. We separate the drought impacts into (a) the direct effect, resulting from drier soil and stomatal closure, which does not involve a change in canopy structure, and (b) the LAI effect, resulting from leaf shedding and involving canopy response. We show that the latter accounts for 35% of reduced land carbon uptake (9 ± 10 vs. 26 ± 7 g/m2/yr; mean ± 1 sd) and 12% of surface warming (0.09 ± 0.03 vs. 0.7 ± 0.07 K) during the late 21st century. A north-south dipole of precipitation change is found, which is largely attributable to the direct effect. The results highlight the importance of incorporating drought deciduousness of tropical rainforests in LSMs to better simulate land-atmosphere interactions in the future.

Description: The extent to which Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) benefit corals is contentious. On one hand, MPAs could enhance coral growth and survival through increases in herbivory within their borders; on the other, they are unlikely to prevent disturbances, such as terrestrial runoff, that originate outside their boundaries. We examined the effect of spatial protection and terrestrial sediment on the benthic composition of coral reefs in Saint Lucia. In 2011 (10 to 16 years after MPAs were created), we resurveyed 21 reefs that had been surveyed in 2001 and analyzed current benthic assemblages as well as changes in benthic cover over that decade in relation to protection status, terrestrial sediment influence (measured as the proportion of terrigenous material in reef-associated sediment) and depth. The cover of all benthic biotic components has changed significantly over the decade, including a decline in coral and increase in macroalgae. Protection status was not a significant predictor of either current benthic composition or changes in composition, but current cover and change in cover of several components were related to terrigenous content of sediment deposited recently. Sites with a higher proportion of terrigenous sediment had lower current coral cover, higher macroalgal cover and greater coral declines. Our results suggest that terrestrial sediment is an important factor in the recent degradation of coral reefs in Saint Lucia and that the current MPA network should be complemented by measures to reduce runoff from land.

Description: Temperature is important for optimization of rearing conditions in aquaculture, especially during the critical early life history stages of fish. Here, we experimentally investigated the impact of temperature (16, 18, 20, 22 and 24°C) on thermally induced phenotypic variability, from larval hatch to first-feeding, and the linked expression of targeted genes [heat shock proteins (hsp), growth hormone (gh) and insulin-like growth factors (igf)] associated to larval performance of European eel, Anguilla anguilla. Temperature effects on larval morphology and gene expression were investigated throughout early larval development (in real time from 0 to 18 days post hatch) and at specific developmental stages (hatch, jaw/teeth formation, and first-feeding). Results showed that hatch success, yolk utilization efficiency, survival, deformities, yolk utilization, and growth rates were all significantly affected by temperature. In real time, increasing temperature from 16 to 22°C accelerated larval development, while larval gene expression patterns (hsp70, hsp90, gh and igf-1) were delayed at cold temperatures (16°C) or accelerated at warm temperatures (20–22°C). All targeted genes (hsp70, hsp90, gh, igf-1, igf-2a, igf-2b) were differentially expressed during larval development. Moreover, expression of gh was highest at 16°C during the jaw/teeth formation, and the first-feeding developmental stages, while expression of hsp90 was highest at 22°C, suggesting thermal stress. Furthermore, 24°C was shown to be deleterious (resulting in 100% mortality), while 16°C and 22°C (~50 and 90% deformities respectively) represent the lower and upper thermal tolerance limits. In conclusion, the high survival, lowest incidence of deformities at hatch, high yolk utilization efficiency, high gh and low hsp expression, suggest 18°C as the optimal temperature for offspring of European eel. Furthermore, our results suggest that the still enigmatic early life history stages of European eel may inhabit the deeper layer of the Sargasso Sea and indicate vulnerability of this critically endangered species to increasing ocean temperature.