Scientists have little understanding of the role fishes play in the global carbon cycle linked to climate change, but a Rutgers-led study found that carbon in feces, respiration and other excretions from fishes – roughly 1.65 billion tons annually – make up about 16 percent of the total carbon that sinks below the ocean’s upper layers. Better data on this key part of the Earth’s biological pump will help scientists understand the impact of climate change and seafood harvesting on the role of fishes in carbon flux, according to the study – the first of its kind – in the journal Limnology and Oceanography. Carbon flux means the movement of carbon in the ocean, including from the surface to the deep sea – the focus of this study. “Our study is the first to review the impact that fishes have on carbon flux,” said lead author Grace K. Saba, an assistant professor in the Center for Ocean Observing Leadership in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. “Our estimate of the contribution by fish – about 16 percent – includes a large uncertainty, and scientists can improve it with future research. Forms of carbon from fish in ocean waters where sunlight penetrates – up to about 650 feet deep – include sinking fecal pellets, inorganic carbon particles (calcium carbonate minerals), dissolved organic carbon and respired carbon dioxide.” The ocean plays a vital role in the Earth’s carbon cycle by exchanging carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas linked to global warming and climate change, with the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean is taken up by phytoplankton (algae), small single-celled plants at the ocean’s surface. Through an important process called the biological pump, this organic carbon can go from the surface to ocean depths when algal material or fecal pellets from fishes and other organisms sink. The daily migration of fishes to and from the depths also contributes organic carbon particles, along with excreted and respired material. Another factor is mixing of ocean waters. “Carbon that makes its way below the sunlit layer becomes sequestered, or stored, in the ocean for hundreds of years or more, depending on the depth and location where organic carbon is exported,” Saba said. “This natural process results in a sink that acts to balance the sources of carbon dioxide.” Scientists at many institutions contributed to the study, which is a product of the Fish Carbon Working Group led by Saba since 2018 and funded by the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry program, which is supported by the National Science Foundation and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Original Article at Rutgers Today
Despite the current global COVID pandemic, RUCOOL is one of the few groups that has been able to maintain presence in in Antarctica. Rachael Young, a former Rutgers undergraduate, the lead for science operations for the National Science Foundation’s Palmer Station Long Term Ecological Research (PAL-LTER) program at Palmer Station. Since 1991, the 30-year-old PAL-LTER time series has studied how warming atmospheres and oceans along the Western Antarctic Peninsula is altering the ecosystem. The Schofield lab leads the phytoplankton component, capturing the seasonal and interannual variability of the bio-optical and physical water column properties and of the phytoplankton abundance, size, species, and photosynthetic efficiency using fluorometry, HPLC analysis, FIRe fluorometry, and an Imaging Flow Cytobot, a CTD, and radiometers. With only four LTER scientists on station this year (usually there are 12), the Palmer summer science season has still been incredibly productive. In addition to weekly phytoplankton water sampling – which captured a phytoplankton bloom in early January – Rachael has been hard at work collaborating with co-LTER member Dan Lowenstein, of the Ben Van Mooy lab from WHOI, and other science teams to help ensure successful science in this limited research season. Acoustic survey transects and net tows are being performed to map zooplankton abundance. The first net tows of the season showed the dominant zooplankton were two krill species, Euphausia superba and Thysanoessa macura. Predator surveys have been conducted and incubation experiments performed as well. Additionally, Codar HF-Radar and weather station maintenance was completed at the Joubin Islands along with a successful retrieval of a mooring for Josh Kohut’s Swarm project. Swarm is studying how physical ocean circulation drives the ecology of penguin colonies in the Palmer region. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, station population and operations are heavily reduced this year but that isn’t holding back the exciting science! To learn more about the PAL-LTER project, visit http://pal.lternet.edu/.
On Thursday, January 28, RUCOOL co-hosted (with Rutgers Cooperative Extension) its 2021 Partners in Science Workshop: Identifying Ecological Metrics and Sampling Strategies for Baseline Monitoring During Offshore Wind Development. The workshop, sponsored by the NJ Board of Public Utilities, virtually brought together over 80 individuals representing federal and state agencies, the commercial and recreational fishing industries, the offshore wind industry, environmental groups, and academics throughout the region. It aimed at serving as a follow up to the 2019 workshop on the Mid-Atlantic Bight Cold Pool, by advancing the vital discussion of how best to conduct baseline and continuous monitoring studies of the environment (physical, chemical, and biological) as offshore wind is developed along the U.S. East Coast. Stay tuned for a complete report on the workshop in the coming weeks! In the meantime, feel free to review the Final Report from the 2019 workshop, along with the agenda from this year’s workshop. photo is “Courtesy of Deepwater Wind”
A decade of research has shown that numerical weather prediction (NWP)-modeled wind speeds can be highly sensitive to the inputs and setups within the NWP model. For wind resource characterization applications, this sensitivity is often addressed by constructing a range of setups and selecting the one that best validates against observations. However, this approach is not possible in areas that lack high-quality hub height observations, especially offshore wind areas. In such cases, techniques to quantify and disseminate confidence in NWP-modeled wind speeds in the absence of observations are needed. This study used an ensemble modeling approach with 24 setups of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to better estimate wind variability, and quantify the role of various modeling components (such as atmospheric input forcing and sea surface temperature input) to the overall ensemble variability. The full study is available via open access through Wiley.
On January 26-28, NOAA hosted a workshop entitled “Integrating Ocean Observations to Improve NOAA’s Hurricane Intensity Forecasts”. RUCOOL/DMCS Faculty, staff and graduate students participated throughout the workshop, including presentations by John Wilkin on the “Current State and Future Plans of Modeling and Data Assimilation Efforts for Hurricane Intensity Forecast: ROMS ocean model and DA” and Scott Glenn on “Observing the Upper Ocean During Hurricanes: The Value of Coordinated Ocean Observations,” in a session moderated by Travis Miles. The overarching goal for the 150+ attendees was to develop a framework for coordinated ocean observing in support of hurricane intensity science and forecasting. Despite marked improvements in tropical cyclone track forecasts, uncertainties in numerical models have resulted in only marginal improvements in tropical cyclone intensity forecasts over the past two decades. Research indicates that insufficient observations of upper ocean conditions are a contributing factor to our inability to improve intensity forecasts. Improving NOAA’s hurricane intensity forecasting will require an integrated ocean observing system with both sustained and targeted (i.e., rapidly deployed) ocean observations that can in turn be used to initialize ocean-atmosphere coupled tropical cyclone forecast models. The workshop focused on upper ocean and air-sea interface observing, analysis, and modeling by developing a framework for coordinated ocean observing in support of hurricane intensity science and forecasting. The workshop brought together leaders in the observational and modeling communities to discuss ways to improve integration, coordination, and communication across NOAA ocean observing and modeling activities as it relates to hurricane intensity forecasting.
Building arrays of offshore wind turbines off the Mid-Atlantic states could have effects on the annual cycle of ocean water temperatures that are critical to the region’s fish and shellfish habitat, a new study suggests. The paper from the Science Center for Marine Fisheries surveys years of research around northern European offshore wind installations, particularly in the North Sea. Travis Miles, Sarah Murphy, Josh Kohut, Sarah Bosetti, and Daphne Munroe, all of Rutgers University, reviewed existing literature on how three decades of wind farm construction has affected ocean environments in Europe. The group looked at earlier findings about how the turbine structures may affect the local environment, including questions about how turbine foundations may interact with tidal currents, temperatures and sediments in the water column, and how the turbines’ extraction of energy from wind may affect the surface of the ocean around them. Of particular interest is the so-called “cold pool,” the seasonal stratification of cooler water close to the bottom, peaking in summer and turning over in fall and spring. It’s important to the survival of key, commercially important species including scallops and surf clams, and is a driver of primary production and nutrients for the ocean food web. The complete article is available at National Fisherman.
As of the draft of this document, the US east coast has 1.7 million acres of federal bottom under lease for development of wind energy installations, with plans for more than 1,500 foundations to be placed. The scale of the impact of these wind farms has the potential to alter the unique and delicate oceanographic conditions along the expansive Atlantic continental shelf, a region characterized by a strong seasonal thermocline that overliescoldbottom water, known as the “Cold Pool.”Strong seasonal stratification traps cold (typically less than 10°C) water abovethe ocean bottom sustaining a boreal fauna whose range extends farther south than would be anticipated by latitude. This boreal fauna represents vast fisheries, including the most lucrative shellfish fisheries in the U.S. In this report, we review the existing literature and research pertaining to the ways in which offshore wind farms mayalter processes that establish, maintain,and degrade stratification associated with the Cold Pool through vertical mixing in this seasonally dynamicsystem. Changes in stratification could have important consequences in Cold Poolset-up and degradation, a process fundamental to the high fishery productivity of the region. Full article here SCEMFIS: The Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool video here