DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK THREE: 8-12 February 2016

For Your Information

• Aspects of ocean water chemistry and marine life considered -- If you would like more background information concerning how marine organisms evolved in the ocean with a relatively narrow range of chemical and physical characteristics, please read this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth.

Ocean in the News

• Eye on the tropics --- The weather across all the tropical ocean basins were relatively quiet during the last week as no organized tropical cyclones (low pressure systems such as tropical storms and hurricanes that form over tropical oceans) developed.
• New El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) webpage is unveiled -- Last week NOAA announced that a new El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) webpage had been launched at https://www.climate.gov/enso that will permit the public to obtain information on El Niño and La Niña events in one place. The latest updates and forecasts of these anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns will be available, along with information on the impacts of these events on the US and the globe. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
• Six community resilience grants worth $4.5 million are awarded -- During the past week NOAA's National Ocean Service announced that $4.5 million has been awarded in coastal resilience grants, designed to help coastal communities improve their resilience to events adversely affecting the communities , including extreme weather events, climate hazards, and changing ocean conditions. Building coastal resilience would involve using science-based solutions and collaborative partnerships. [NOAA News]
• Creation of US seafood traceability program proposed -- The National Ocean Council Committee to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud announced its proposal for creating a national seafood traceability program late last week. This proposal would represent a major step forward in combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, by aiming to trace the origins of imported seafood through the establishment of reporting and filing procedures for imported fish and fish products entering U.S. commerce. The proposed rule is open for a 60-day comment period. [NOAA News]
• NOAA Fisheries official comments on 40th anniversary of landmark fisheries law -- Richard Merrick, chief science advisor for NOAA Fisheries, delivered a message at the start of last week that highlighted the advancements made in fisheries science and management over the last 40 years as the result of the passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). [NOAA Fisheries News]
• Update on "commissioning phase" of Jason-3 -- Following the launch of the Jason-3 spacecraft onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 17 January 2016, scientists from NOAA and the French government space agency CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales) will be conducting a series of calibration and validation tests on all the systems and equipment onboard this spacecraft for the next six months before the official transition of satellite operations by CNES to NOAA. Once operational, Jason-3 will collect data that will be used to detect changes in global sea level, maintaining the 20-year legacy of the earlier Topex/Poseidon, and Jason satellites. [NOAA NESDIS News Archive]
• Warming ocean could cause major changes for Northeast fisheries -- NOAA marine scientists and their colleagues from other research agencies recently released the "Northeast Climate Vulnerability Assessment," the first multi-species assessment in a forthcoming series in the in the NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy designed to determine how vulnerable the nation's marine fish and invertebrate species are to climate change. This recent assessment involved an evaluation of 82 marine species in the Northeast region of the US, which were either listed or under consideration for listing on the federal Endangered Species Act. All species, which included commercial and recreational fish species, were categorized according to their vulnerability to climate change. [NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center News]
• Selecting suitable offshore wind energy sites -- An underwater survey is being conducted by a team of scientists off the North Carolina coast to determine the best places to establish future wind energy sites. This wind energy biological survey project involves a partnership between include NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences, and Geodynamics Group LLC. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
• Acoustic transmitters used to track endangered salmon in drought-stricken California -- Researchers with NOAA Fisheries and the California Department of Water Resources have surgically implanted tiny acoustic transmitters into the bellies of salmon smolts before release into California's Sacramento River in order to track these fish out to the ocean. The goal is to see how the endangered Chinook salmon would survive the long-term drought that has been plaguing California over the last several years. [NOAA Fisheries Feature Stories]
• Barnacles can help plastic debris transport more marine species across Pacific -- Researchers from the University of Florida have discovered that various marine animals are better able to inhabit smooth pieces of floating plastic debris that would then cross the Pacific Ocean if barnacles first become attached to the debris. Therefore, the plastic waste could provide abundant artificial oceanic 'rafts' that could allow foreign species to invade and compromise the biological diversity of natural coastlines around the Pacific basin. [University of Florida News]
• Global temperature forecast made for next five years -- The United Kingdom's Met Office (formerly the Meteorological Office) recently issued its 5-year global temperature forecast running from 2016 through 2020. Based on their model projections, the forecasters foresee a continuation in the upward trend in global temperatures, which would likely surpass those recorded during the warmest year of 2015. However, they note that areas of the North Atlantic Ocean and portions of the Southern Ocean may continue showing a cooling signature. [UK Met Office News]
• Clouds serve to play a large role in melting of Greenland Ice Sheet -- An atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues from Belgium have found that clouds are playing a larger role in the rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet than previously thought and this melting may be responsible for nearly one-third of the global sea-level rise. Their study, which included cloud observations over Greenland from NASA's CloudSat and CALIPSO satellites, indicates that clouds are causing the temperature of the Greenland Ice Sheet to rise by 2 to 3 degrees compared to cloudless skies and accounting for as much as 30 percent of the ice sheet melt. [University of Wisconsin-Madison News]
• An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA's National Weather Service, FAA and FEMA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAA/NWS Daily Briefing]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Concept of the Week: Sea Water Salinity and Carbon Dioxide

In view of the contemporary concern regarding global climate change, scientists are studying the various factors that govern the ocean's ability to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. Concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide are on the rise primarily because of the burning of fossil fuels (i.e., coal, oil, natural gas). Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas (an atmospheric gas that absorbs and radiates infrared radiation) so that higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide may be contributing to global warming. The ocean's role in regulating the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide depends on the temperature, salinity, and biological components of surface waters.

As noted in Chapter 3 of your textbook, gases are more soluble in cold seawater than warm seawater. Hence, changes in sea surface temperature affect the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide. As noted in Chapter 1 of your textbook, photosynthetic organisms take up carbon dioxide and release oxygen. And through cellular respiration, all organisms release carbon dioxide. What about the effects of changes in salinity on the ocean's uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide? Research from the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii provides some insight on this question.

Since the late 1980s, scientists have been recording ocean conditions at a site (dubbed ALOHA) about 100 km (62 mi) north of Oahu. In 2003, David M. Karl, a biogeochemist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, reported a decline in the rate at which surface ocean waters were absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In fact, in 2001, the rate of CO₂ uptake was only about 15% of what it was in 1989. Why the change in CO₂ uptake? In this region of the Pacific north of Hawaii, sea surface temperatures showed no significant change during the period of observation but precipitation decreased and evaporation increased. Less precipitation coupled with higher rates of evaporation caused the surface water salinity at ALOHA to increase by about 1%. Increasing salinity inhibits water's ability to absorb gases including carbon dioxide. Karl and his colleagues attribute 40% of the decline in the ocean's CO₂ uptake to the saltier waters. The balance of the decline may be due to changes in biological productivity or ocean mixing.

Concept of the Week: Questions

1. With rising sea surface temperatures, the rate of evaporation of sea water [(increases)(decreases)].
2. With increasing salinity and constant temperature, the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide that is taken up by ocean water [(increases)(decreases)].

Historical Events

• 8 February 2001...The log-carrying ship, Leo Forest, lost much of its cargo as over 2300 logs went overboard approximately 400 miles north of Adak, AK. The ship lost power in waves that were greater than 35 feet and the loss of the logs caused the ship to list 10 degrees to port (left) with the bow three feet down. Fortunately, the ship made safe passage to Dutch Harbor for repairs. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 9 February 1942...The French Liner Normandie, a 79,280-ton luxury ocean liner, burned and capsized in New York Harbor during its conversion to an Allied trip transport ship. (The History Channel)
• 10 February 1807...With the backing of President Thomas Jefferson, the US Coast Survey was authorized by Congress "to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States." The Coast Survey represents the oldest U.S. scientific organization to encourage commerce and to support a growing economy in a safe and efficient manner. (NOAA History)
• 10 February 1940...USCGC Bibb and Duane made the first transmissions as weather stations as part of the Atlantic Weather Patrol. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 10 February 2010....Cyclone Pat slammed The Cook Islands in the South Pacific with 125 mph winds, which destroyed about 80 percent of the island of Aitutaki. (National Weather Service files)
  
• 11 February 1809...The American inventor, Robert Fulton patented his steamboat, the Clermont, for the first time, although he had made the first successful steamboat trip up the Hudson River from New York City to Albany, NY in 1807. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science)
• 11 February 1862...The Secretary of the Navy directed the formation of an organization to evaluate new inventions and technical development, which eventually led to the National Academy of Science. (Naval Historical Center)
• 11 February 1971...The US and the USSR, along with other nations, signed the multilateral Seabed Treaty outlawing the emplacement of nuclear weapons (or "weapons of mass destruction") on the ocean floor in international waters, or beyond a 12-mile coastal zone. (Wikipedia)
• 12 February 1907...A collision of the steamer Larchmont and a large schooner, the Harris Knowlton, during a blizzard resulted in the deaths of 332 people. Only nine survivors were rescued. The incident occurred off Rhode Island's Block Island and was the worst disaster in New England maritime history. (RMS Titanic History)
• 12 February 1997...A combination of heavy surf and high winds contributed to the overturning of a U.S. Coast Guard motor life boat (MLB 44363) on a search and rescue mission when responding to a distress call from the sailing vessel Gale Runner in the stormy North Pacific Ocean off Washington State's Quillayute River Bar. Three of four crew members lost their lives in the first fatal sinking of this type of ship in its 35-year history. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (USCG Historian's Office)
• 13 February 1784...Ice floes blocked the Mississippi River at New Orleans, then passed into the Gulf of Mexico. The only other time this occurred was during the "Great Arctic Outbreak" of 1899. (David Ludlum)
• 13 February 1969...The National Transportation Safety Board issued its "Study of Recreational Boat Accidents, Boating Safety Programs, and Preventive Recommendations". (USCG Historian's Office)
• 13 February 1997...Ocean swells generated by a storm well to the northwest of the Hawaiian Islands generated surf with heights to 20 feet and some sets to 25 feet along the northern shores of the islands. A professional surfer was killed by 25-foot surf at Alligator Rock on Oahu's North Shore. Lifeguards aided more than thirty people. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 14 February 1779...The famous British scientific navigator, Captain James Cook, Royal Navy, was killed by natives of the Sandwich Islands on the Kona coast of what is now the state of Hawaii's Big Island. His geographic discoveries and three scientific expeditions of the Pacific made him the most famous navigator since Magellan. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
• 14 February 1840...Officers from the USS Vincennes made the first landing in Antarctica on floating ice. (Naval Historical Center)
• 14 February 1903...An Act of Congress (31 Stat. L., 826, 827) that created the Department of Commerce and Labor provided for the transfer of the Lighthouse Service from the Treasury Department. This allowed the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to succeed to the authority vested in the Secretary of the Treasury under the existing legislation. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 14 February 1912...The first diesel-powered submarine was commissioned in Groton, CT. (Wikipedia)
• 14 February 1954...A waterspout was observed two miles east of Baranof, AK, an unusual occurrence for Alaska, particularly in winter. Just prior to the formation of the waterspout, a "terrific wind from the south out of a bay inside Warm Springs Bay" lifted water 20 feet and looked "as if it were boiling". (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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Prepared by DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D.,
email hopkins@aos.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2016, The American Meteorological Society.