Water column

About: Water column is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 13706 publications have been published within this topic receiving 496626 citations.

Algal games: The vertical distribution of phytoplankton in poorly mixed water columns

Abstract: Phytoplankton often face the dilemma of living in contrasting gradients of two essential resources: light that is supplied from above and nutrients that are often supplied from below. In poorly mixed water columns, algae can be heterogeneously distributed, with thin layers of biomass found on the surface, at depth, or on the sediment surface. Here, we show that these patterns can result from intraspecific competition for light and nutrients. First, we present numerical solutions of a reaction-diffusion-taxis model of phytoplankton, nutrients, and light. We argue that motile phytoplankton can form a thin layer under poorly mixed conditions. We then analyze a related game theoretical model that treats the depth of a thin layer of phytoplankton as the strategy. The evolutionarily stable strategy is the depth at which the phytoplankton are equally limited by both resources, as long as the layer is restricted to the water column. The layer becomes shallower with an increase in the nutrient supply and deeper with an increase in the light supply. For low nutrient levels, low background attenuation, and shallow water columns, a benthic layer occurs; for intermediate nutrient levels in deep water columns, a deep chlorophyll maximum occurs; and for high nutrient levels, a surface scum occurs. These general patterns are in agreement with field observations. Thus, this model can explain many patterns of algal distribution found in poorly mixed aquatic ecosystems.

The relationship between air and water temperatures in lakes of the Swiss Plateau: a case study with palæolimnological implications

Abstract: In palaeolimnological studies, inference models based on aquatic organisms are frequently used to estimate summer lake surface water temperatures. However, the calibration of such models is often unsatisfactory because of the sparseness of measured water temperature data. This study investigates the feasibility of using air temperature data, usually available at much higher resolution, to calibrate such models by comparing regional air temperatures with surface water temperatures in 17 lakes on the Swiss Plateau. Results show that altitude-corrected air temperatures are sufficiently uniform over the entire Swiss Plateau to allow local air temperatures at any particular lake site to be adequately estimated from standard composite air temperature series. In early summer, day-to-day variability in air temperature is reflected extremely well in the temperature of the uppermost metre of the water column, while monthly mean air temperatures correspond well, with respect to both absolute value and interannual variations, with water temperatures in most of the epilimnion. Standardised altitude-corrected air temperature series may therefore be a useful alternative to surface water temperatures for the purposes of calibrating lake temperature inference models. In Northern Hemisphere temperate regions, mean air and water temperatures are likely to correspond most closely in July, suggesting that calibration and reconstruction efforts be concentrated on this month.

Organic matter sources to the water column and surficial sediments of a marine bay

Abstract: Sediment trap and net plankton samples were collected monthly for a year at three depths in a marine bay (Dabob Bay, Washington). These materials and subsamples from a sediment box core were analyzed for lignin oxidation products as well as elemental and stable carbon isotope compositions. The sediment core was compositionally uniform over its entire 50-cm length. The elemental and lignin compositions of the sediment trap and core samples indicate nitrogen-rich (atomic C : N = 7.5) plankton-derived organic matter mixed with vascular plant debris. At most, vascular plant debris accounts for 10% (nonwinter months) to 35% (winter months) of the total organic carbon in the upper water column (30 m) sediment trap samples and consists predominantly of gymnosperm wood along with some nonwoody gymnosperm tissues and angiosperm woods. Bulk land-derived organic matter in Dabob Bay contains a maximum of 50% vascular plant debris and comprises an average of one-third of the total organic carbon in the sediment trap samples and two-thirds of the total organic carbon in the underlying sediments. Lignin in the sediment trap and core samples shows evidence (from elevated vanillic acid:vanillin ratios) of white-rot fungal degradation before (but not after) introduction to the water column at the study site. Vascular plant debris introduced to the bay has already lost almost half of its initial bulk polysaccharide. Glucose yields are particularly low whereas rhamnose and fucose are obtained in excess of expected yields and must have additional sources. Lignin and neutral sugars together account for ~20% of the total organic carbon in the sediment trap and core samples. Overall, the sediments of Dabob Bay compositionally resemble the gymnosperm wood-rich particulate material introduced to the overlying water column during winter and poorly record the input of plankton and other types of vascular plant debris during nonwinter months.

Temporal variability in the northern Arabian Sea oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) during the last 225,000 years

Abstract: The northern Arabian Sea is one of the few regions in the open ocean where thermocline water is severely depleted in oxygen. The intensity of this oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) has been reconstructed over the past 225,000 years using proxies for surface water productivity, water column denitrification, winter mixing, and the aragonite compensation depth (ACD). Changes in OMZ intensity occurred on orbital and suborbital timescales. Lowest O2 levels correlate with productivity maxima and shallow winter mixing. Precession-related productivity maxima lag early summer insolation maxima by ∼6 kyr, which we attribute to a prolonged summer monsoon season related to higher insolation at the end of the summer. Periods with a weakened or even non-existent OMZ are characterized by low productivity conditions and deep winter mixing attributed to strong and cold winter monsoonal winds. The timing of deep winter mixing events corresponds with that of periods of climatic cooling in the North Atlantic region.