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Tortell 2005
Tortell, P.D. (2005). Small-scale heterogeneity of dissolved gas concentrations in marine continental shelf waters. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 6: doi: 10.1029/2005GC000953. issn: 1525-2027.

Marine continental shelf waters are known to contribute significantly to the global air-sea fluxes of many gases. Biogeochemical cycles in these regions are highly dynamic, and it is thus often difficult to fully resolve the spatial and temporal distribution of gases in the upper water column. High-frequency, real-time gas measurements with a membrane inlet mass spectrometer (MIMS) reveal significant small-scale heterogeneity in the distribution of CO2, O2/Ar ratios, and dimethylsulfide (DMS) in continental shelf waters of the Eastern Subarctic Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. Decorrelation length scales for the gas distributions ranged from 15 to 25 km, with significant variability observed on subkilometer spatial scales. In the case of DMS, a number of rapid excursions were observed over distances that would be difficult to resolve with conventional methods. Across most of the sampling transects, CO2 and O2/Ar ratios were correlated, suggesting that biological processes dominated the cycling of these gases. In contrast, DMS concentrations were generally uncoupled from CO2 and O2/Ar, although concentrations often did change sharply across hydrographic and productivity fronts. The results presented here suggest that previous field studies may have underestimated the true spatial variability of dissolved gases (DMS in particular) in surface waters of highly dynamic marine systems. High-frequency gas measurements have significant promise for unraveling complex biogeochemical cycles in these regions.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Oceanography, General, Continental shelf and slope processes, Oceanography, General, Instruments and techniques, Oceanography, Biological and Chemical, Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0414, 0793, 1615, 4912), CO2, O2/Ar, DMS, mass spectrometry, Bering Sea
Journal
Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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