Marine Biogeochemistry - Science topic

How can I convert plankton concentration (micro, nano, pico) from mg/m3 into mol/m3

I think it's an interesting question: both physical ocean and marine biogeochemistry are involved, and perhaps enlightening for marine ecosystems.

I want to know which is the best part to look at to compare if coral calcification is affected by in situ low pH environment. I've been reading papers but I can't pinpoint which part they are looking at under SEM. My fragments are from the genus Porites, Goniopora, and Platygyra.

#corals #calcification #microstructures #skeleton

Suaeda maritima.

We are identifying a large numbers of detrital mineral samples from the marine sediments. We have excluded staining method because it takes a lot of time.

Most of devices are set for measurement in range of salinities from fresh to ocean. But in the world exist many lakes and other water bodies with extra-high salinity.

Who knows about the latest advances in device measurement of Dissolved Oxygen in highly saline waters and brines?

What are the new approaches and research directions on ocean deoxygenation and its effects in benthic communities of coastal marine systems?

To what extent biomass burning (or forest fire) affects marine productivity?

The isotopic composition of organic tissue of a specie of deep-water coral will be considered to evaluate the efficiency of food uptake under controlled conditions in a microcosm.

Hello,

does somebody know to suggest me a reference study estimating/measuring the general relationship between PON (particulate organic nitrogen) and chlorophyll-a in marine phytoplankton? Even better, specifically for the groups of marine diatoms and cyanobacteria?

Thank you in advance,

Ioannis

When there are anoxic conditions in sea, due to microbial respiration H2S is produced. How can we measure that and what are its impacts on marine ecology?

These are formations found in the pump house of a salt work near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The amber-like yellowish-brown substance inside the formation is hard at the edges but still soft in the middle. What is it and what is likely to produce it?

I would like to keep the coral samples alive for Zooxanthellae and DNA extraction purposes

Can anyone suggest the best method to do Fe-Speciation in the surface sediment..?

As i asked above, is it necessary for us to differentiate the two kinds of alteration caused by hydrothermal and sea water, respectivley?  Any one can give me some suggestion, please.

I've already found what i need, though the question is somehow a liitle unclear.

ANYWAY THANK YOU GUYS.

This question came up after reading the paper by Engelhardt et al., 2015.

I am willing to do some researches about the different kinds of alterations in the basalt in the ocean. And I want to know if there are some books or articles describing the changes of REE, isotope or major,trace elements during the alteration processes

Sedimentation? how long the hard coral exposure? and its will be killed by sediment?

I need the earliest data available.

Thanks

Ocean biogeochemical models still have  a very crude parameterization of bacterial dynamics. Some models consider a mechanistic degradation of particulate organic matter depending on its quality (nutrient content) by free-living bacteria, and other models have an implicit linear or non-linear degradation, which implies that all bacteria are attached to particles. As far as I know nobody has considered both attached and free-living bacteria but I may be wrong

thanks in advance

The polyphenols in the sheath material (the link between rhizome and leaf) is, contrary to that in the leaves (which end up in the banquettes), composed of non-lignin phenolic moieties with very little methoxylic groups. This seems to be the section of the plant, besides roots, that accumulate in P. oceanica seagrass mats at the sea bottom. Does anyone know more of the characteristics of these phenols. Could it correspond to something like "neolignan"?

We are trying to see the effect of sedimentation on wildlife in Tanzania and we can't seem to find any effective but yet inexpensive way of measuring sedimentation. any advice would be much appreciated. 

I am wanting to get some empirical measure of sand transport patterns, directions and volumes into, within and out of a particular beach embayment, and am wondering what is the current state of the art in this area? (e.g., tracer particles, high-resolution bathymetry for interpretation of bedforms indicative of currents transporting sand, etc?)

Barium in marine sediments controlled by terrigenous supply and diatom production. But what controls Gallium in marine sediments? Is it only by terrigenous?

Cold water (20°C) extractable organic carbon (CWEC) and Hot water (80°C) extractable organic carbon (HWEC) at the bottom of lowland peat (Haplic Histosol) and Gleyic Histic Fluvisol on turf (70-80 cm)? See Figure in File. Pay attention to the groundwater level !!!

Thank you.

Hello everyone,

Have any of you used CT scans of sediments to get a density profile/trace? Specifically, I am working with marine and lake sediment cores. I have used CT scans before for their imagery and have exported profiles of their densities based on their grayscale values in ImageJ, Sante DICOM Viewer, and Osirix, but we'd like to move into using our CT scans a bit more quantitatively. I processed the dicom files with the same window and level settings within individual cores, but was not always able to use the same settings from one core to another when I created images (.jpegs, .tiffs, etc.) from the dicoms (sandier cores would be washed out or muddier cores would be too dark to see detail otherwise). Now, though, we'd like to access the actual, or as close to actual, densities as possible. I've read a little bit about calibrating CTs to a known value (I was thinking air that got imaged around the cores, or their PVC/plastic core liners) and about using the Hounslow scale to at least approximate actual densities. I was wondering if a) anyone's got any thoughts on finding good ways to tie CTs to actual densities, and b) if anyone can think of any pitfalls to watch out for while I do this.

Thank you for any help or suggestions you can give!

- Bran

Please help me  know this

In Ennore creek in southern India I found BCF (Bio concentration factor) of more than 2500 to 3000 in crustacean crab and polycheates. Will an estuary which is highly polluted resume this much BCF? Please help me to solve this BCF for Nickel metal.

The question revolves around the concept of acidification of estuaries, as an ecological process which may be induced by human activities. In tropical conditions, high rainfall, heat and high primary production and specific geological settings may determine soil acidic conditions, which may control relatively low pH conditions in estuaries (i.e., in the lower tract of hydrogeographic basins). I am looking for the available literature and an overview/discussion on the state of art of this topic.

I am correlating pCO2 with fluorescence in the Western basin of the Mediterranean Sea. This basin is oligotrophic, but in the spring blooms can occur. I was expecting during this season the pCO2 to decrease due to the biological activity, but the correlation coefficient is positive. What could be the cause behind that?

The overarching goal of this study is the rehabilitation of the salt marsh, which is funded by introducing a selected range of tourism opportunities (nature, scientific and cultural tourism).

Found in Hudson River Estuary in October, salinity ~10 PSU

Size of individual segments is about 800 - 1000 um.

If anybody knows the analytic procedure for the extraction of free sugar or mono saccharides from sediments or soil ? If anybody have standardized any method to quantify total sugar present ?Any one have any reference paper on this?  How to get the sugar analysis procedure by HPLC RI detector?  

Measurements of dissolved gases (oxygen, CFCs,..) in sea water samples is usually done on unfiltered samples, and tedious protocols need to be followed to avoid any bias (must be first sample to be taken, quickly after collection, no bubbles, overflow bottles 3x volume,...).  DGM measurements are done on both, filtered and unfiltered samples. Could filtration result in any loss of Hg(0) or dimethylmercury?

I need a good idea about the analysis PAHs in sediment for PhD thesis. There is a 120 sediment samples of Persian Gulf. They are offshore samples. I wonder what is the best that I could run with this samples as a PhD thesis. I know somehow about GIS and RS. Any idea about joining the laboratory analysis with this technique? We don't have any samples of fauna.

when sampling the marine organisms such as crabs from along the mangroves they can be preserved let say in ethanol while they have some sediments. So if one need to extract DNA from part of these samples can't these sediments influences the quality of DNA extracted and therefore possible to affect the PCR products?

Now I only have the discrete wave parameters, such as wave height, wave period and wave direction. How can I use these parameters to calculate the sediment transport rate caused by wave actions on the tidal flats, an extreme-shallow water boundary with small bed elevation gradient and large width of tidal flats ? If I do not consider the wave breaking, is there any simplified formula or model can be used to calculate the sediment transport rate ?

Here we have only calculated the impact of diapycnal fluxes on the sea surface pCO2 - however significant entrainment of deep water into the surface mixed layer will also impact on the sea surface value of pCO2. Given this change will essentially be a "shock" when compared to the much slower changes due to diapycnal fluxes - has anyone considered the relative timescales of the growth (ie. DIC/ NO3 utilisation) and equilibration on pCO2 - and whether it is even important when compared to the slow diffusion of CO2 across the sea surface?

In view of the multifarious analytical procedures involved in examining elemental isotopes (C, N, S, O) in different samples (sediments and water), I would like to know if there is any standard procedure (also include sample storage/preservation techniques and sample pretreatments) to measure stable isotopes in sediments and water samples. Also, it would be extremely helpful if any experts here are able to share with me some information on how to analyze C13 in organic and inorganic phase using an EA-IRMS. Your generous input is very much appreciated.

I'm thinking on buying this digital microscope (examples in the link) for foraminifera picking in wet sediment samples. Have somebody tried them for this exactly purpose? I know they are excelent for taking photos, but could they replace the good ol' stereoscope?

Although I have been able to get most of the information related to Landsat 8 and its bands from landsat.usgs.gov website, still, I haven’t been able to explore the complete potential of its bands, especially the new Band 1 (Coastal/Aerosol Band : 433-453 nm) and its application in coastal and near shore processes research. I tried searching for previous research articles in using coastal band but I was not quite satisfied with the search results.

I have kept attention on the quantification of the contribution of each organic matter source to the coastal salt marshes. In general, carbon and nitrogen radioactive isotopes are used in the mixing model to calculate these contributions. However, these two indexes are not enough to solve the model when the number of the organic matter sources is larger than three, which might include autochthonous source like plant debris, and allochthonous sources as fluvial sediment, off-shore planktons, benthic algae, etc. In that way, C/N ratio can be an index used in mixing model for source partition and contribution calculation ?

It was found at in an Irish marsh exposed to fresh and marine water (depending on the tide) and was living on top of mud. It is not flat (picture can be deceiving) and is shaped like half a lemon. It is about 2mm long. Looks like some sort of slug, but I have no idea where to start. When alive it moves like a slug across the surface of the mud. The one in the pic is preserved in alcohol. Any help would be very much appreciated!!

chlorophyl-a algorithm for MODIS, SeaWifs

Micro-mole per liter?

What difference does it make to have too much excess acid?

I am trying to find the REE concentration in marine sediment and river sediments. I would like to know what the most suitable spectroscopic technique is? Can we efficiently analyse REE using ICP-OES?

I am interested in getting various methods of CO2 measurement in seawater.

Sandy intertidal sediments in the North Sea

How well can a freshwater marsh be restored to a saltmarsh by increasing the amount of saltwater entering an impoundment?

I'm a little confused about the inter-changeability of these terms in a marine sedimentation context. My understanding is as follows:

Glaciogenic sedimentation = sedimentation derived from glaciers (or ice-sheets)

Glacimarine sedimentation = sedimentation derived from glaciers (or ice-sheets) that calve directly into the marine environment.

If this is correct then glacimarine sedimentation is a subset of glaciogenic and either of the terms could be used when referring to an ice-sheet that extends into the sea.

Can anybody provide some clarification?

I am planning series of experiments in which I’d like to measure concentrations of N-15 labelled ammonia and urea in solution. I basically know that it is possible to measure concentrations of these compounds, and that it is possible to measure N-15 signature for all dissolved N-compounds. However, is it possible to measure this for each compound separately? If so, how do you do this? Could you recommend some literature?

My research facilities only limited to an IRMS and GC-MS without coupling. I am having trouble to use these instruments in finding the isotope ratios and concentration of halocarbons in the solid and aqueous samples.

Method of digestion for total nitrogen and total phosphorus in sediment, how to extract different forms of nitrogen and phosphorus in sediment.

I am trying to sample picoplankton (in the size range of 0.2 - 2 um) from the water column (tropical coral reef water) for stable isotope analysis and am wondering if anyone has suggestions on methods how to do this. For larger picoplankton it is possible to filter the water sample onto a GF/F filter (0.7 um), but this would miss a lot of bacteria in the water that are between 0.2 and 0.7 um in size. I have heard of people using aluminum oxide filters that are 0.2 um but these are really expensive. I'm wondering if anyone knows of an alternative type of filter to use or an alternative method.

I would like to correlate these parameters with sediment trap records near the mouth of the Gulf of Calfornia between 2002 and 2009.

I intend to measure internal loading in a eutrophic subtropical lake.

Hypoxia has become a worldwide phenomenon in the global coastal ocean, which affect the macrofaunal community for this connection lot of studies (Diaz and Rosenberg, 1995, 2008; Levin et al., 2000, 2003, 2009; Middelburg and Levin, 2009; Gooday et al., 2010; Ingole et al., 2010; Rabalais et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2010). Is short term hypoxia showing any morphological, physiological and behavioural responses on them?

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I am coming across some synthetic fibres in the marine plankton samples collected from the water column approximately 10 deep and preserved in formalin. Some of these fibres (such as polyester and acrylic) are known to have been introduced into the marine environment as result of anthropogenic activities. But these fibres are also used in clothing and other fabrics and could also easily introduced into samples from the lab environment.

I was wondering if there is a way to distinguish the ones coming from the marine environment through some sort of chemical signature or trace elements unique to the marine environment?

Methylmercury concentrations of up to a few hundred femtomoles have been measured in the oxic water column of various ocean basins [1-15]. Maximum concentrations are found in the oxygen minimum zones. Oxygen is consumed here by bacteria during the remineralization of sinking organic matter. Yet only anaerobic bacteria and archaea have been shown to be capable of methylating mercury [16].

Refs:

1. Mason, R.P. and W.F. Fitzgerald, Alkylmercury species in the Equatorial Pacific. Nature, 1990. 347(6292): p. 457-459.

2. Mason, R.P. and W.F. Fitzgerald, Mercury speciation in open ocean waters. Water Air & Soil Pollution, 1991. 56(1): p. 779-789.

3. Mason, R.P. and W.F. Fitzgerald, The distribution and biogeochemical cycling of mercury in the Equatorial Pacific-Ocean. Deep-Sea Research Part I-Oceanographic Research Papers, 1993. 40(9): p. 1897-1924.

4. Cossa, D., J.M. Martin, K. Takayanagi, and J. Sanjuan, The distribution and cycling of mercury species in the western Mediterranean. Deep-Sea Research Part Ii-Topical Studies in Oceanography, 1997. 44(3-4): p. 721-740.

5. Mason, R.P., K.R. Rolfhus, and W.F. Fitzgerald, Mercury in the North Atlantic. Marine Chemistry, 1998. 61(1–2): p. 37-53.

6. Mason, R.P. and K.A. Sullivan, The distribution and speciation of mercury in the South and equatorial Atlantic. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 1999. 46(5): p. 937-956.

7. Monperrus, M., E. Tessier, D. Amouroux, A. Leynaert, P. Huonnic, and O.F.X. Donard, Mercury methylation, demethylation and reduction rates in coastal and marine surface waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Marine Chemistry, 2007. 107(1): p. 49-63.

8. Cossa, D., B. Averty, and N. Pirrone, The origin of methylmercury in open Mediterranean waters. Limnology and Oceanography, 2009. 54(3): p. 837-844.

9. Sunderland, E.M., D.P. Krabbenhoft, J.W. Moreau, S.A. Strode, and W.M. Landing, Mercury sources, distribution, and bioavailability in the North Pacific Ocean: Insights from data and models. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 2009. 23: p. 14.

10. Heimbürger, L.E., D. Cossa, J.-C. Marty, C. Migon, B. Averty, A. Dufour, and J. Ras, Methyl mercury distributions in relation to the presence of nano- and picophytoplankton in an oceanic water column (Ligurian Sea, North-western Mediterranean). Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta, 2010. 74(19): p. 5549-5559.

11. Cossa, D., L.E. Heimbürger, D. Lannuzel, S.R. Rintoul, E.C.V. Butler, A.R. Bowie, B. Averty, R.J. Watson, and T. Remenyi, Mercury in the Southern Ocean. Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta, 2011. 75(14): p. 4037-4052.

12. Lehnherr, I., V.L. St. Louis, H. Hintelmann, and J.L. Kirk, Methylation of inorganic mercury in polar marine waters. Nature Geosci, 2011. 4(5): p. 298-302.

13. Cossa, D., M. Harmelin-Vivien, C. Mellon-Duval, V. Loizeau, B. Averty, S. Crochet, L. Chou, and J.F. Cadiou, Influences of Bioavailability, Trophic Position, and Growth on Methylmercury in Hakes (Merluccius merluccius) from Northwestern Mediterranean and Northeastern Atlantic. Environmental Science & Technology, 2012. 46(9): p. 4885-4893.

14. Hammerschmidt, C.R. and K.L. Bowman, Vertical methylmercury distribution in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean. Marine Chemistry, 2012. 132–133(0): p. 77-82.

15. Wang, F., R.W. Macdonald, D.A. Armstrong, and G.A. Stern, Total and Methylated Mercury in the Beaufort Sea: The Role of Local and Recent Organic Remineralization. Environmental Science & Technology, 2012.

16. Parks, J.M., A. Johs, M. Podar, R. Bridou, R.A. Hurt, S.D. Smith, S.J. Tomanicek, Y. Qian, S.D. Brown, C.C. Brandt, A.V. Palumbo, J.C. Smith, J.D. Wall, D.A. Elias, and L. Liang, The Genetic Basis for Bacterial Mercury Methylation. Science, 2013.