Martinson Douglas G.

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Martinson
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Douglas G.
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  • Article
    West Antarctic Peninsula : an ice-dependent coastal marine ecosystem in transition
    (The Oceanography Society, 2013-09) Ducklow, Hugh W. ; Fraser, William R. ; Meredith, Michael P. ; Stammerjohn, Sharon E. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Martinson, Douglas G. ; Sailley, Sevrine F. ; Schofield, Oscar M. E. ; Steinberg, Deborah K. ; Venables, Hugh J. ; Amsler, Charles D.
    The extent, duration, and seasonality of sea ice and glacial discharge strongly influence Antarctic marine ecosystems. Most organisms' life cycles in this region are attuned to ice seasonality. The annual retreat and melting of sea ice in the austral spring stratifies the upper ocean, triggering large phytoplankton blooms. The magnitude of the blooms is proportional to the winter extent of ice cover, which can act as a barrier to wind mixing. Antarctic krill, one of the most abundant metazoan populations on Earth, consume phytoplankton blooms dominated by large diatoms. Krill, in turn, support a large biomass of predators, including penguins, seals, and whales. Human activity has altered even these remote ecosystems. The western Antarctic Peninsula region has warmed by 7°C over the past 50 years, and sea ice duration has declined by almost 100 days since 1978, causing a decrease in phytoplankton productivity in the northern peninsula region. Besides climate change, Antarctic marine systems have been greatly altered by harvesting of the great whales and now krill. It is unclear to what extent the ecosystems we observe today differ from the pristine state.
  • Article
    Penguin biogeography along the West Antarctic Peninsula : testing the canyon hypothesis with Palmer LTER observations
    (The Oceanography Society, 2013-09) Schofield, Oscar M. E. ; Ducklow, Hugh W. ; Bernard, Kim S. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Patterson-Fraser, Donna ; Gorman, Kristen ; Martinson, Douglas G. ; Meredith, Michael P. ; Saba, Grace ; Stammerjohn, Sharon E. ; Steinberg, Deborah K. ; Fraser, William R.
    The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is home to large breeding colonies of the ice-dependent Antarctic Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae). Although the entire inner continental shelf is highly productive, with abundant phytoplankton and krill populations, penguin colonies are distributed heterogeneously along the WAP. This ecological conundrum targets a long-standing question of interest: what environmental factors structure the locations of Adélie penguin "hot spots" throughout the WAP?
  • Article
    Climate forcing for dynamics of dissolved inorganic nutrients at Palmer Station, Antarctica : an interdecadal (1993–2013) analysis
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2016-09-17) Kim, Hyewon Heather ; Doney, Scott C. ; Iannuzzi, Richard A. ; Meredith, Michael P. ; Martinson, Douglas G. ; Ducklow, Hugh W.
    We analyzed 20 years (1993–2013) of observations of dissolved inorganic macronutrients (nitrate, N; phosphate, P; and silicate, Si) and chlorophyll a (Chl) at Palmer Station, Antarctica (64.8°S, 64.1°W) to elucidate how large-scale climate and local physical forcing affect the interannual variability in the seasonal phytoplankton bloom and associated drawdown of nutrients. The leading modes of nutrients (N, P, and Si empirical orthogonal functions 1, EOF1) represent overall negative anomalies throughout growing seasons, showing a mixed signal of variability in the initial levels and drawdown thereafter (low-frequency dynamics). The second most common seasonal patterns of nitrate and phosphate (N and P EOF2) capture prolonged drawdown events during December–March, which are correlated to Chl EOF1. Si EOF2 captures a drawdown event during November–December, which is correlated to Chl EOF2. These different drawdown patterns are shaped by different sets of physical and climate forcing mechanisms. N and P drawdown events during December–March are influenced by the winter and spring Southern Annular Mode (SAM) phase, where nutrient utilization is enhanced in a stabilized upper water column as a consequence of SAM-driven winter sea ice and spring wind dynamics. Si drawdown during November–December is influenced by early sea ice retreat, where ice breakup may induce abrupt water column stratification and a subsequent diatom bloom or release of diatom cells from within the sea ice. Our findings underscore that seasonal nutrient dynamics in the coastal WAP are coupled to large-scale climate forcing and related physics, understanding of which may enable improved projections of biogeochemical responses to climate change.
  • Article
    Seasonal forcing of summer dissolved inorganic carbon and chlorophyll a on the western shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula
    (American Geophysical Union, 2010-03-30) Montes-Hugo, Martin ; Sweeney, Colm ; Doney, Scott C. ; Ducklow, Hugh W. ; Frouin, Robert ; Martinson, Douglas G. ; Stammerjohn, Sharon E. ; Schofield, Oscar M. E.
    The Southern Ocean is a climatically sensitive region that plays an important role in the regional and global modulation of atmospheric CO2. Based on satellite-derived sea ice data, wind and cloudiness estimates from numerical models (National Centers for Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis), and in situ measurements of surface (0–20 m depth) chlorophyll a (ChlSurf) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DICSurf) concentration, we show sea ice concentration from June to November and spring wind patterns between 1979 and 2006 had a significant influence on midsummer (January) primary productivity and carbonate chemistry for the Western Shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula (WAP, 64°–68°S, 63.4°–73.3°W). In general, strong (>3.5 m s−1) and persistent (>2 months) northerly winds during the previous spring were associated with relatively high (monthly mean > 2 mg m−3) ChlSurf and low (monthly mean < 2 mmol kg−1) salinity-corrected DIC (DICSurf*) during midsummer. The greater ChlSurf accumulation and DICSurf* depletion was attributed to an earlier growing season characterized by decreased spring sea ice cover or nearshore accumulation of phytoplankton in association with sea ice. The impact of these wind-driven mechanisms on ChlSurf and DICSurf* depended on the extent of sea ice area (SIA) during winter. Winter SIA affected phytoplankton blooms by changing the upper mixed layer depth (UMLD) during the subsequent spring and summer (December–January–February). Midsummer DICSurf* was not related to DICSurf* concentration during the previous summer, suggesting an annual replenishment of surface DIC during fall/winter and a relatively stable pool of deep (>200 m depth) “winter-like” DIC on the WAP.
  • Article
    Effect of continental shelf canyons on phytoplankton biomass and community composition along the western Antarctic Peninsula
    (Inter-Research, 2015-03-30) Kavanaugh, Maria T. ; Abdala, F. N. ; Ducklow, Hugh W. ; Glover, David M. ; Fraser, William R. ; Martinson, Douglas G. ; Stammerjohn, Sharon E. ; Schofield, Oscar M. E. ; Doney, Scott C.
    The western Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing dramatic climate change as warm, wet conditions expand poleward and interact with local physics and topography, causing differential regional effects on the marine ecosystem. At local scales, deep troughs (or canyons) bisect the continental shelf and act as conduits for warm Upper Circumpolar Deep Water, with reduced seasonal sea ice coverage, and provide a reservoir of macro- and micronutrients. Shoreward of many canyon heads are Adélie penguin breeding colonies; it is hypothesized that these locations reflect improved or more predictable access to higher biological productivity overlying the canyons. To synoptically assess the potential impacts of regional bathymetry on the marine ecosystem, 4 major canyons were identified along a latitudinal gradient west of the Antarctic Peninsula using a high-resolution bathymetric database. Biological-physical dynamics above and adjacent to canyons were compared using in situ pigments and satellite-derived sea surface temperature, sea ice and ocean color variables, including chlorophyll a (chl a) and fucoxanthin derived semi-empirically from remote sensing reflectance. Canyons exhibited higher sea surface temperature and reduced sea ice coverage relative to adjacent shelf areas. In situ and satellite-derived pigment patterns indicated increased total phytoplankton and diatom biomass over the canyons (by up to 22 and 35%, respectively), as well as increases in diatom relative abundance (fucoxanthin:chl a). While regional heterogeneity is apparent, canyons appear to support a phytoplankton community that is conducive to both grazing by krill and enhanced vertical export, although it cannot compensate for decreased biomass and diatom relative abundance during low sea ice conditions.