Geochemical studies of the Weddell sea

Whole season net community production in the Weddell Sea

“…Anderson et al (1991) and Poisson and Chen (1987) reported alkalinity to behave conservatively in the Weddell Sea. In contrast, Weiss et al (1979) showed the alkalinity of Summer Surface Water to be 28 mol kg ¡1 higher than that of the underlying Winter Water (= temperature minimum layer). As Jones et al (1983) suggested, this may well be due to meltwater impact.…”

“…This is done because CaCO 3 dissolution during ice melting is the only possible source of alkalinity increase. In addition, data of Weiss et al (1979) do indicate the existence of alkalinity increases. As to the range chosen, note that the magnitude of alkalinity change due to meltwater is dependent on the kind of ice, its thickness, age and advection.…”

Fossil proxies of near-shore sea surface temperatures and seasonality from the late Neogene Antarctic shelf

“…Measured potential temperatures from surface waters in the Weddell Sea range from −1.80°C (surface freezing temperature at the present salinity) to +1.15°C (see Table 1 and references therein). Salinity in the same water mass ranges from 33.0 to 34.5 psu in the winter (Weiss et al 1979;Robertson et al 2002).…”

“…1%) . The effects of seasonal sea ice-melt on the 18 O of seawater, and therefore salinity, are minimal ) but those of glacial ice-melt are considerably more significant as high latitude ice has very low 18 O, with values as low as −50‰ (Weiss et al 1979;Meredith et al 2008). The meltwater fraction that we assume for modern waters around James Ross Island may be a little overestimated because here warm water upwelling onto the shelf (Fahrbach et al 1995) is less significant than in Marguerite Bay, which is affected by upwelling of relatively warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) (e.g., Klinck et al 2004).…”

Measurement of Small Volume Oceanic 14C Samples by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

“…Our AMS data can be compared with the existing 14C measurements from the Weddell Sea published by Weiss, Ostlund and Craig (1979 (Levin et al, 1985); 200%o in 1985 (Levin et al, 1987)) may well be due to the different locations of the stations, varying extent of the ice cover, or different gas exchange rates with the atmosphere. In the following, the data are discussed in the context of the Weddell Sea oceanography.…”