Modeled Nitrogen Loading to Narragansett Bay: 1850 to 2015

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:46
  • By: petert

Nutrient loading to estuaries with heavily populated watersheds can have profound ecological consequences. In evaluating policy options for managing nitrogen (N), it is helpful to understand current and historic spatial loading patterns to the system. We modeled N inputs to Narragansett Bay from 1850 to 2000, using data on population, ...

Creation of a Gilded Trap by the High Economic Value of the Maine Lobster Fishery

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:44
  • By: petert

Unsustainable fishing simplifies food chains and, as with aquaculture, can result in reliance on a few economically valuable species. This lack of diversity may increase risks of ecological and economic disruptions. Centuries of intense fishing have extirpated most apex predators in the Gulf of Maine (United States and Canada), effectively ...

Episodic riverine influence on surface DIC in the coastal Gulf of Maine

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:39
  • By: petert

Anomalously high precipitation and river discharge during the spring of 2005 caused considerable freshening and depletion of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in surface waters along the coastal Gulf of Maine. Surface pCO2 and total alkalinity (TA) were monitored by repeated underway sampling of a cross-shelf transect in the western Gulf of ...

Sources of variability in Gulf of Maine circulation, and the observations needed to model it

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:38
  • By: petert

Variability in the circulation of coastal oceans must ultimately be driven by changes in the meteorological conditions that force currents in the coastal ocean, and by variability in the waters entering the coastal ocean from elsewhere. If a coastal ocean is to be understood and modeled accurately, the external forcing ...

The kinematic and hydrographic structure of the Gulf of Maine Coastal Current

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:34
  • By: petert

The Gulf of Maine Coastal Current (GMCC), which extends from southern Nova Scotia to Cape Cod Massachusetts, was investigated from 1998 to 2001 by means of extensive hydrographic surveys, current meter moorings, tracked drifters, and satellite-derived thermal imagery. The study focused on two principal branches of the GMCC, the Eastern ...

Changes in the timing of high river flows in New England over the 20th Century

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:27
  • By: petert

The annual timing of river flows is a good indicator of climate-related changes, or lack of changes, for rivers with long-term data that drain unregulated basins with stable land use. Changes in the timing of annual winter/spring (January 1 to May 31) and fall (October 1 to December 31) center ...

Carbonate Mineral Saturation State as the Recruitment Cue for Settling Bivalves in Marine Muds

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:25
  • By: petert

After a pelagic larval phase, infaunal bivalves undergo metamorphosis and transition to the underlying sediments to begin the benthic stage of their life history, where they explore and then either accept or reject sediments. Although the settlement cues used by juvenile infaunal bivalves are poorly understood, here we provide evidence ...

Detecting regional anthropogenic trends in ocean acidification against natural variability

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:18
  • By: petert

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution humans have released ~500 billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere through fossil-fuel burning, cement production and land-use changes. About 30% has been taken up by the oceans. The oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide leads to changes in marine carbonate chemistry resulting in a ...

Vulnerability and adaptation of US shellfisheries to ocean acidification

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:16
  • By: petert

Ocean acidification is a global, long-term problem whose ultimate solution requires carbon dioxide reduction at a scope and scale that will take decades to accomplish successfully. Until that is achieved, feasible and locally relevant adaptation and mitigation measures are needed. To help to prioritize societal responses to ocean acidification, we ...

Recent changes in the North Atlantic

  • Posted on: Wed, 03/30/2016 - 15:11
  • By: petert

It has long been recognized that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) is potentially sensitive to greenhouse–gas and other climate forcing, and that changes in the MOC have the potential to cause abrupt climate change. However, the mechanisms remain poorly understood and our ability to detect these changes remains incomplete. ...

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