Ocean acidification (OA) research seeks to understand how marine ecosystems and global elemental cycles will respond to changes in seawater carbonate chemistry in combination with other environmental perturbations such as warming, eutrophication, and deoxygenation. This paper discusses the effectiveness and limitations of current research approaches used to address this goal. ...

Small phytoplankton (pico-, nano- and microphytoplankton) play an important role in uptake of carbon dioxide on the Scotian Shelf.

The entire Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf was warm in 2012 compared to the period of 1977-1987. Warm conditions penetrating to the ocean bottom over much of the region. Warming was greatest during the late winter in the southern Middle Atlantic Bight, peaking during summer elsewhere. Bottom waters in the Middle ...

Rivers are a dominant source of sediment entering the ocean. The sediment can be trapped in frontal zones and other oceanographic features, leading to high concentrations. Because of this and other processes, the transport of sediment in river-influenced environments often occurs near the seafloor, rather than the surface.

This study analyzed changes in phytoplankton and zooplankton on the Newfoundland and Scotian shelves from 1962 to 2003 in relation to changes in oceanography. Three categories of phytoplankton (color, diatoms, dinoflagellates) increased in abundance in the 1990s, and these increases generally persisted into 2001–2003. This is believed to be a ...

This study analyzed thermohaline dynamics of the Gulf of Maine based on data published in 1968. It describes six water masses: Maine Surface Water, Maine Intermediate Water, and Maine Bottom Water as interior water masses; and Scotian Shelf Water, Slope Water, and Georges Bank Water as exterior water masses. ...

Heat waves, coastal flooding, and river flooding will pose a growing challenge to the region’s environmental, social, and economic systems. This will increase the vulnerability of the region’s residents, especially its most disadvantaged populations. Infrastructure will be increasingly compromised by climate-related hazards, including sea level rise, coastal flooding, and intense ...

Diversification of the marine biosphere is intimately linked to the evolution of the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nutrients, and primary productivity. Analysis of the ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus buried in sedimentary rocks during the past 3 billion years indicates that both food quantity and, critically, food quality increased through time as ...

Geographic signatures are physical, chemical, biotic, and human-induced characteristics or processes that help define similar or unique features of estuaries along latitudinal or geographic gradients. Geomorphologically, estuaries of the northeastern U.S., from the Hudson River estuary and northward along the Gulf of Maine shoreline, are highly diverse because of a ...