Open ocean dead zones in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean

Karstensen, J.; Fiedler, B.; Schütte, F.; Brandt, P.; Körtzinger, A.; Fischer, G.; Zantopp, R.; Hahn, J.; Visbeck, M.; Wallace, D.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-2597-2015

Articles | Volume 12, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-2597-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Low oxygen environments in marine, fresh and estuarine...

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-2597-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 8

Research article

|

30 Apr 2015

Research article |

| 30 Apr 2015

Open ocean dead zones in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean

J. Karstensen, B. Fiedler, F. Schütte, P. Brandt, A. Körtzinger, G. Fischer, R. Zantopp, J. Hahn, M. Visbeck, and D. Wallace

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Final revised paper (published on 30 Apr 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 12 Dec 2014)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C8119: 'Review of biogeosciences discussion manuscript « open ocean dead-zone in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean » by Karstensen et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Jan 2015
- AC C8933: 'Reply', Johannes Karstensen, 27 Feb 2015
RC C8443: 'Review of ‘Open ocean dead-zone in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean’ by Karstensen et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 02 Feb 2015
- AC C8935: 'Reolay to reviewer comments', Johannes Karstensen, 27 Feb 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Johannes Karstensen on behalf of the Authors (27 Feb 2015) Author's response

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (09 Mar 2015) by Marilaure Grégoire

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (15 Mar 2015)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (31 Mar 2015)

ED: Publish as is (01 Apr 2015) by Marilaure Grégoire

AR by Johannes Karstensen on behalf of the Authors (01 Apr 2015)

Short summary

This study is the first report of the formation of dead zones in the open ocean. A combination of multiple ocean observing system elements (mooring, floats, satellites, ships) allowed us to reconstruct the generation of the dead zones and to connect the formation to enhanced respiration within mesoscale ocean eddies. The dead zones present specific threats to the ecosystem, such as the interruption of the diurnal migration of zooplankters.