Deep ocean mass fluxes in the coastal upwelling off Mauritania from 1988 to  2012: variability on seasonal to decadal timescales

Fischer, Gerhard; Romero, Oscar; Merkel, Ute; Donner, Barbara; Iversen, Morten; Nowald, Nico; Ratmeyer, Volker; Ruhland, Götz; Klann, Marco; Wefer, Gerold

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3071-2016

Articles | Volume 13, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3071-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3071-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 10

Research article

|

27 May 2016

Research article |

| 27 May 2016

Deep ocean mass fluxes in the coastal upwelling off Mauritania from 1988 to 2012: variability on seasonal to decadal timescales

Gerhard Fischer, Oscar Romero, Ute Merkel, Barbara Donner, Morten Iversen, Nico Nowald, Volker Ratmeyer, Götz Ruhland, Marco Klann, and Gerold Wefer

Data sets

NASA/Goddard Flight Space Center, Ocean Color Web G. Feldman http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/l3?ctg=Standard&sen=A&prd=CHL_chlor_a&per=SN&date=21Jun2002&res=9km&num=24

NASA/Goddard Flight Space Center, Ocean Color Web G. Feldman http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/l3/S19972641997354.L3m_SNAU_CHL_chlor_a_9km.png?

NASA/Goddard Flight Space Center, GIOVANNI S. J. Kempler http://giovanni.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/?instance_id=ocean_month

NASA/Goddard Flight Space Center, NASA Earth Observatory, Global Maps C. Ichoku http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/GlobalMaps/?eocn=topnav&eoci=globalmaps

National Center for Atmospheric Research, NCAR/UCAR Climate Data Guide J. Hurrell https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/hurrell-north-atlantic-oscillation-nao-index-station-based

NOAA, IRI/LDEO Climate Data Library D. C. Stokes http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/filters/.NINO/SOURCES/.NOAA/.NCEP/.EMC/.CMB/.GLOBAL/.Reyn_SmithOIv2/.monthly/.ssta/

NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory US Department of Commerce http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/timeseries/AMO/

Short summary

The studies were initiated to investigate potential changes in the important coastal upwelling system off NW Africa and to evaluate the role of mineral dust for carbon sequestration into the deep ocean. For this purpose, we deployed time series sediment traps in the deep water column off Cape Blanc, Mauritania. A more than two-decadal sediment trap record from this coastal upwelling system is now presented with respect to deep ocean mass fluxes, flux components and their longer term variability.