Abstract
A strong front between cold and warm surface waters was found in the northwestern part of the Weddell Sea (Powell Basin) in February 2020. The front was manifested by sharp horizontal gradients of temperature, chemical, and optical properties. Differences in the concentrations and species of phytoplankton and zooplankton on both sides of the front were found. The front exists due to the differences in the water properties typical for the entire Weddell Sea and water from the western part of the sea, which is formed in a shallow region covered with ice and icebergs that prevent warming of the upper layer of water by the solar irradiance.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anisimov OA, Vaughan DG, Callaghan TV, Furgal T et al (2007) Polar regions (Arctic and Antarctic). In: Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der Linden PJ, Hanson CE (eds) Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 653–685
Arzhanova NV, Artamonova KV (2014) Hydrochemical structure of waters in the fishery areas of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba Dana. Trudy VNIRO 152:118–132
Bogdanov MA, Oradovskii SG, Solyankin EV, Khvatskii NV (1969) The frontal zone in the Scotia Sea. Oceanology 11:966–974
Cefarelli AO, Ferrario ME, Almandoz GO, Atencio AG, Akselman R, Vernet M (2010) Diversity of the diatom genus Fragilariopsis in the Argentine Sea and Antarctic waters: morphology, distribution, and abundance. Polar Biol 33:1463–1484
Clarke KR, Gorley RN (2005) PRIMER: getting started with V. 6. PRIMER-E, Plymouth
Dafner EV, Mordasova NV (1994) Influence of biotic factors on the hydrochemical structure of surface water in the Polar Frontal Zone of the Atlantic Antarctic. Mar Chem 45(1–2):137–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4203(94)90098-1
Delgado LE, Jana R, Marin VH (1998) Testing hypotheses on life-cycle models for Antarctic calanoid copepods, using qualitative, winter, zooplankton samples. Polar Biol 20:74–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003000050278
Doblin MA, Petrou K, Sinutok S, Seymour JR, Messer LF, Brown MV, Norman L, Everett JD, McInnes AS, Ralph PJ, Thompson PA, Hassler CS (2016) Nutrient uplift in a cyclonic eddy increases diversity, primary productivity, and iron demand of microbial communities relative to a western boundary current. PeerJ 4:e1973. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1973
Driscoll RM, Reiss CS, Hentschel BT (2015) Temperature-dependent growth of Thysanoessa macrura: inter-annual and spatial variability around Elephant Island, Antarctica. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 529:49–61
Egbert GD, Erofeeva SY (2002) Efficient inverse modeling of barotropic ocean tides. J Atmos Ocean Technol 19(2):183–204. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(2002)019<0183:EIMOBO>2.0.CO;2
Ellwood MJ, Strzepek RF, Strutton PG, Trull TW, Fourquez M, Boyd PV (2020) Distinct iron cycling in a Southern Ocean eddy. Nat Commun 11:825. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14464-0
Fedorov KN (1983) The physical nature and structure of oceanic fronts (in Russian). Hydrometizdat, Leningrad 296 pp. (1986, English translation) Springer, 333 pp
Flores H, Atkinson A, Kawaguchi S, Krafft BA, Milinevsky G, Nicol S et al (2012) Impact of climate change on Antarctic krill. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 458:1–19. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09831
Foster BA (1989) Time and depth comparisons of sub-ice zooplankton in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Polar Biol 9:431–435
Fransz HG (1988) Vernal abundance, structure and development of epipelagic copepod populations of the eastern Weddell Sea (Antarctica). Polar Biol 9:107–114
Gordon AL (1967) Structures of Antarctic waters between 20°W and 170° W. In: Bushnell VC (ed) Antarctic map folio series, Folio 6. American Geographical Society, New York, 10 pp
Hempel G (1985) Antarctic marine food web. In: Siegfried WR, Condy PR, Laws RM (eds) Antarctic nutrient cycles and food webs. Springer, Berlin, pp 266–270
Hewes CD, Reiss CS, Holm-Hansen O (2009) A quantitative analysis of sources for summertime phytoplankton variability over 18 years in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) region. Deep-Sea Res 56:1230–1241
Heywood KJ, Naveira-Garabato AC, Stevens DP, Muench RD (2004) On the fate of the Antarctic Slope Front and the origin of the Weddell Front. J Geophys Res 109:C06021. https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JC002053
Ikeda T (1985) Life history of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba: a new look from an experimental approach. Bull Mar Sci 37(2):599–608
Kang S-H, Fryxell GA (1993) Phytoplankton in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica: composition, abundance and distribution in water-column assemblages of the marginal ice-edge zone during austral autumn. Mar Biol 116:335–348
Kang S-H, Fryxell GA, Roelke DL (1993) Fragilariopsis cylindrus compared with other species of the diatom family Bacillariaceae in Antarctic marginal ice-edge zones. Nova Hedwigia Beih 106:335–352
Klepikov VV (1963) Hydrology of the Weddell Sea. Tr Sov Antarkt Eksp (Oroceedings of the Soviet Antarctic Expedition) 17:45–93. [in Russian]
Koshlyakov MN (2008) Discovery and investigations of open ocean synoptic eddies. Izv Atmos Ocean Phys 38:682–694
Lee W, Kim S, Kang S, Bang H, Lee K, Kwak I (2004) Distribution and abundance of zooplankton in the Bransfield Strait and the western Weddell Sea during austral summer. Ocean Polar Res 26(4):607–618. https://doi.org/10.4217/OPR.2004.26.4.607
Loeb VJ, Santora JA (2012) Population dynamics of Salpa thompsoni near the Antarctic Peninsula: growth rates and interannual variations in reproductive activity (1993–2009). Prog Oceanogr 96(1):93–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2011.11.001
Lundholm N, Rytter Hasle G (2008) Are Fragilariopsis cylindrus and Fragilariopsis nana bipolar diatoms? – morphological and molecular analyses of two sympatric species. Nova Hedwig Beih 133:231–250
Mackintosh NA (1973) Distribution of post-larval krill in the Antarctic. Discov Rep 36:95–156
Makarov RR (1982) Ontogenetic migrations in Antarctic euphausiids: “the Antarctic”. Soviet Committee Antarctic Res Rep 21:118–132. (in Russian)
Monin AS, Kamenkovich VM, Kort VG (1974) Variability of the World Ocean (in Russian). Hydrometizdat, Leningrad 262 pp. Variability of the oceans (1977, English translation) Wiley. 241 pp.
Morozov EG, Frey DI, Polukhin AA, Krechik VA, Artemiev VA, Gavrikov AV, Kasyan VV, Sapozhnikov PV, Gordeeva NV, Kobylyansky SG (2020) Mesoscale variability of the ocean in the northern part of the Weddell Sea. Oceanology 60(5):573–588
Muench RD, Gunn JT, Husby DM (1990) The Weddell scotia confluence in midwinter. J Geophys Res 95(C10):18,177–18,190
Orsi AH, Nowlin WD, Whitworth T (1993) On the circulation and stratification of the Weddell Gyre. Deep-Sea Res I Oceanogr Res Pap 40(1):169–203
Patterson SL, Sievers HA (1980) The Weddell-Scotia confluence. J Phys Oceanogr 10(10):1584–1610
Rhines PB (2001) Mesoscale eddies. In: Encyclopedia of ocean sciences, 2nd edn, p 2001
Schloss IR, Ferreyra GA, Ruiz-Pino D (2002) Phytoplankton biomass in Antarctic shelf zones: a conceptual model based on Potter Cove, King George Island. J Mar Syst 36:129–143
Schröder M, Hellmera HH, Absy JM (2002) On the near-bottom variability in the northwestern Weddell Sea. Deep-Sea Res II 49:4767–4790
Siegel V, Watkins JL (2016) Distribution, biomass and demography of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba. In: Siegel V (ed) Biology and ecology of Antarctic Krill, Advance in polar ecology series. Springer, New York, pp 21–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29279-3_2
Sprong I, Schalk PH (1992) Acoustic observations on krill spring-summer migration and patchiness in the northern Weddell Sea. In: Hempel G (ed) Weddell sea ecology. Springer, New York, pp 261–268. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77595-6_30
Stammerjohn SE, Martinson DG, Smith RC, Yuan X, Rind D (2008) Trends in Antarctic annual sea ice retreat and advance and their relation to El Nino Southern Oscillation and Southern Annular Mode variability. J Geophys Res Oceans 113:C03S90
Stepanova S, Polukhin A, Borisenko G, Chultsova A, Marina E, Popov O, Seliverstova A, Vidnichuk A, Tishchenko P (2021) Hydrochemical structure of waters in the northern Weddell Sea in austral summer 2020 (Chapter 11). In: Antarctic Peninsula region of the southern ocean. Springer, Cham
Thompson AF, Heywood KJ, Thorpe SE, Renner AHH, Trasvina A (2009) Surface circulation at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula from drifters. J Phys Oceanogr 39:3–26. https://doi.org/10.1175/2008jpo3995.1
Voronina NM (1998) Comparative abundance and distribution of major filter-feeders in the Antarctic pelagic zone. J Mar Syst 17(1–4):375–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-7963(98)00050-5
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the crew of the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh for their hard work and assistance to collect the new data in severe Antarctic conditions. This work was supported by the State Task no. 0128-2019-0008. Field works were partly supported by the RFBR grant no. 20-08-00246.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Morozov, E.G. et al. (2021). Frontal Zone Between Relatively Warm and Cold Waters in the Northern Weddell Sea. In: Morozov, E.G., Flint, M.V., Spiridonov, V.A. (eds) Antarctic Peninsula Region of the Southern Ocean. Advances in Polar Ecology, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78927-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78927-5_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-78926-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-78927-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)