Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals
Polar regions are particularly sensitive to climate change, with the potential for significant feedbacks between ocean circulation, sea ice, and the ocean carbon cycle. However, the difficulty in obtaining in situ data means that our ability to detect and interpret change is very limited, especially...
Published in: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
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Online Access: | https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8400/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8400/1/Charrassin_etal_PNAS_2008.pdf https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800790105 |
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ftunivtasmania:oai:eprints.utas.edu.au:8400 2023-05-15T13:42:40+02:00 Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals Charrassin, JB Hindell, MA Rintoul, SR Roquet, F Sokolov, S Biuw, M Costa, D Boehme, L Lovell, P Coleman, R Timmermann, R Meijers, AJS Meredith, M Park, YH Bailleul, F Goebel, M Tremblay, Y Bost, CA McMahon, CR Field, IC Fedak, MA Guinet, C 2008-08-19 application/pdf https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8400/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8400/1/Charrassin_etal_PNAS_2008.pdf https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800790105 en eng https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8400/1/Charrassin_etal_PNAS_2008.pdf Charrassin, JB, Hindell, MA, Rintoul, SR, Roquet, F, Sokolov, S, Biuw, M, Costa, D, Boehme, L, Lovell, P, Coleman, R, Timmermann, R, Meijers, AJS, Meredith, M, Park, YH, Bailleul, F, Goebel, M, Tremblay, Y, Bost, CA, McMahon, CR, Field, IC, Fedak, MA and Guinet, C 2008 , 'Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals' , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States PNAS, vol. 105, no. 33 , pp. 11634-11639 , doi:10.1073/pnas.0800790105 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800790105>. cc_utas Antarctic Circumpolar Current instrumentation marine predators Article PeerReviewed 2008 ftunivtasmania https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800790105 2022-01-24T23:17:51Z Polar regions are particularly sensitive to climate change, with the potential for significant feedbacks between ocean circulation, sea ice, and the ocean carbon cycle. However, the difficulty in obtaining in situ data means that our ability to detect and interpret change is very limited, especially in the Southern Ocean, where the ocean beneath the sea ice remains almost entirely unobserved and the rate of sea-ice formation is poorly known. Here, we show that southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) equipped with oceanographic sensors can measure ocean structure and water mass changes in regions and seasons rarely observed with traditional oceanographic platforms. In particular, seals provided a 30-fold increase in hydrographic profiles from the sea-ice zone, allowing the major fronts to be mapped south of 60°S and sea-ice formation rates to be inferred from changes in upper ocean salinity. Sea-ice production rates peaked in early winter (April–May) during the rapid northward expansion of the pack ice and declined by a factor of 2 to 3 between May and August, in agreement with a three-dimensional coupled ocean–sea-ice model. By measuring the high-latitude ocean during winter, elephant seals fill a ‘‘blind spot’’ in our sampling coverage, enabling the establishment of a truly global ocean-observing system. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Sea ice Southern Elephant Seals Southern Ocean University of Tasmania: UTas ePrints Antarctic Southern Ocean Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 33 11634 11639 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tasmania: UTas ePrints |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtasmania |
language |
English |
topic |
Antarctic Circumpolar Current instrumentation marine predators |
spellingShingle |
Antarctic Circumpolar Current instrumentation marine predators Charrassin, JB Hindell, MA Rintoul, SR Roquet, F Sokolov, S Biuw, M Costa, D Boehme, L Lovell, P Coleman, R Timmermann, R Meijers, AJS Meredith, M Park, YH Bailleul, F Goebel, M Tremblay, Y Bost, CA McMahon, CR Field, IC Fedak, MA Guinet, C Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals |
topic_facet |
Antarctic Circumpolar Current instrumentation marine predators |
description |
Polar regions are particularly sensitive to climate change, with the potential for significant feedbacks between ocean circulation, sea ice, and the ocean carbon cycle. However, the difficulty in obtaining in situ data means that our ability to detect and interpret change is very limited, especially in the Southern Ocean, where the ocean beneath the sea ice remains almost entirely unobserved and the rate of sea-ice formation is poorly known. Here, we show that southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) equipped with oceanographic sensors can measure ocean structure and water mass changes in regions and seasons rarely observed with traditional oceanographic platforms. In particular, seals provided a 30-fold increase in hydrographic profiles from the sea-ice zone, allowing the major fronts to be mapped south of 60°S and sea-ice formation rates to be inferred from changes in upper ocean salinity. Sea-ice production rates peaked in early winter (April–May) during the rapid northward expansion of the pack ice and declined by a factor of 2 to 3 between May and August, in agreement with a three-dimensional coupled ocean–sea-ice model. By measuring the high-latitude ocean during winter, elephant seals fill a ‘‘blind spot’’ in our sampling coverage, enabling the establishment of a truly global ocean-observing system. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Charrassin, JB Hindell, MA Rintoul, SR Roquet, F Sokolov, S Biuw, M Costa, D Boehme, L Lovell, P Coleman, R Timmermann, R Meijers, AJS Meredith, M Park, YH Bailleul, F Goebel, M Tremblay, Y Bost, CA McMahon, CR Field, IC Fedak, MA Guinet, C |
author_facet |
Charrassin, JB Hindell, MA Rintoul, SR Roquet, F Sokolov, S Biuw, M Costa, D Boehme, L Lovell, P Coleman, R Timmermann, R Meijers, AJS Meredith, M Park, YH Bailleul, F Goebel, M Tremblay, Y Bost, CA McMahon, CR Field, IC Fedak, MA Guinet, C |
author_sort |
Charrassin, JB |
title |
Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals |
title_short |
Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals |
title_full |
Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals |
title_fullStr |
Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals |
title_sort |
southern ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8400/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8400/1/Charrassin_etal_PNAS_2008.pdf https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800790105 |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Sea ice Southern Elephant Seals Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Sea ice Southern Elephant Seals Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8400/1/Charrassin_etal_PNAS_2008.pdf Charrassin, JB, Hindell, MA, Rintoul, SR, Roquet, F, Sokolov, S, Biuw, M, Costa, D, Boehme, L, Lovell, P, Coleman, R, Timmermann, R, Meijers, AJS, Meredith, M, Park, YH, Bailleul, F, Goebel, M, Tremblay, Y, Bost, CA, McMahon, CR, Field, IC, Fedak, MA and Guinet, C 2008 , 'Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals' , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States PNAS, vol. 105, no. 33 , pp. 11634-11639 , doi:10.1073/pnas.0800790105 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800790105>. |
op_rights |
cc_utas |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800790105 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
container_volume |
105 |
container_issue |
33 |
container_start_page |
11634 |
op_container_end_page |
11639 |
_version_ |
1766170884739956736 |