Plankton distribution associated with frontal zones in the vicinity of the Pribilof Islands     

Mikhail V. Flint  Irina N. Sukhanova  Alexander I. Kopylov  Sergei G. Poyarkov  Terry E. Whitledge 《Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography》2002,49(26)

We studied the effect of four types of fronts, the coastal front, the middle front, the shelf partition front and the shelf break front on the quantitative distribution and the composition of plankton communities in the Pribilof area of the eastern Bering Sea shelf in late spring and summer of 1993 and 1994. The coastal fronts near St. Paul and St. George Islands and the coastal domains encircled by the fronts featured specific taxonomic composition of planktonic algae, high abundance and production of phytoplankton, as well as large numbers of heterotrophic nanoplankton. The coastal fronts also were characterized by high values of total mesozooplankton biomass, high concentrations of Calanus marshallae, as well as relatively high abundances of Parasagitta setosa and Euphausiacea compared to surrounding shelf waters. We hypothesize that wind-induced erosion of a weak thermocline in the inner part of the coastal front as well as transfrontal water exchange in subthermocline layers result in nutrient enrichment of the euphotic layer in the coastal fronts and coastal domains in summer time. This leads to prolonged high primary production and high phytoplankton biomass. In this paper a new type of front—the shelf partition front located 45–55 km to the north-east off St. Paul Island—is described, which is assumed to be formed by the flux of oceanic domain waters onto the shelf. This front features a high abundance of phytoplankton and a high level of primary production compared to the adjacent middle shelf. Near the southwestern periphery of the front a mesozooplankton peak occurred, composed of C. marshallae, with biomass in the subthermocline layer, reaching values typical for the shelf break front and the highest for the area. High abundance of phyto- and zooplankton as well as heterotrophic nanoplankton and elevated primary production were most often observed in the area adjacent to the shelf break front at its oceanic side. The phyto- and mesozooplankton peaks here were formed by oceanic community species. The summer levels of phytoplankton numbers, biomass and primary production in the shelf break frontal area were similar to those reported for the outer and middle shelf during the spring bloom and the coastal domains and coastal fronts in summer. In the environment with a narrow shelf to the south of St. George Island, the mesozooplankton peak was observed at the inner side of the shelf break front as close as 20 km from the island shore and was comprised of a “mixed” community of shelf and oceanic species. The biomass in the peak reached the highest values for the Pribilof area at 2.5 g mean wet weight m⁻³ in the 0–100 m layer. Details of the taxonomic composition and the numbers and production of phytoplankton hint at the similarity of processes that affect the phytoplankton summer community in the coastal domains of the islands, at the coastal fronts, and at the oceanic side of the shelf break front. The middle front was the only one that had no effect on plankton composition or its quantitative characteristics in June and July. Location of a variety of frontal productive areas within 100 km of the Pribilof Islands creates favorable foraging habitat for higher trophic level organisms, including sea birds and marine mammals, populating the islands.  相似文献   

Late Holocene chronology,origin, and evolution of the St. Bernard Shoals,Northern Gulf of Mexico,USA     

Bryan E. Rogers  Mark A. Kulp  Michael D. Miner 《Geo-Marine Letters》2009,29(6):379-394

Several shore-parallel marine sand bodies lie on the Louisiana continental shelf. They are Trinity Shoal, Ship Shoal, Outer Shoal, and the St. Bernard Shoals. These shoals mark the submerged positions of ancient shorelines associated with abandoned deltas. Three of these shoals are single elongate deposits. The fourth shoal, the St. Bernard Shoals, consists of a group of discrete sand bodies ranging in size from 44 to 0.05 km², 25 km southeast of the Chandeleur Islands in 15–18 m of water. The St. Bernard Shoals are stratigraphically above the St. Bernard delta complex, which was active 2,500–1,800 years b.p. Understanding the evolution of the St. Bernard Shoals is necessary to reconstruct the Holocene chronology of the St. Bernard delta complex and the eastern Louisiana continental shelf. For this study, 47 vibracores and 400 km of shallow seismic reflection data collected in 1987 across the Louisiana shelf were analyzed. In June 2008, 384 km of higher-resolution seismic reflection data were acquired across the study area and appended to the preexisting datasets. Vibracores were integrated with seismic profiles to identify facies and their regional distribution. Our results demonstrate that the deltaic package stratigraphically below the St. Bernard Shoals is chronologically younger than the northern distributaries, but derived from the same trunk distributary channel (Bayou la Loutre). The river eventually bypassed the northern distributaries, and began to deposit sediment further onto the continental shelf. After abandonment, the overextended delta lobe was rapidly transgressed, creating a transgressive shoreline that eventually coalesced with earlier shorelines in the region to form the Chandeleur Islands. The St. Bernard Shoals formed by the reworking of the relict distributary deposits exposed on the inner to mid shelf during and subsequent to shoreface ravinement.  相似文献