Respiratory disorder in the ocean

[Judi Lynn]

Respiratory disorder in the ocean
by Staff Writers
Kiel, Germany (SPX) Nov 20, 2013

More than four months from November 2012 to March 2013 Kiel ocean scientists investigated on the German research vessel METEOR the oxygen-poor upwelling regions in the tropical Pacific off Peru.

First results of the project carried out in the context of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 754 "Climate-biogeochemistry interactions in the tropical ocean" show, how eddies in the ocean influence the oxygen and nutrient distribution in the oxygen-poor regions.

This study based on a joint work from scientists of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the Instituto del Mar del Peru (IMARPE) in Lima is published in the international scientific journal Biogeosciences.

Observations show that in large regions of the tropical oceans, the so-called oxygen minimum zones (OMZ), the oxygen content declined during the last decades. In addition the ocean emitted increasingly climate relevant trace gases to the atmosphere. Based on numerical models it was speculated, that small-scale circulation pattern - so-called eddies - influence sustainably the distribution of oxygen and nutrients in the OMZ's.

More:
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Respiratory_disorder_in_the_ocean_999.html

[pscot]

1. The warmer it gets

the less oxygen it can hold.