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Water intrusions and particle signatures in the Black Sea: a Biogeochemical-Argo float investigation

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Abstract

Continuous observations during 3 years with a vertical resolution of 1 dbar from two Bio-Argo floats in the Black Sea that were equipped with oxygen optodes, chlorophyll fluorometers, and backscattering sensors are analyzed. The particle backscattering coefficient, b bp provides a proxy for the concentration of suspended particles. The observations clearly identify thermal and b bp intrusions down to ~700–800 m in the Bosporus inflow area. In this area, b bp is more than five times larger than elsewhere, which could indicate bacterial abundance and possible biological involvement in the precipitation of Mn-containing particles. The b bp anomalies become much shallower than the temperature anomalies with increasing distance to the east of the strait. Their maxima are located between the onset of the suboxic zone and the upper part of the anoxic layer. Unlike well-known intrusions that are caused by inflow, open ocean intrusions are shallower and often characterized by multiple layers of backscatter maxima with thicknesses of only 15–20 m. The ratio between backscattering coefficients measured at two wavelengths, which gives a proxy for particle size, shows that the relative amount of larger size particles in the anoxic layer increases with depth. The particle concentrations and their size distribution display different vertical variability, which indicates the complex transformation of biological matter. The lower concentration of particles and lower chlorophyll-a during the extremely warm 2016 reveals an overall positive correlation between the two properties. The trends in the particle backscattering coefficient in the suboxic zone during 2013–2016 could indirectly reveal a biogeochemical response to temperature changes.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to V. Slabakova for the work that was performed during the deployment of the floats and to P.M. Poulain for coordinating the Argo activities in the Black Sea. We are grateful to J. Murray for his useful suggestions on improving the paper. EVS acknowledges support from the EC grant 312642 and Hervé Claustre from the European Research Council for the Remotely Sensed Biogeochemical Cycles in the Ocean (remOcean) project (grant agreement 246777). Data that support the analysis and conclusions can be found at http://www.ifremer.fr/co-argoFloats/float?detail=false&ocean=A&lang=en&techChart=false&ptfCode=7900591 and http://www.ifremer.fr/co-argoFloats/float?detail=false&ocean=A&lang=en&techChart=false&ptfCode=7900592.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Coastal Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Max-Planck-Strasse 1, 21502, Geesthacht, Germany

    Emil Vassilev Stanev & Sebastian Grayek

  2. Department of Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Sofia, 5 James Bourchier Street, 1126, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Emil Vassilev Stanev

  3. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, UMR 7093, Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (LOV), Villefranche sur Mer, France

    Hervé Claustre & Antoine Poteau

  4. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, UMS 3455, OSU Ecce-Terra, Paris Cédex 5, France

    Chaterine Schmechtig

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  1. Emil Vassilev Stanev
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Correspondence to Emil Vassilev Stanev.

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Stanev, E., Grayek, S., Claustre, H. et al. Water intrusions and particle signatures in the Black Sea: a Biogeochemical-Argo float investigation. Ocean Dynamics 67, 1119–1136 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-017-1077-9

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