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1. The Observed Seasonal Cycle of Macronutrients in Drake Passage: Relationship to Fronts and Utility as a Model Metric

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015052  

   Freeman, Natalie M.; Munro, David R.; Sprintall, Janet; Mazloff, Matthew R.; Purkey, Sarah; Rosso, Isabella; DeRanek, Carissa A.; Sweeney, Colm (July 2019, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans)

   Abstract The Drake Passage Time‐series (DPT) is used to quantify the spatial and seasonal variability of historically undersampled, biogeochemically relevant properties across the Drake Passage. From 2004–2017, discrete ship‐based observations of surface macronutrients (silicate, nitrate, and phosphate), temperature, and salinity have been collected 5–8 times per year as part of the DPT program. Using the DPT and Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) front locations derived from concurrent expendable bathythermograph data, the distinct physical and biogeochemical characteristics of ACC frontal zones are characterized. Biogeochemical‐Argo floats in the region confirm that the near‐surface sampling scheme of the DPT robustly captures mixed‐layer biogeochemistry. While macronutrient concentrations consistently increase toward the Antarctic continent, their meridional distribution, variability, and biogeochemical gradients are unique across physical ACC fronts, suggesting a combination of physical and biological processes controlling nutrient availability and nutrient front location. The Polar Front is associated with the northern expression of the Silicate Front, marking the biogeographically relevant location between silicate‐poor and silicate‐rich waters. South of the northern Silicate Front, the silicate‐to‐nitrate ratio increases, with the sharpest gradient in silicate associated with the Southern ACC Front (i.e., the southern expression of the Silicate Front). Nutrient cycling is an important control on variability in the surface ocean partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO₂). The robust characterization of the spatiotemporal variability of nutrients presented here highlights the utility of biogeochemical time series for diagnosing and potentially reducing biases in modeling Southern Ocean pCO₂variability, and by inference, air‐sea CO₂flux. 

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2. Expedition 383 Preliminary Report: Dynamics of the Pacific Antarctic Circumpolar Current (DYNAPACC)

   https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.pr.383.2019  

   Lamy, F.; Winckler, G.; Alvarez Zarikian, C.A. (October 2019, Preliminary report)

   null (Ed.)

   The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the world’s strongest zonal current system that connects all three major ocean basins of the global ocean and therefore integrates and responds to global climate variability. Its flow is largely driven by strong westerly winds and constricted to its narrowest extent in the Drake Passage. Transport of fresh and cold surface and intermediate water masses through the Drake Passage (cold-water route) strongly affects the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation together with the inflow of Indian Ocean water masses (warm-water route). Both oceanographic corridors are critical for the South Atlantic contribution to Meridional Overturning Circulation changes. In contrast to the Atlantic and Indian sectors of the ACC, and with the exception of drill cores from the Antarctic continental margin and off New Zealand, the Pacific sector of the ACC lacks information on its Cenozoic paleoceanography from deep-sea drilling records. To advance our knowledge and understanding of Miocene to Holocene atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere dynamics in the Pacific and their implications for regional and global climate and atmospheric CO2, International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 383 recovered sedimentary sequences at (1) three sites located in the central South Pacific (U1539, U1540, and U1541), (2) two sites at the Chile margin (U1542 and U1544), and (3) one site from the pelagic eastern South Pacific (U1543) close to the entrance to the Drake Passage. Because of persistently stormy conditions and the resulting bad weather avoidance, we were not successful in recovering the originally planned Proposed Site CSP-3A in the central South Pacific in the Polar Frontal Zone. The drilled sediments at Sites U1541 and U1543 reach back to the late Miocene, and those at Site U1540 reach back to the early Pliocene. High sedimentary rate Pleistocene sedimentary sequences were drilled both in the central South Pacific (Site U1539) and along the Chile margin. Taken together, the sites represent a depth transect from ~1100 m at the Chile margin site (U1542) to ~4070 m in the central South Pacific (Site U1539) and allow investigation of changes in the vertical structure of the ACC, a key issue for understanding the role of the Southern Ocean in the global carbon cycle. The sites are located at latitudes and water depths where sediments will allow the application of a wide range of siliciclastic-, carbonate-, and opal-based proxies to address our objectives of reconstructing with unprecedented stratigraphic detail surface to deep-ocean variations and their relation to atmosphere and cryosphere changes through stadial to interstadial, glacial to interglacial, and warmer than present time intervals. 

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3. Bathymetric Control of Subpolar Gyres and the Overturning Circulation in the Southern Ocean

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-21-0136.1  

   Wilson, Earle A.; Thompson, Andrew F.; Stewart, Andrew L.; Sun, Shantong (February 2022, Journal of Physical Oceanography)

   Abstract The subpolar gyres of the Southern Ocean form an important dynamical link between the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and the coastline of Antarctica. Despite their key involvement in the production and export of bottom water and the poleward transport of oceanic heat, these gyres are rarely acknowledged in conceptual models of the Southern Ocean circulation, which tend to focus on the zonally averaged overturning across the ACC. To isolate the effect of these gyres on the regional circulation, we carried out a set of numerical simulations with idealized representations of the Weddell Sea sector in the Southern Ocean. A key result is that the zonally oriented submarine ridge along the northern periphery of the subpolar gyre plays a fundamental role in setting the stratification and circulation across the entire region. In addition to sharpening and strengthening the horizontal circulation of the gyre, the zonal ridge establishes a strong meridional density front that separates the weakly stratified subpolar gyre from the more stratified circumpolar flow. Critically, the formation of this front shifts the latitudinal outcrop position of certain deep isopycnals such that they experience different buoyancy forcing at the surface. Additionally, the zonal ridge modifies the mechanisms by which heat is transported poleward by the ocean, favoring heat transport by transient eddies while suppressing that by stationary eddies. This study highlights the need to characterize how bathymetry at the subpolar gyre–ACC boundary may constrain the transient response of the regional circulation to changes in surface forcing. Significance StatementThis study explores the impact of seafloor bathymetry on the dynamics of subpolar gyres in the Southern Ocean. The subpolar gyres are major circulation features that connect the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and the coastline of Antarctica. This work provides deeper insight for how the submarine ridges that exist along the northern periphery of these gyres shape the vertical distribution of tracers and overturning circulation in these regions. These findings highlight an underappreciated yet fundamentally important topographical constraint on the three-dimensional cycling of heat and carbon in the Southern Ocean—processes that have far-reaching implications for the global climate. Future work should explore how the presence of these ridges affect the time-evolving response of the Southern Ocean to changes in surface conditions. 

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4. Expedition 382 Preliminary Report: Iceberg Alley and Subantarctic Ice and Ocean Dynamics

   https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.pr.382.2019  

   Weber, M.E.; Raymo, M.E.; Peck, V.L.; Williams, T. (August 2019, Preliminary report)

   null (Ed.)

   International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 382, Iceberg Alley and Subantarctic Ice and Ocean Dynamics, investigated the long-term climate history of Antarctica, seeking to understand how polar ice sheets responded to changes in insolation and atmospheric CO2 in the past and how ice sheet evolution influenced global sea level and vice versa. Five sites (U1534–U1538) were drilled east of the Drake Passage: two sites at 53.2°S at the northern edge of the Scotia Sea and three sites at 57.4°–59.4°S in the southern Scotia Sea. We recovered continuously deposited late Neogene sediment to reconstruct the past history and variability in Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) mass loss and associated changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulation. The sites from the southern Scotia Sea (Sites U1536–U1538) will be used to study the Neogene flux of icebergs through “Iceberg Alley,” the main pathway along which icebergs calved from the margin of the AIS travel as they move equatorward into the warmer waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). In particular, sediments from this area will allow us to assess the magnitude of iceberg flux during key times of AIS evolution, including the following: • The middle Miocene glacial intensification of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, • The mid-Pliocene warm period, • The late Pliocene glacial expansion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, • The mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT), and • The “warm interglacials” and glacial terminations of the last 800 ky. We will use the geochemical provenance of iceberg-rafted detritus and other glacially eroded material to determine regional sources of AIS mass loss. We will also address interhemispheric phasing of ice sheet growth and decay, study the distribution and history of land-based versus marine-based ice sheets around the continent over time, and explore the links between AIS variability and global sea level. By comparing north–south variations across the Scotia Sea between the Pirie Basin (Site U1538) and the Dove Basin (Sites U1536 and U1537), Expedition 382 will also deliver critical information on how climate changes in the Southern Ocean affect ocean circulation through the Drake Passage, meridional overturning in the region, water mass production, ocean–atmosphere CO2 transfer by wind-induced upwelling, sea ice variability, bottom water outflow from the Weddell Sea, Antarctic weathering inputs, and changes in oceanic and atmospheric fronts in the vicinity of the ACC. Comparing changes in dust proxy records between the Scotia Sea and Antarctic ice cores will also provide a detailed reconstruction of changes in the Southern Hemisphere westerlies on millennial and orbital timescales for the last 800 ky. Extending the ocean dust record beyond the last 800 ky will help to evaluate dust-climate couplings since the Pliocene, the potential role of dust in iron fertilization and atmospheric CO2 drawdown during glacials, and whether dust input to Antarctica played a role in the MPT. The principal scientific objective of Subantarctic Front Sites U1534 and U1535 at the northern limit of the Scotia Sea is to reconstruct and understand how ocean circulation and intermediate water formation responds to changes in climate with a special focus on the connectivity between the Atlantic and Pacific basins, the “cold water route.” The Subantarctic Front contourite drift, deposited between 400 and 2000 m water depth on the northern flank of an east–west trending trough off the Chilean continental shelf, is ideally situated to monitor millennial- to orbital-scale variability in the export of Antarctic Intermediate Water beneath the Subantarctic Front. During Expedition 382, we recovered continuously deposited sediments from this drift spanning the late Pleistocene (from ~0.78 Ma to recent) and from the late Pliocene (~3.1–2.6 Ma). These sites are expected to yield a wide array of paleoceanographic records that can be used to interpret past changes in the density structure of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, track migrations of the Subantarctic Front, and give insights into the role and evolution of the cold water route over significant climate episodes, including the following: • The most recent warm interglacials of the late Pleistocene and • The intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. 

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5. Iceberg Alley and Subantarctic Ice and Ocean Dynamics

   https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.382.2021  

   Weber, M.E.; Raymo, M.E.; Peck, V.L.; Williams, T. (May 2021, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program)

   null (Ed.)

   International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 382, Iceberg Alley and Subantarctic Ice and Ocean Dynamics, investigated the long-term climate history of Antarctica, seeking to understand how polar ice sheets responded to changes in insolation and atmospheric CO2 in the past and how ice sheet evolution influenced global sea level and vice versa. Five sites (U1534–U1538) were drilled east of the Drake Passage: two sites at 53.2°S at the northern edge of the Scotia Sea and three sites at 57.4°–59.4°S in the southern Scotia Sea. We recovered continuously deposited late Neogene sediments to reconstruct the past history and variability in Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) mass loss and associated changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulation. The sites from the southern Scotia Sea (Sites U1536–U1538) will be used to study the Neogene flux of icebergs through “Iceberg Alley,” the main pathway along which icebergs calved from the margin of the AIS travel as they move equatorward into the warmer waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). In particular, sediments from this area will allow us to assess the magnitude of iceberg flux during key times of AIS evolution, including the following: • The middle Miocene glacial intensification of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, • The mid-Pliocene warm period, • The late Pliocene glacial expansion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, • The mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT), and • The “warm interglacials” and glacial terminations of the last 800 ky. We will use the geochemical provenance of iceberg-rafted detritus and other glacially eroded material to determine regional sources of AIS mass loss. We will also address interhemispheric phasing of ice sheet growth and decay, study the distribution and history of land-based versus marine-based ice sheets around the continent over time, and explore the links between AIS variability and global sea level. By comparing north–south variations across the Scotia Sea between the Pirie Basin (Site U1538) and the Dove Basin (Sites U1536 and U1537), Expedition 382 will also deliver critical information on how climate changes in the Southern Ocean affect ocean circulation through the Drake Passage, meridional overturning in the region, water mass production, ocean–atmosphere CO2 transfer by wind-induced upwelling, sea ice variability, bottom water outflow from the Weddell Sea, Antarctic weathering inputs, and changes in oceanic and atmospheric fronts in the vicinity of the ACC. Comparing changes in dust proxy records between the Scotia Sea and Antarctic ice cores will also provide a detailed reconstruction of changes in the Southern Hemisphere westerlies on millennial and orbital timescales for the last 800 ky. Extending the ocean dust record beyond the last 800 ky will help to evaluate dust-climate couplings since the Pliocene, the potential role of dust in iron fertilization and atmospheric CO2 drawdown during glacials, and whether dust input to Antarctica played a role in the MPT. The principal scientific objective of Subantarctic Front Sites U1534 and U1535 at the northern limit of the Scotia Sea is to reconstruct and understand how intermediate water formation in the southwest Atlantic responds to changes in connectivity between the Atlantic and Pacific basins, the “cold water route.” The Subantarctic Front contourite drift, deposited between 400 and 2000 m water depth on the northern flank of an east–west trending trough off the Chilean continental shelf, is ideally situated to monitor millennial- to orbital-scale variability in the export of Antarctic Intermediate Water beneath the Subantarctic Front. During Expedition 382, we recovered continuously deposited sediments from this drift spanning the late Pleistocene (from ~0.78 Ma to recent) and from the late Pliocene (~3.1–2.6 Ma). These sites are expected to yield a wide array of paleoceanographic records that can be used to interpret past changes in the density structure of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, track migrations of the Subantarctic Front, and give insights into the role and evolution of the cold water route over significant climate episodes, including the following: • The most recent warm interglacials of the late Pleistocene and • The intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. 

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