Abstract. The flux of materials to the deep sea is dominated by larger, organic-rich particles with sinking rates varying between a few meters and several hundred meters per day. Mineral ballast may regulate the transfer of organic matter and other components by determining the sinking rates, e.g. via particle density. We calculated particle sinking rates from mass flux patterns and alkenone measurements applying the results of sediment trap experiments from the Atlantic Ocean. We have indication for higher particle sinking rates in carbonate-dominated production systems when considering both regional and seasonal data. During a summer coccolithophorid bloom in the Cape Blanc coastal upwelling off Mauritania, particle sinking rates reached almost 570 m per day, most probably due the fast sedimentation of densely packed zooplankton fecal pellets, which transport high amounts of organic carbon associated with coccoliths to the deep ocean despite rather low production. During the recurring winter-spring blooms off NW Africa and in opalrich production systems of the Southern Ocean, sinking rates of larger particles, most probably diatom aggregates, showed a tendency to lower values. However, there is no straightforward relationship between carbonate content and particle sinking rates. This could be due to the unknown composition of carbonate and/or the influence of particle size and shape on sinking rates. It also remains noticeable that the highest sinking rates occurred in dust-rich ocean regions off NW Africa, but this issue deserves further detailed field and laboratory investigations. We obtained increasing sinking rates with depth. By using a seven-compartment biogeochemical model, it was shown that the deep ocean organic carbon flux at a mesotrophic sediment trap site off Cape Blanc can be captured fairly well using seasonal variable particle sinking rates. Our model provides a total organic carbon flux of Correspondence to: G. Fischer (gerhard.fischer@uni-bremen.de) 0.29 Tg per year down to 3000 m off the NW African upwelling region between 5 and 35 • N. Simple parameterisations of remineralisation and sinking rates in such models, however, limit their capability in reproducing the flux variation in the water column.

[1] The region off Cape Blanc along the northwest African coast is dominated by persistent upwelling and strong activity of small-scale eddies, filaments, and jets. Vertical particle camera profiles obtained during recent cruises in this region show that there exist two well-marked maxima of particle abundance in the water column, one at the surface and the other in subsurface layers between 200 m and 400 m depths. Using a highresolution (2.7 km) terrain-following coordinate ocean model with built-in ecosystem and sediment transport modules, we show that the surface particle maximum can be explained by local productivity, while the deeper, subsurface particle cloud most likely originates from particulate material eroded from the shallow shelf and transported offshore by vigorous filament activity and dynamic features of the flow. In the numerical experiments, particles are produced either by primary production in the surface layer or from prescribed sediment sources to mimic suspension and erosion along the shelf areas. Good agreement of modeled particle distributions with the data is achieved with a typical settling velocity of 5 m day À1. Time-averaged effective transport patterns of particles reveal distinct maxima between 20.5°N and 23.5°N off Cape Blanc. In the south of Cape Bojador and off Cape Timiris, on the other hand, the effective transport distance patterns suggest energetic offshore activity.Citation: Karakaş, G., N. Nowald, M. Blaas, P. Marchesiello, S. Frickenhaus, and R. Schlitzer (2006), High-resolution modeling of sediment erosion and particle transport across the northwest African shelf,

No abstract

Abstract. Measurements of physical properties have been conducted in Mining Lake 111 (ML111), located in Lusatia, Germany over the time period 1996 -2002. In the deepest area of the ML111, a monimolimnion was observed, that persisted for the years 1996 -1999. It disappeared in 2000 and again formed in 2001. The definition of the main physical properties, such as the temperature compensation for electrical conductivity, in acidic mining lakes required a lake specific approach. The relation between conductivity, temperature and density was determined for the acidic ML111. The variation in dissolved Aquat. Sci. 65 (2003) Dübendorf, 2003 Aquatic Sciences substances affected these relationships such that conductivity varied with temperature even in different layers of the water column and the limitations for a lake wide correlation was evident. Variation in the conductivity of the epilimnion could be verified, and agreed with the estimates of evaporation from the lake surface during summer stratification. Calculations, following the gradient flux method, indicated vertical transport coefficients between 10 -7 and 10 -6 m 2 /s throughout the hypolimnion. The heat budget indicated that heat was transferred into the lake bed or the ground during spring.297-307 1015-1621/03/030297-11 DOI 10.1007/s00027-003-0651-z © EAWAG,