Climate warming affects the development and distribution of sea ice, but at present the evidence of polar ecosystem feedbacks on climate through changes in the atmosphere is sparse. By means of synergistic atmospheric and oceanic measurements in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, we present evidence that the microbiota of sea ice and sea ice-influenced ocean are a previously unknown significant source of atmospheric organic nitrogen, including low molecular weight alkyl-amines. Given the keystone role of nitrogen compounds in aerosol formation, growth and neutralization, our findings call for greater chemical and source diversity in the modelling efforts linking the marine ecosystem to aerosol-mediated climate effects in the Southern Ocean.

The analysis of a compilation of deep CTD casts conducted in the western Mediterranean from 1998 to 2011 has documented the role that dense water formation, and particularly deep dense shelf water cascading off the Gulf of Lions, plays in transporting suspended particulate matter from the coastal regions down to the basin. Deep CTD casts reveal that after the 1999 and 2005–2006 deep cascading events the Western Mediterranean Deep Water (WMDW) was characterized by the presence of a thick bottom nepheloid layer (BNL) that corresponded in thickness with a thermohaline anomaly generated by the mixture of dense waters formed by deep convection in the open sea and by deep cascading. This BNL can be hundreds of meters thick and in the central part of the basin usually exhibits suspended sediment concentrations of <0.1 mg/l above background levels, reaching higher concentrations close to the continental rise, with near-bottom peaks >1 mg/l. After winter 1999 the BNL spread from the Gulf of Lions and the Catalan margin over the northwestern Mediterranean basin, reaching west of the Balearic Islands and the Ligurian Sea, while after winters 2005–2006 the BNL covered the entire western Mediterranean basin. Thickness and concentration of the BNL tend to diminish with time but this trend is highly dependent on the volume of dense water generated, both by convection and cascading. After winter 1999 the BNL signal vanished in one year, but after winters 2005–2006 it lasted for longer and the turbidity signal can still be distinguished at present (2011). Particle size distribution in the BNL reveals the presence of large aggregates up to 1 mm in size formed by a mixture of single particles with the same bimodal grain size distribution as the surface sediments found in the northwestern Mediterranean slope and basin. Results presented in this paper highlight the fact that the WMDW can be periodically affected by the arrival of new dense waters loaded with suspended particles mainly introduced by resuspension processes during major cascading events, being a key process that could ultimately affect deep-sea biogeochemical cycles in the western Mediterranean

SUMMARY: Time series measurements at a mooring site on the deep slope of the NW Mediterranean from October 2003 to July 2005 revealed the sequence of effects of the anomalously dry, markedly cold, and very windy winter of 2005 in deep water thermohaline properties. At the end of January, a dense water mass that was warmer and saltier than usual reached the deep slope mooring site. Almost simultaneously, the start of deep dense shelf water cascading episodes was observed in the Gulf of Lions' submarine canyons. 30 days later, colder, fresher and even denser waters reached the mooring, with a 5-day delay from an intensification of the Gulf of Lions' cascading. The signature of these waters was detected for 35 days, and by late spring 2005 a new stable water mass situation was reached, with higher thermohaline values than those that characterised the deep layer from October 2003 to January 2005.Keywords: dense water formation, cascading, submarine canyon, deep mooring, northwestern Mediterranean. INVIERNO DE 2005. -Una serie temporal de datos registrados en un anclaje en la parte profunda del talud continental del Mediterráneo noroccidental desde octubre de 2003 a julio de 2005 muestra la secuencia de los efectos del invierno de 2005, anómalamente seco, destacadamente frío y muy ventoso. A finales de enero una masa de agua densa, más caliente y salada de lo habitual, llegó al anclaje del talud profundo. Casi simultáneamente se observó en los cañones del Golfo de León el inicio de episodios de hundimiento profundo de agua densa de plataforma en forma de cascada. Al cabo de 30 días, 5 días después de intensificarse el hundimiento en cascada en el Golfo de León , aguas más frías, menos saladas, y todavía más densas, alcanzaron el anclaje y permanecieron allí durante 35 días. A finales de la primavera de 2005 se alcanzó un nuevo estado estacionario con valores de temperatura y salinidad más elevados que los característicos de la capa profunda desde octubre de 2003 hasta enero de 2005. RESUMEN: SECUENCIA DE CAMBIOS HIDROGRÁFICOS EN EL AGUA PROFUNDA DEL MEDITERRÁNEO NOROCCIDENTAL DURANTE EL EXCEPCIONALPalabras clave: formación de agua densa, hundimiento en cascada, cañón submarino, anclaje profundo, Mediterráneo noroccidental. Schott and Leaman, 1991). Around the MEDOC area, where surface water is typically less salty, and preferably on its N and W sides, a Western Mediterranean Intermediate Water (WIW) is formed under the effect of the same winds (Salat and Font, 1987). The WIW resulting from this second open sea mechanism is fresher and colder than WMDW, because its formation involves more recent Atlantic Water (AW) brought by the Northern Current instead of LIW or TDW, as they are located below the convection limit or offshore. The relatively cold WIW, with a strong interannual variability in its formation, remains below the fresher surface AW and above the LIW layer, and is brought to the southwest along the continental slope by the general circulation.In addition to open sea deep and intermediate offshore convection...