Hydrogen sulfide in the southwestern Baltic Sea

A new German collaboration uses AI to explore the distribution of (toxic) Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the bottom waters of Kiel Bight (SW Baltic Sea). H2S is formed by anaerobic bacteria under conditions in which dissolved oxygen levels are very low or absent. This new estimate suggest that ~ 27% of the 622 km2 seafloor of Kiel Bight are affected by H2S in late summer. Standard observation methods might partly miss these occurrences because H2S is often restricted to the lowermost water layer, undetected by conventional water column profiling: https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.70492

The hidden value of low-performers

A new study in the journal Nature Scientific Reports explores ensemble design strategies in biogeochemical ocean modelling. It illustrates the benefits of combining of the “power of many” with Machine Learning by exploring simulated oxygen concentrations at a test site (Eckernförde Bight; Baltic Sea). Even seemingly weak or deliberately extreme model versions can contribute important insights: https://www.uni-kiel.de/en/details/news/099-value

Major Baltic Inflows come in different flavours

The Baltic Sea is a marginal sea in northern Europe. Anthropogenic eutrophication and related deoxygenation are among its pressing environmental problems. In this context, North Sea water plays a crucial role in maintaining the ecological balance as so called Major Baltic Inflows from the North Sea are the only mechanism to ventilate the deep waters of the Baltic with fresh…

How to diagnose ocean mixing in models

Ocean mixing is key to distribute heat and nutrients in the world oceans. Despite it’s great importance, it is mainly unconstrained even in ocean models, where numerical effects add to the deliberate parameter settings. Our novel study proposes to use the saturation state of the noble gas Argon to diagnose mixing in ocean models. We test this approach in a…

Using AI to understand Barents Sea transports

A close cooperation with Norway and Estonia explores the reasons for increasing ocean transports through the Barents Sea opening. Today, the relatively warm and salty waters, that originate for the Atlantic Ocean, have an increasing impact on the Barents Sea (the so called Atlantification process), which leads to sea ice loss and potentially irreversible and amplifying ecosystem changes. To understand…

A new model is born

Within the framework of the BMBF-funded project PrimePrevention we currently develop an ultra-high resolution model setup for the Kiel Bight (Baltic Sea). The new model setup will be named MOMKI. We look forward to the results of the first test simulations!

Ambiguous controls on simulated diazotrophs in the world oceans

Nitrogen fixers, are microorganisms that fix nitrogen from the air, making it available for ecosystems. It is known that they grow rather slowly so that they are easily taken advantage of by fast-growing algae – unless there is a lack of bioavailable nitrogen. This is when their unique property of “fixing” the nitrogen from the air comes into play. Surprisingly, nitrogen fixers in the…

Press release on Baltic cyanobacteria

The press release by KMS (Kiel Marine Science) of our nature scientific report publication on Baltic Sea cyanobacteria blooms triggered a great interest by many newspapers and the NDR television. A German summary of is still available.

Cyanobacteria blooms in the Baltic Sea

Blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria)  form regularly massive blooms in the Baltic Sea – especially in late summer. The bacteria can produce toxins and add bioavailable nitrogen fixed from the atmosphere to the already over-fertilized system. In the presented study, high-resolution model data from the Baltic Sea were combined with various observations. Simulated currents were used to trace the origin of…