Pacific herring show an abrupt genetic discontinuity in the central North Pacific that represents secondary contact between refuge populations previously isolated during Pleistocene glaciations. Paradoxically, high levels of gene flow produce genetic homogeneity among ocean-type populations within each group. Here, we surveyed variability in mtDNA control-region sequences (463 bp) and nine micr...

A temporal change in stable isotope (δ15N) distributions in North Sea harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena (L.) was documented by analysing stable isotope abundances in bone collagen from 88 skeletons of harbour porpoises stranded in the period between 1848 and 2002 along the southern North Sea coast. Porpoises collected after ~1960 had significantly lower δ15N than porpoises collected earlier. ...

Mitochondrial mechanisms, which may define and adjust an organism’s thermal tolerance window to the environmental temperature regime, were studied in 2 intertidal populations of the polychaete worm Arenicola marina (L.) from the North Sea (boreal) and the White Sea (subpolar). Adaptation to lower mean annual temperatures in the subpolar White Sea population (4 vs 10°C in the North Sea) was refl...

*Correspondence: Christian R. Voolstra, Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Building 2, Room 2226, 23955-6900 Thuwal, Saudi Arabia e-mail: christian.voolstra@ kaust.edu.sa The Red Sea is the world’s northernmost tropical sea. The 2000 km long, but narrow basin creates distinct environmental conditions along its latitudinal spread. The Red Sea displays a ...

We present a top-down ship NOx emission inventory for the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean Sea based on satellite-observed tropospheric NO2 columns of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) for 2005–2006. We improved the representation of ship emissions in the GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model, and compared simulated NO2 columns to consistent satellite observa...

North Atlantic sea ice displacements are thought to play an important role in the abrupt Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) cycles of the last glacial period. This model study investigates sea ice variability in glacial climates to help provide constraints on its involvement in D-O cycles. Sea ice variability in a coupled climate model simulation of the Last Glacial Maximum (21 ka) is concentrated in the...

It has been previously proposed that alkalinity release from sediments can play an important role in the carbonate dynamics on continental shelves, lowering the pCO2 of seawater and hence increasing the CO2 uptake from the atmosphere. To test this hypothesis, sedimentary alkalinity generation was quantified within cohesive and permeable sediments across the North Sea during two cruises in Septe...

Activities of citrate synthase (CS), cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) and the electron transport system (ETS) were investigated in white muscle and liver of laboratory-maintained cod, Gadus morhua, from the North Sea, Norwegian coast and Barents Sea for an analysis of temperature acclimation and adaptation in aerobic metabolism. Cold acclimation within each population led to elevated activities of CS...

The dominant mode of Arctic sea ice variability in winter is often maintained to be represented by a quadrupole structure, comprising poles of one sign in the Okhotsk, Greenland, and Barents Seas and of opposing sign in the Labrador and Bering Seas, forced by the North Atlantic Oscillation. This study revisits this large-scale wintermode of sea ice variability usingmicrowave satellite and reana...

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were studied to determine occurrence, levels and spatial distribution in the marine atmosphere and surface seawater during cruises in the German Bight and the wider North Sea in spring and summer 2009-2010. In general, the concentrations found in air are similar to, or below, the levels at coastal or near-coastal sites in Eur...