Mau, Susan; Gentz, Torben; Körber, Jan-Hendrik; Torres, Marta E; Römer, Miriam; Sahling, Heiko; Wintersteller, Paul; Martinez, Roi; Schlüter, Michael; Helmke, Elisabeth (2015): Methane concentrations in the central North Sea [dataset publication series]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.854990, Supplement to: Mau, S et al. (2015): Seasonal methane accumulation and release from a gas emission site in the central North Sea. Biogeosciences, 12(18), 5261-5276, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5261-2015
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Abstract:
We investigated dissolved methane distributions along a 6 km transect crossing active seep sites at 40 m water depth in the central North Sea. These investigations were done under conditions of thermal stratification in summer (July 2013) and homogenous water column in winter (January 2014). Dissolved methane accumulated below the seasonal thermocline in summer with a median concentration of 390 nM, whereas during winter, methane concentrations were typically much lower (median concentration of 22 nM). High-resolution methane analysis using an underwater mass-spectrometer confirmed our summer results and was used to document prevailing stratification over the tidal cycle. We contrast estimates of methane oxidation rates (from 0.1 to 4.0 nM day**-1) using the traditional approach scaled to methane concentrations with microbial turnover time values and suggest that the scaling to concentration may obscure the ecosystem microbial activity when comparing systems with different methane concentrations. Our measured and averaged rate constants (k') were on the order of 0.01 day**-1, equivalent to a turnover time of 100 days, even when summer stratification led to enhanced methane concentrations in the bottom water. Consistent with these observations, we could not detect known methanotrophs and pmoA genes in water samples collected during both seasons. Estimated methane fluxes indicate that horizontal transport is the dominant process dispersing the methane plume. During periods of high wind speed (winter), more methane is lost to the atmosphere than oxidized in the water. Microbial oxidation seems of minor importance throughout the year.
Project(s):
Physical Oceanography @ AWI (AWI_PhyOce)
Coverage:
Median Latitude: 55.305804 * Median Longitude: 4.078249 * South-bound Latitude: 55.305000 * West-bound Longitude: 4.041500 * North-bound Latitude: 55.306170 * East-bound Longitude: 4.138830
Date/Time Start: 2013-07-22T11:03:00 * Date/Time End: 2014-01-17T12:10:00
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Size:
2 datasets
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Datasets listed in this publication series
- Mau, S; Gentz, T; Körber, J-H et al. (2015): Methane concentration and methane oxidation rates of CTD stations along a hydrocast transect in the central North Sea. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.854975
- Mau, S; Gentz, T; Körber, J-H et al. (2015): Underwater mass spectrometry (UWMS) methane concentrations in the central North Sea. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.854984