• European Marine Science
• Research softwareclose
• Other research productsclose
• 2014-2023close
• English close

The Resource Manager is a SOA based service in charge of managing gCube Scope contexts. The Resource Manager 2.0, by coordinating five distinguished services (Deployer, Software Gateway, Resource Broker, gCube Hosting Node Manager, Web Hosting Node Manager), realizes the VRE dynamic deployment by, respectively, collecting service implementations, selecting target nodes for deployment within the infrastructure, and hosting resources implementations at selected nodes. The primary role assigned to this service is to collects and manage all the resources and service implementations related to a specific Virtual Organization.

Water/ice velocity data and instrument status from a Nortek Aquadopp Profiler 2MHz acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP) attached to a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition between November 2019 and September 2020. The Aquadopp System Integrator Manual by Nortek AS can be found here: https://sensor.awi.de/rest/sensors/onlineResources/getOnlineResourcesFile/1764/system-integrator-manual_Mar2016.pdf

As a natural sediment trap, marine sediments of the sheltered central part of the Maldives Inner Sea represent an exceptional archive for paleoenvironmental and climate changes of the equatorial Indian Ocean. To evaluate the complex interplay between high-latitude and monsoonal climate variability, related dust fluxes, and regional oceanographic responses, we focused on Fe/Al, Ti/Al and Si/Ca ratios as proxies for terrigenous sediment delivery, and total organic carbon (TOC) and Br XRF counts as proxies for marine productivity. Benthic foraminiferal fauna distributions, grain size, and stable d18O and d13C data were used for evaluating changes in the benthic ecosystem, as well as changes in the intermediate water circulation, bottom water current velocity and oxygenation. Our multi-proxy data record reveals an enhanced dust supply during the glacial intervals, causing elevated Fe/Al and Si/Ca ratios, an overall coarsening of the sediment and an increasing amount of agglutinated benthic foraminifera. The enhanced dust fluxes can be attributed to higher dust availability in the Asian desert and loess areas and its transport by intensified winter monsoon winds during glacial conditions. These combined effects of wind-induced mixing of surface waters and dust fertilisation during the cold phases resulted in an increased surface-water productivity and related organic carbon fluxes. Thus, the development of highly diverse benthic foraminiferal faunas with certain detritus and suspension feeders were fostered. The difference in the d13C signal between epifaunal and deep infaunal benthic foraminifera reveals intermediate water oxygen concentrations between approximately 40 and 100 µmol kg-1 during this time. The precessional fluctuation pattern of oxygen changes resembles that from the deep Arabian Sea, suggesting an expansion of the Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) from the Arabian Sea into the tropical Indian Ocean with a probable regional signal of strengthened winter-monsoon-induced organic matter fluxes and oxygen consumption, and further controlled by the varying inflow intensity of the Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW). In addition, the bottom water oxygenation pattern of the Maldives Inner Sea reveals a long phase of reduced ventilation during the last glacial period. This process is likely linked to the combined effects of generally enhanced oxygen consumption rates during high-productivity phases, reduced AAIW production, and the restriction of upper bathyal environments of the Inner Sea during sea-level lowstands. Thus, our multi-proxy record reflects a close linkage between the Indian monsoon oscillation, intermediate water circulation, productivity and sea-level changes on orbital time-scale.

The aim of this thesis was to study how small logistics sector and fish sector companies in Kymenlaakso region have experienced the effects of Russia’s counter-sanctions. The main research questions in the study were “Have the Russia’s counter-sanctions affected companies’ businesses in Kymenlaakso region?”, “What kind of effect(s) have the companies identified and encountered?”, “What measures have companies taken regarding the situation?” and “Have the companies tried to find new markets for their products or services?”. The primary research method in this study was a semi-structured interview. The author of this thesis interviewed professionals and experts from different companies from the chosen sectors during spring 2015. The findings show that small companies in the logistics sector and fish sector have experienced either direct or indirect effects that have been caused by the counter-sanctions. Main challenges for the fish sector are decreases in producer prices and tightened competition in the European Union area. The logistics sector has experienced difficulties due to tightened liquidity conditions. There have also been bankruptcies in the logistics sector directly caused by the counter-sanctions. Companies in both sectors have been forced to look for alternative markets, postpone investments and lay-off or terminate personnel. Scepticism and uncertainty regarding trade with Russian customers and companies have emerged. On a national level, Finland’s container balance has been negatively affected partly due to the counter-sanctions. The scope of this study is limited to small fish sector and logistics sector companies in Kymenlaakso region. Also, due to the qualitative nature of the primary research method the findings of this study are not generalizable to the public. Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena oli tarkastella sitä miten pienet logistiikka –ja kalasektorin yritykset Kymenlaakson alueella ovat kokeneet Venäjän asettamien vastapakotteiden vaikutukset. Opinnäytetyön tutkimuskysymykset olivat ”Ovatko Venäjän vastapakotteet vaikuttaneet yritysten toimintaan Kymenlaakson alueella?”, ”Millaisia vaikutuksia yritykset ovat kohdanneet ja identifioineet?”, ”Mitä toimenpiteitä yritykset ovat tehneet tilanteeseen liittyen?” ja ”Ovatko yritykset pyrkineet löytämään tuotteilleen tai palveluilleen uusia markkinoita?”. Tämän opinnäytetyön ensisijainen tutkimusmenetelmä oli semistrukturoitu haastattelu. Opinnäytetyön tekijä haastatteli asiantuntijoita sekä ammattilaisia valituilta sektoreilta kevään 2015 aikana. Tulokset näyttävät, että pienet logistiikka –ja kalasektorin yritykset ovat kohdanneet joko suoria tai epäsuoria vastapakotteiden aiheuttamia vaikutuksia. Keskeisimmät haasteet kalasektorilla johtuvat tuottajahintojen laskusta sekä kiristyneestä kilpailuista Euroopan Union alueella. Logistiikkasektorilla on kohdannut vaikeuksia, jotka ovat johtuneet yritysten hankaloituneesta likviditeettitilanteesta. Myös vastapakotteiden suoraan aiheuttamia konkursseja on havaittu. Molempien sektorien yritykset ovat joutuneet etsimään tuotteilleen tai palveluilleen uusia markkinoita, viivästyttämään investointeja sekä lomauttamaan tai irtisanomaan henkilöstöä. Skeptisyys sekä epävarmuus kaupankäynnissä venäläisten asiakkaiden sekä yritysten kanssa on noussut esiin. Kansallisella tasolla vastapakotteilla on osaltaan ollut negatiivinen vaikutus Suomen konttitasapainoon. Tämän opinnäytetyö on rajoitettu tarkastelemaan pieniä logistiikka – ja kalasektorin yrityksiä Kymenlaakson alueella. Lisäksi, johtuen kvalitatiivisesta tutkimusmenetelmästä tämän opinnäytetyön tuloksia ei voida pitää yleistettävinä muihin yrityksiin.

It has been suggested that climate change might modify the occurrence rate and magnitude of large ocean-wave and wind storms. The hypothesised reason is the increase of available energy in the atmosphere–ocean system. Forecasting models are commonly used to assess these effects, given that good-quality data series are often too short. However, forecasting systems are often tuned to reproduce the average behaviour, and there are concerns on their relevance for extremal regimes. We present a methodology of simultaneous analysis of observed and hindcast data with the aim of extracting potential time drifts as well as systematic regime discrepancies between the two data sources. The method is based on the peak-over-threshold (POT) approach and the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) within a Bayesian estimation framework. In this context, storm events are considered points in time, and modelled as a Poisson process. Storm magnitude over a reference threshold is modelled with a GPD, a flexible model that captures the tail behaviour of the magnitude distribution. All model parameters, i.e. shape and location of the magnitude GPD and the Poisson occurrence rate, are affected by a trend in time. Moreover, a systematic difference between parameters of hindcast and observed series is considered. Finally, the posterior joint distribution of all these trend parameters is studied using a conventional Gibbs sampler. This method is applied to compare hindcast and observed series of average wind speed at a deep buoy location off the Catalan coast (NE Spain, western Mediterranean; buoy data from 2001; REMO wind hindcasting from 1958 on). Appropriate scale and domain of attraction are discussed, and the reliability of trends in time is addressed.

The presented daily mean sea ice draft time series are derived from bottom track mode measurements from multiple upward-looking Workhorse 300 kHz Sentinel Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs, manufactured by Teledyne RDI). ADCP moorings were deployed and recovered during multiple TRANSDRIFT expeditions to the Laptev Sea (2003 to 2016). A total of 13 data files, named to indicate the location of the deployment (station name) and the sampling period, provide values of daily mean sea ice draft (in m) and time. Sea ice draft is derived from ADCP bottom track data following Belter et al. (in review). An additional info file provides the coordinates of the stations, expedition specifics and serial numbers of the instruments.

In an enclosure experiment, we employed two levels of inorganic NP ratios (10 and 5) for three distinct plankton communities collected along the coast of central Chile (33ºS). Each combination of community and NP level was replicated three times. The experiment lasted 12 days, and the data set include inorganic nutrients (NO3, PO4, DSi), particular organic carbon (POC), nitrogen (PON) and phosphorus (POP), Chlorophyll a, a range of fluorescence based measurements such as photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm) and community data. The primary effect of the NP treatment was related to different concentrations of NO3, which directly influenced the biomass of phytoplankton. Additionally, low inorganic NP ratio reduced the seston NP and Chl a-C ratios, and there were some effects on the plankton community composition, e.g. benefitting Synechococcus spp in some communities.

Four sediment cores from the central and northern Greenland Sea basin, a crucial area for the renewal of North Atlantic deep water, were analyzed for planktic foraminiferal fauna, planktic and benthic stable oxygen and carbon isotopes as well as ice-rafted debris to reconstruct the environmental variability in the last 23 kyr. During the Last Glacial Maximum, the Greenland Sea was dominated by cold and sea-ice bearing surface water masses. Meltwater discharges from the surrounding ice sheets affected the area during the deglaciation, influencing the water mass circulation. During the Younger Dryas interval the last major freshwater event occurred in the region. The onset of the Holocene interglacial was marked by an increase in the advection of Atlantic Water and a rise in sea surface temperatures (SST). Although the thermal maximum was not reached simultaneously across the basin, benthic isotope data indicate that the rate of overturning circulation reached a maximum in the central Greenland Sea around 7 ka. After 6–5 ka a SST cooling and increasing sea-ice cover is noted. Conditions during this so-called "Neoglacial" cooling, however, changed after 3 ka, probably due to enhanced sea-ice expansion, which limited the deep convection. As a result, a well stratified upper water column amplified the warming of the subsurface waters in the central Greenland Sea, which were fed by increased inflow of Atlantic Water from the eastern Nordic Seas. Our data reveal that the Holocene oceanographic conditions in the Greenland Sea did not develop uniformly. These variations were a response to a complex interplay between the Atlantic and Polar water masses, the rate of sea-ice formation and melting and its effect on vertical convection intensity during times of Northern Hemisphere insolation changes.

These datasets were used to describe the diversity, ecology and role of non-scleractinian corals on scleractinian cold-water coral carbonate mounds in the Logachev Mound Province, Rockall Bank, NE Atlantic. Cold-water coral carbonate mounds, created by framework-building scleractinian corals, are also important habitats for non-scleractinian corals, whose ecology and role are understudied in deep-sea environments. In total ten non-scleractinian species were identified, which were mapped out along eight ROV video transects. Eight species were identified as black corals (three belonging to the family Schizopathidae, one each to the Leiopathidae, Cladopathidae, and Antipathidae and two to an unknown family) and two as gorgonians (Isididae and Plexauridae). The most abundant species were Leiopathes sp. and Parantipathes sp. 2. Areas with a high diversity of non-scleractinian corals are interpreted to offer sufficient food, weak inter-species competition and the presence of heterogeneous and hard settlement substrates. A difference in the density and occurrence of small vs. large colonies of Leiopathes sp. was also observed, which is likely related to a difference in the stability of the substrate they choose for settlement. Non-scleractinian corals, especially black corals, are an important habitat for crabs, crinoids, and shrimps in the Logachev Mound Province.