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GENUS II:
Verbundprojekt: WTZ Südliches Afrika - SPACES: GENUS II: Geochemie u. Ökologie des Auftriebsgebietes vor Namibia; Vorhaben: TP2 - Modellierung u. Beobachtung v. hydrograph. U. biogeochem. Schlüsselprozes-sen im nördl. Benguela-Strom

Duration:
01.05.2012 - 30.04.2015
Project coordinated by:
Zentrum für Marine und Atmosphärische Wissenschaften (ZMAW)
Project manager (IOW):
Dr. Volker Mohrholz
Funding:
BMBF - Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Website:
http://genus.zmaw.de/
Researchfoci:
Focus 1: Small- and meso-scale processes
Focus 2: Basin-scale ecosystem dynamics
Partners:
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI)
Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenökologie (ZMT)
Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht – Zentrum für Material- und Küstenforschung (HZG)
Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie e.V.
Universität Hamburg, Institut für Hydrobiologie und Fischereiwissenschaft
Universität Bremen, Marine Zoologie

GENUS (Geochemistry and Ecology of the Namibian Upwelling System) aims to clarify relationships between climate change, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem structure in the large marine ecosystem of the northern Benguela / Namibian coast (SW Africa). The coastal upwelling system has high seasonal and interannual variability in atmospheric forcing, in properties of water masses on the shelf offshore the Republic of Namibia, and in oxygen supply and demand on the shelf. In consequence, concentrations and ratios of nutrients in upwelling water and their CO2-content have steep gradients in space and time. In the past, significant and economically severe changes in ecosystem structure have occurred which are in part attributed to changes in physical forcing, translated to the ecosystem by oxygen dynamics.

Subproject 2 considers processes at different levels of the food web in the Benguela Upwelling Area. These investigations comprise the contribution of mesoscale processes, long gravity waves and swell to the lateral exchange of matter between the Namibian shelf and the adjacent ocean as well as the plankton succession  and development of specific organisms (coccolithophorides)  in upwelling filaments. 

Publikationen

  • Chikwililwa, C., P. McCarron, J. J. Waniek and D. E. Schulz-Bull (2019). Phylogenetic analysis and yessotoxin profiles of Gonyaulax spinifera cultures from the Benguela Current upwelling system. Harmful Algae 85: 101626, doi: 10.1016/j.hal.2019.101626
  • Ekau, W., H. Auel, W. Hagen, R. Koppelmann, N. Wasmund, K. Bohata, F. Buchholz, S. Geist, B. Martin, A. Schukat, H. M. Verheye and T. Werner (2018). Pelagic key species and mechanisms driving energy flows in the northern Benguela upwelling ecosystem and their feedback into biogeochemical cycles. J. Mar. Syst. 188: 49-62, doi: 10.1016/j.jmarsys.2018.03.001
  • Vorrath, M.-E., N. Lahajnar, G. Fischer, V. M. Libuku, M. Schmidt and K.-C. Emeis (2018). Spatiotemporal variation of vertical particle fluxes and modelled chlorophyll a standing stocks in the Benguela Upwelling System. J. Mar. Syst. 180: 59-75, doi: 10.1016/j.jmarsys.2017.12.002
  • Emeis, K., A. Eggert, A. Flohr, N. Lahajnar, G. Nausch, A. Neumann, T. Rixen, M. Schmidt, A. Van der Plas and N. Wasmund (2018). Biogeochemical processes and turnover rates in the Northern Benguela Upwelling System. J. Mar. Syst. 188: 63-80, doi: 10.1016/j.jmarsys.2017.10.001
  • Wasmund, N., H. Siegel, K. Bohata, A. Flohr, A. Hansen and V. Mohrholz (2016). Phytoplankton stimulation in frontal regions of Benguela upwelling filaments by internal factors. Front. Mar. Sci. 3: 210, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00210
  • Schmidt, M. and A. Eggert (2016). Oxygen cycling in the northern Benguela Upwelling System: Modelling oxygen sources and sinks. Prog. Oceanogr. 149: 145-173, doi: 10.1016/j.pocean.2016.09.004
  • Louw, D. C., A. K. van der Plas, V. Mohrholz, N. Wasmund, T. Junker and A. Eggert (2016). Seasonal and interannual phytoplankton dynamics and forcing mechanisms in the Northern Benguela upwelling system. J. Mar. Syst. 157: 124-134, doi: 10.1016/j.jmarsys.2016.01.009
  • Wasmund, N., U. Struck, A. Hansen, A. Flohr, G. Nausch, A. Grüttmüller and M. Voss (2015). Missing nitrogen fixation in the Benguela region. Deep-Sea Res. Pt. 1. 106: 30-41, doi: 10.1016/j.dsr.2015.10.007
  • Martin, B., A. Eggert, R. Koppelmann, R. Diekmann, V. Mohrholz and M. Schmidt (2015). Spatio-temporal variability of zooplankton biomass and environmental control in the Northern Benguela Upwelling System: field investigations and model simulation. Mar. Ecol. 36: 637-658, doi: 10.1111/maec.12173
  • Geist, S. J., A. Kunzmann, H. M. Verheye, A. Eggert, A. Schukat and W. Ekau (2014). Distribution, feeding behaviour, and condition of Cape horse mackerel early life stages, Trachurus capensis, under different environmental conditions in the northern Benguela upwelling ecosystem. ICES J. Mar. Sc. 72: 543-557, doi: 10.1093/icesjms/fsu087
  • Mohrholz, V., A. Eggert, T. Junker, G. Nausch, T. Ohde and M. Schmidt (2014). Cross shelf hydrographic and hydrochemical conditions and their short term variability at the northern Benguela during a normal upwelling season. J. mar. syst. 140, Part B, Special issue: Upwelling Ecosystem Succession: 92-110, doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2014.04.019
  • Muller, A. A., C. J. C. Reason, M. Schmidt, V. Mohrholz and A. Eggert (2014). Computing transport budgets along the shelf and across the shelf edge in the northern Benguela during summer (DJF) and winter (JJA). J. mar. syst. 140, Part B, Special issue: Upwelling Ecosystem Succession: 82-91, doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2014.02.007