The Marginal Ice Zone includes wide areas covered by dispersed ice floes in which wave conditions are significantly affected by the ice. When the wind blows from the solid ice pack, towards the open sea, growing waves are scattered by the floes, their spectral characteristics being modified. To further understand this problem, a model for the evolution of wind waves in a sparse field of ice floes was developed. The sea state is described by a two-dimensional discrete spectrum. Time-limited wave growth is obtained by numerical integration of the energy balance equation using the exact nonlinear transfer integral. Wave scattering by a single floe is represented in terms of far-field expressions of the diffracted and forced potentials obtained numerically by the Green's function method. The combined effect of a homogeneous field of floes on the wave spectrum is expressed in terms of the Foldy-Twersky integral equations under the assumption of single scattering. The results show a strong dependence of the spectrum amplitude and directional properties on the ratio of the ice floe diameter to the wavelength. For a certain range of this parameter, the ice cover appears to be very effective in dispersing the energy; the wave spectrum rapidly tends to isotropy, limiting its growth both for the energy content and the peak frequency. It is therefore unlikely that an offshore wind blowing over the Marginal Ice Zone would generate a significant wave field. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

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Univ., Diss.--Trier, 2004.

Geological records of past sea ice, such as those contained in Arctic marine sediments, offer an opportunity to strengthen our understanding of long-term sea ice variability, provided unambiguous paleo-sea ice proxies can be developed. One such recently proposed proxy is IP₂₅, a highly branched isoprenoid alkene biosynthesized exclusively by sea-ice dwelling diatoms (Haslea spp.), which is well preserved in marine sediments and could be used to reconstruct past changes in spring sea-ice extent. However, little is known about regional-scale controls on IP₂₅ production in sea ice, limiting its wider applicability as a paleo-sea-ice proxy. To address this issue we examined the distributions of IP₂₅ and the marine productivity biomarkers dinosterol and brassicasterol in a suite of surface sediment samples distributed across the Arctic. We find a statistically significant, logarithmic relationship between IP₂₅ and spring sea ice cover in samples from arctic and subarctic sites in the Pacific (n = 96, r² = 0.67, P < 0.0001) and the Atlantic n = 25, r² = 0.50, P < 0.0001), though the absolute concentrations of IP₂₅ are generally higher in the Atlantic (1.6 - 166.4 [mu]g/g OC) than in the Pacific (0 - 38.5 [mu]g/g OC) for equivalent sea-ice cover, and there are regional and basin-specific differences in the slope of the IP₂₅ - sea ice relationship. After normalization of IP₂₅ concentrations to that of a productivity biomarker (e.g., dinosterol; the PDIP₂₅ index) the proxy-sea ice relationship in greatly improved for all regions (r² = 0.86 and r² = 0.75 for Atlantic and Pacific, respectively) and most of the basin specific differences in the rate of change of IP₂₅ with sea ice are removed. This suggests that productivity plays an important secondary role in controlling IP₂₅ concentrations. However, the use of the PDIP₂₅ index does not change the absolute differences in concentrations seen in the Atlantic and the Pacific, and previously published data from Fram Strait remain anomalous when compared to the rest of our data. This suggests that there are additional, yet unidentified controls on the IP₂₅ proxy - sea ice relationship, which may hinder the development of an Arctic-wide calibration but that the PDIP₂₅ index is a viable tool for local and regional sea ice reconstructions. / text

Univ., Diss.--Bremen, 2006. / Richtiger Name des Verf.: Nicolaus, Marcel.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 1984. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-95).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Trier, 2004. / Also available via the internet in PDF or HTML formats.