South Atlantic

Over the past decade, plastic debris has become a common feature of beaches and coastal waters adjoining populated areas of Europe (36-38), the Mediterranean (39-41), North and Central America (42-44) and New Zealand (45). Plastics are also present in the open ocean both near the major shipping lanes and in the most remote regions of the world (the Arctic (46), the Benguela Current (47), the Cape Basin area of the South Atlantic (48), the Humboldt Current in the South Pacific (49), and the Antarctic (50, 51). 

In the Cape Basin region of the South Atlantic, polyethylene and polypropylene pellets were observed at concentrations of 1333-3600 pellets km (48). Since this area is far from any major shipping lane and is dominated oceanographically by the Antarctic West-Wind Drift with possibly some input from the Brazil Current, the source of the floating plastic was thought to be ships transporting the raw material in the South Atlantic (48). The weathered appearance of the pellets indicated that they had been adrift for an extended period and, therefore, carried long distances by the ocean currents. 

The conveyor belt is shown schematically in Fig. 10-11. Warm and salty surface currents in the western North Atlantic (e.g., the Gulf Stream) transport heat to the Norwegian-Greenland Seas where it is transferred to the atmosphere. This heat helps moderate the climate of northern Europe. The cooling increases the density resulting in formation of the now cold and salty North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) (Worthington, 1970). The NADW travels south through the North and South Atlantic and then joins the Circumpolar Current that travels virtually unimpeded in a clockwise direction around the Antarctic Continent. 

Deep water also forms along the margins of Antartica and feeds the Circumpolar Current. The Weddell Sea, because of its very low temperature, is the main source of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) which flows northward at the very bottom into the South Atlantic, and then through the Verna Channel in the Rio Grande Rise into the North Atlantic. It ultimately returns southward as part of the NADW. 

Fig. 11-9 (a) The vertical distributions of alkalinity (Aik) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in the world oceans. Ocean regions shown are the North Atlantic (NA), South Atlantic (SA), Antarctic (AA), South Indian (SI), North Indian (NI), South Pacific (SP), and North Pacific (NP) oceans. (Modified with permission from T. Takahashi et ah, The alkalinity and total carbon dioxide concentration in the world oceans, in B. Bolin (1981). Carbon Cycle Modelling," pp. 276-277, John Wiley, Chichester.)... 

Schneider M, O Luxenhofer, A Deissler, K Ballschmiter (1998) Cj-C, alkyl nitrates, benzyl nitrate and bifunctional nitrates measurements in California and South Atlantic air and global comparsion using C2Cj4 and CHBrj as marker molecules. Environ Sci Technol 32 3055-3062. 

Thompson DR, Furness RW. 1989a. The chemical form of mercury stored in South Atlantic seabirds. Environ PoUut 60 305-318. 

Frank M, Gersonde R, Mangini A (1999) Sedimerrt redistribution, °Thex-normalization and implications for recorrstruction of particle fittx and export prodnctivity. In Use of Proxies in Paleoceanography Examples from the South Atlantic. Fischer G, Wefer G (eds) Springer-Verlag, p 409-426. 

Walter HJ, Rutgers van der Loeff MM, Hoeltzen H (1997) Etrhanced scavenging of Pa relative to h in the South Atlantic south of the Polar front Implicatiotts for the use of the Pa/ h ratio as a paleoproductivity proxy. Earth Planet Sci Lett 149 85-100 Wheatcroft RA (1992) Experimental tests for particle size-dependant biotirrbidation in the deep oceans. Linmol Oceanogr 37(1) 90-104... 

In 2003, more than 50,000 patients were diagnosed with chancroid in the United States. The majority of cases were diagnosed in the South Atlantic region, which included Delaware, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.38... 

McCulloch, Samuel Clyde. John Dee Elizabethan doctor of science and magic. South Atlantic Q 50, no. 1 (Jan 1951) 72-85. 

Middle Atlantic Indian Ocean Pacific Ocean Southern Ocean South Atlantic North Atlantic... 

Pongratz and Hunmann [19], using differential pulse anodic scanning voltammetry, found low levels of methyl cadmium compounds in the Atlantic Ocean. Levels in the South Atlantic were approximately 700 pg/1, and those in the North Atlantic were below the detection limit of the method, i.e., below 470 pg/1. It is believed that these compounds were formed as a result of biomethylation of inorganic cadmium. 

Kopfler, F.C. and J. Mayer. 1967. Studies of trace metals in shellfish. Pages 67-80 in Proc. Gulf South Atlantic States Shellfish Sanit. Res. Conf. 

Muirhead, S.J. and R.W. Furness. 1988. Heavy metal concentrations in the tissues of seabirds from Gough Island, South Atlantic Ocean. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 19 278-283. 

South Atlantic, Offshore Brazil, Enchova 1, Blowout, Explosion/Fire Gas release during drilling operations. 

South Atlantic offshore Brazil, Enchova Central, Blowout, Fire... 

North/South Atlantic and North/South Pacific Environments... 

Areas of the North and South Atlantic, and North and South Pacific present continual extreme and hostile ambient conditions that make survival exposed to such conditions a very limited probability with adequate protection measures. In these locations the probability of survival is increased with the provision of a fixed safe refuge rather than the provision of an immediate means of escape. For offshore facilities historical evidence indicates that both helicopter and lifeboat mechanism may be unavailable in some catastrophic incidents. Remote onshore facilities may also experience severe winter conditions that also render this philosophy applicable. 

Table 5.7. 8,80 values (a/oo) in pelagic foraminifera from hole 704 of the Ocean Drilling Program in the South Atlantic (Hodell and Cieselski, 1991). 

Figure 5.65lsO of Neogene pelagic foraminifera from the ODP hole 704 in the South Atlantic sampled at different depths z reported in meters below seafloor (Hodell and Cieselski, 1991)... 

Hodell, D. A. Cieselski, P. F. (1991). Stable isotopic and carbonate stratigraphy of the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene of Hole 704A eastern subantarctic South Atlantic. Proc. ODP Sci. Results, 114, 409-35. 

U.S. Citrus and Subtropical Products Laboratory, South Atlantic Area, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Winter Haven, FL 33883-1909... 

Cold, wet times in Greenland occurred with very cold, dry, windy conditions in Europe and North America along with very warm weather in the South Atlantic and Antarctica. This weather is indicated by studies of high mountain glaciers, the thickness of tree rings, and the types of pollen and shells found in mud at the bottoms of lakes and oceans. 

The short-lived radium isotopes have been used in coastal and nearshore studies. Moore (2000) used 223Ra (half-life of 11 days) and 224Ra (half-life of 3.7 days) to estimate rates of cross-shelf exchange in the South Atlantic Bight. Charette et al. (2001) used this pair to estimate the age of... 

Natural production was speculated to be the source of 1,2-dibromoethane found in ambient air samples collected from open areas of the North and South Atlantic Ocean by Class and Ballschmitter (1988) concentration levels were reported to be less than 0.001-0.003 ppt. 

T-S diagrams for the western and eastern basins of the South Atlantic, (a) and (b) represent two locales in the western basin of the South Atlantic on the same line of longitude but different by 20° of latitude, (c) and (d) are in the eastern basin of the South Atlantic, again about the same 20° of latitude apart from one another but on the same longitude. The small numbers on each graph line represent depths in meters. The horizontal portion of each diagram indicates mixing. 

---