Methane seepage from the seafloor west of Svalbard was investigated with a fast-response membrane inlet laser spectrometer. The acquired data were in good agreement with traditional sparse discrete water sampling, subsequent gas chromatography, and with a new 2-D model based on echo-sounder data. However, the acquired high-resolution data revealed unprecedented details of the methane distribution, which highlights the need for high-resolution measurements for future climate studies.

In this study, we assessed the impacts of the world’s largest dam, the Three Gorges Dam (TGD), on tide–river dynamics and concluded that the strongest impacts occurred during autumn and winter due to the TGD's operation. The results obtained will hopefully enhance our understanding of the impacts of large-scale human interventions on estuarine hydrodynamics and guide effective and sustainable water management in the Yangtze River estuary and other estuaries with substantial freshwater discharge.

Use of CFCs as oceanic transient tracers is difficult for recently ventilated water masses as their atmospheric mole fractions have been decreasing. To explore novel tracers, we synthesized consistent annual mean atmospheric histories of HCFC-22, HCFC-141b, HCFC-142b, HFC-134a, HFC-125, HFC-23, PFC-14 (CF4) and PFC-116 in both hemispheres and reconstructed their solubility functions in water and seawater. This work is also potentially useful for tracer studies in a range of natural waters.

This paper describes a feasibility study carried out to determine if information gathered for one discipline could be repurposed to provide insight in another. Data gathered during a study of bird distribution were used to investigate whether these same data could be used to measure tidal current velocities and direction. The paper concludes that there is potential to use GPS-tagged birds as drifters of opportunity and that interdisciplinary sharing of data can provide additional insight.

The Arctic Ocean is changing rapidly. In order to track these changes, we developed and deployed a long-term marine ecosystem observatory in the Chukchi Sea. It helps us to better understand currents, waves, sea ice, salinity, temperature, nutrient and carbon concentrations, oxygen, phytoplankton blooms and export, zooplankton abundance and vertical migration, and the occurrence of fish and marine mammals throughout the year, even during the ice covered winter months.