This special issue is comprised of 13 papers, including this overview, and focuses on the synthesis of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) in the North Pacific which took place from 1997 through 2003. The effort was led by the JGOFS North Pacific Synthesis Group, with the aim of quantifying CO2 drawdown by physical and biological pumps in the North Pacific by identifying and studying the regional, seasonal to inter-annual variations in the key processes, and understanding their regulating mechanisms. Emphasis was placed on the similarities and differences of the biogeochemical regimes in the eastern and western subarctic Pacific. Effort was also made to address the future research directions which arose from the scientific findings during the North Pacific JGOFS process study. A brief overview of the papers from view points of CO2 drawdown by physical and biological pumps, spatial variability, and temporal variability from seasonal to decadal scales is made, followed by suggestions for the directions of future research.

This volume of DSR II is dedicated to the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) North Pacific Process Study (NPPS), coordinated by the JGOFS North Pacific Task Team. Following the studies conducted by Canadian JGOFS in the eastern subarctic Pacific, the JGOFS NPPS focused mainly on the western subarctic Pacific. The goals of the JGOFS NPPS were to quantify CO2 drawdown by physical and biological pumps in the northern North Pacific by identifying and studying the regional, seasonal to inter-annual variations of the key processes, and to understand their regulating mechanisms. The NPPS was composed mainly of Japanese programs conducting extensive surveys, intensive biogeochemical process studies, time-series observations at station KNOT at 44°N, 155°E, ocean color satellite observations, and modeling. A total of 27 papers included in this volume cover CO2 intrusion to the intermediate waters, biogeochemical time-series observations at station KNOT, vertical fluxes in the water column, and the east–west Pacific Ocean comparison of ecosystems and biogeochemical regimes.

Introduction [pdf, 0.17 MB] Warren S. Wooster [pdf, 0.12 MB] PICES - the first decade, and beyond Paul H. LeBlond [pdf, 0.03 MB] The Physical Oceanography and Climate Committee: The first decade D.E. Harrison and Neville Smith [pdf, 0.04 MB] Ocean observing systems and prediction - the next ten years Tsutomu Ikeda and Patricia A. Wheeler [pdf, 0.85 MB] Ocean impacts from the bottom of the food web to the top: Biological Oceanography Committee (BIO) retrospective Timothy R. Parsons [pdf, 0.2 MB] Future needs for biological oceanographic studies in the Pacific Ocean Douglas E. Hay, Richard J. Beamish, George W. Boehlert, Vladimir I. Radchenko, Qi-Sheng Tang, Tokio Wada, Daniel W. Ware and Chang-Ik Zhang [pdf, 0.2 MB] Ten years FIS in PICES: An introspective, retrospective, critical and constructive review of fishery science in PICES Richard F. Addison, John E. Stein and Alexander V. Tkalin [pdf, 0.12 MB] Marine Environmental Committee in review Robie W. Macdonald, Brian Morton, Richard F. Addison and Sophia C. Johannessen [pdf, 1.89 MB] Marine environmental contaminant issues in the North Pacific: What are the dangers and how do we identify them? R. Ian Perry, Anne B. Hollowed and Takashige Sugimoto [pdf, 0.36 MB] The PICES Climate Change and Carrying Capacity Program: Why, how, and what next? List of acronyms [pdf, 0.07 MB] (Document contains 108 pages)

We here present conductivity-temperature-depth and chemical (CO2, PO4, O-2, alkalinity, and pH) observations across an anticyclonic (fresh-core) ring in the Oyashio Current near Bussol Strait, Kuril Islands. These measurements suggest that the core of the ring is a region of enhanced vertical mixing, with attendant effects on both spatial and temporal patterns of CO2 exchange. In particular, the difference between atmospheric and oceanic pCO(2) at the air-sea boundary shows a pronounced seasonal reversal in sign. In winter, pCO(2) is everywhere higher in the ocean than in the atmosphere; however, because mixing within the core of the ring brings additional amounts of deep, CO2 rich water upward the highest values of pCO(2) occur above the ring. In summer, pCO(2) outside the ring boundary is also higher in the ocean than in the atmosphere; however, because enhanced mixing within the ring now promotes high values of nutrient flux, primary productivity, and CO2 uptake, pCO(2) values there are lower than in the atmosphere. These data suggest the importance of including mesoscale physical processes in the interpretation of oceanic CO2 exchange and demonstrate the usefulness of biogeochemical properties in studies of ring dynamics and evolution.

The mean activity coefficients of NaCl in the system NaCl+Na2SO4+H2O at various compositions were determined in the temperature range 5–45°C from the emf of potentiometric cells. By processing the results using Pitzer's equations the mixing parameters describing the non-ideal behavior of electrolytes were calculated. The temperature coefficients of the mixing parameters were determined and found not to be significant. The mixing parameters and temperature coefficients calculated for the binary mixture can be used to describe the behavior of multicomponent systems containing NaCl and Na2SO4, and eventually sea water.