Intermingling of two Pseudocalanus species on Georges Bank

Physical and biological controls on the springtime distributions of Pseudocalanus moultoni and P. newmani on Georges Bank are examined by assimilating observations into a coupled physical-biological model. Monthly snapshots of abundance are derived from U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank broad-scale surveys during 1997. The forward problem is posed as an advection-diffusion-reaction equation for the copepod concentration. The adjoint method of data assimilation is used to invert for the biological sources and sinks implied by the observed changes in abundance between surveys and the flow during the intervening period. Based on this analysis, the two species appear to have distinct population centers in the late winter/early spring: P. moultoni on the northwest flank of the Bank and P. newmani on the Northeast Peak and the southern tip of Browns Bank. As the growing season progresses, the clockwise circulation around Georges Bank blends reproducing (but not interbreeding) animals from the two source regions, causing their distributions to overlap by early summer. The springtime evolution of Pseudocalanus distributions in this region is driven by a complex mixture of hydrodynamic transport and species-specific population dynamics, including both growth and mortality

Cross-frontal entrainment of plankton into a buoyant plume: The frog tongue mechanism

A mechanism for the cross-frontal entrainment of plankton by a buoyant plume influenced by wind stress is described and tested using an idealized numerical model. Under the right circumstances, plankton may enter a buoyant plume during an upwelling wind stress, then be transported shoreward during a subsequent downwelling wind stress. In order for the plankton to enter the plume, they must swim upward at a velocity (wp) bounded by Hplume/T \u3c wp \u3c κ/ Hmix where Hplume is the thickness of the buoyant plume, Hmix is the thickness of the upper oceanic mixed layer (Hmix \u3e Hplume), κ is the magnitude of vertical mixing within the mixed layer, and T is the time between upwelling and downwelling events. In words, this equation states that the plankton must swim slow enough so that they are evenly distributed through the mixed layer, so that the buoyant plume may override the plankton patch during upwelling. Once the plume has overridden the patch, in order to enter the plume, the plankton must swim fast enough to be able to enter the plume in the time while it is over them. These two bounds on the swimming rate suggest that, given various physical parameters, there may be a range of swimming speed that will maximize entrainment into a plume. Numerical experiments corroborate the feasibility of the proposed mechanisms and associated scaling

Biological control of the vernal population increase of \u3cem\u3eCalanus finmarchicus\u3c/em\u3e on Georges Bank

An adjoint data assimilation approach was used to quantify the physical and biological controls on Calanus finmarchicus N3–C6 stages on Georges Bank and its nearby environs. The mean seasonal cycle of vertically averaged distributions, from 5 years of the GLOBEC Georges Bank Broad-Scale Surveys between January and June, was assimilated into a physical–biological model based on the climatological circulation. Large seasonal and spatial variability is present in the inferred supply sources, mortality rates, computed molting fluxes, and physical transports. Estimated mortalities fall within the range of observed rates, and exhibit stage structure that is consistent with earlier findings. Inferred off-bank initial conditions indicate that the deep basins in the Gulf of Maine are source regions of early stage nauplii and late-stage copepodids in January. However, the population increase on Georges Bank from January to April is controlled mostly by local biological processes. Magnitudes of the physical transport terms are nearly as large as the mortality and molting fluxes, but their bank-wide averages are small in comparison to the biological terms. The hypothesis of local biological control is tested in a sensitivity experiment in which upstream sources are set to zero. In that solution, the lack of upstream sources is compensated by a decrease in mortality that is much smaller than the uncertainty in observational estimates

Seasonal and interannual variability of physical and biological dynamics at the shelfbreak front of the Middle Atlantic Bight: nutrient supply mechanisms

A high-resolution, 3-dimensional coupled biophysical model is used to simulate ocean circulation and ecosystem variations at the shelfbreak front of the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAB). Favorable comparisons between satellite observations and model hindcast solutions from January 2004 to November 2007 indicate the model has intrinsic skills in resolving fundamental physical and biological dynamics at the MAB shelfbreak. Seasonal and interannual variability of ocean physical and biological states and their driving mechanisms are further analyzed. The domain-wide upper water column nutrient content is found to peak in late winter-early spring. Phytoplankton spring bloom starts 1–2 months later, followed by zooplankton bloom in early summer. Our analysis shows the variability of shelfbreak nutrient supply is controlled by local mixing that deepens the mixed layer and injects deep ocean nutrients into the upper water column and alongshore nutrient transport by the shelfbreak jet and associated currents. Nutrient vertical advection associated with the shelfbreak bottom boundary layer convergence is another significant contributor. Spring mean nutrient budget diagnostics along the Nantucket transect are compared between nutrient rich 2004 and nutrient poor 2007. Physical advection and diffusion play the major role in determining strong interannual variations in shelfbreak nutrient content. The biological (source minus sink) term is very similar between these two years

Distributions, Sources, and Transformations of Dissolved and Particulate Iron on the Ross Sea Continental Shelf During Summer

We report water column dissolved iron (dFe) and particulate iron (pFe) concentrations from 50 stations sampled across the Ross Sea during austral summer (January-February) of 2012. Concentrations of dFe and pFe were measured in each of the major Ross Sea water masses, including the Ice Shelf Water and off-shelf Circumpolar Deep Water. Despite significant lateral variations in hydrography, macronutrient depletion, and primary productivity across several different regions on the continental shelf, dFe concentrations were consistently low (\u3c0.1 nM) in surface waters, with only a handful of stations showing elevated concentrations (0.20-0.45 nM) in areas of melting sea ice and near the Franklin Island platform. Across the study region, pFe associated with suspended biogenic material approximately doubled the inventory of bioavailable iron in surface waters. Our data reveal that the majority of the summertime iron inventory in the Ross Sea resides in dense shelf waters, with highest concentrations within 50 m of the seafloor. Higher dFe concentrations near the seafloor are accompanied by an increased contribution to pFe from authigenic and/or scavenged iron. Particulate manganese is also influenced by sediment resuspension near the seafloor but, unlike pFe, is increasingly associated with authigenic material higher in the water column. Together, these results suggest that following depletion of the dFe derived from wintertime convective mixing and sea ice melt, recycling of pFe in the upper water column plays an important role in sustaining the summertime phytoplankton bloom in the Ross Sea polynya

Advancing science from plankton to whales—Celebrating the contributions of James J. McCarthy

Hailing from Sweet Home, Oregon, where his father introduced him to the fascinations of pondwater (McCarthy 2018), Jim McCarthy graduated from Gonzaga University, and in the late 1960s joined the Food Chain Research Group at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where he received his doctorate in 1971. The Food Chain Research Group, which was becoming recognized as the premier research group on plankton, was at that time directed by such distinguished scientists as John Strickland and Dick Eppley, among others. The goal of the Food Chain Group was to understand plankton dynamics and trophodynamics, “to a degree that will enable man to exercise satisfactory control of the environment and make useful predictions” (Institute of Marine Resources annual report, 1968, cited in Shor 1978:143) and “to predict the formation and transfer of nutrients through the full cycle of life in the ocean” (Shor 1978:140). It was there that Jim became immersed in all aspects of nutrients, plankton, and the marine food web

Bioluminescence Intensity Modeling and Sampling Strategy Optimization

The focus of this paper is on the development of methodology for short-term (1-3 days) oceanic bioluminescence (BL) predictions and the optimization of spatial and temporal bioluminescence sampling strategies. The approach is based on predictions of bioluminescence with an advection-diffusion-reaction (tracer) model with velocities and diffusivities from a circulation model. In previous research, it was shown that short-term changes in some of the salient features in coastal bioluminescence can be explained and predicted by using this approach. At the same time, it was demonstrated that optimization of bioluminescence sampling prior to the forecast is critical for successful short-term BL predictions with the tracer model. In the present paper, the adjoint to the tracer model is used to study the sensitivity of the modeled bioluminescence distributions to the sampling strategies for BL. The locations and times of bioluminescence sampling prior to the forecast are determined by using the adjoint-based sensitivity maps. The approach is tested with bioluminescence observations collected during August 2000 and 2003 in the Monterey Bay, California, area. During August 2000, BL surveys were collected during a strong wind relaxation event, while in August 2003, BL surveys were conducted during an extended (longer than a week) upwelling-favorable event. The numerical bioluminescence predictability experiments demonstrated a close agreement between observed and model-predicted short-term spatial and temporal changes of the coastal bioluminescence

Surface-Generated Mesoscale Eddies Transport Deep-Sea Products from Hydrothermal Vents

International audienceAtmospheric forcing, which is known to have a strong influence on surface ocean dynamics and production, is typically not considered in studies of the deep sea. Our observations and models demonstrate an unexpected influence of surface-generated mesoscale eddies in the transport of hydrothermal vent efflux and of vent larvae away from the northern East Pacific Rise. Transport by these deep-reaching eddies provides a mechanism for spreading the hydrothermal chemical and heat flux into the deep-ocean interior and for dispersing propagules hundreds of kilometers between isolated and ephemeral communities. Because the eddies interacting with the East Pacific Rise are formed seasonally and are sensitive to phenomena such as El Niño, they have the potential to introduce seasonal to interannual atmospheric variations into the deep sea

The ecological and biogeochemical state of the North Pacifi c Subtropical Gyre is linked to sea surface height

Sea surface height (SSH) is routinely measured from satellites and used to infer ocean currents, including eddies, that affect the distribution of organisms and substances in the ocean. SSH not only reflects the dynamics of the surface layer, but also is sensitive to the fluctuations of the main pycnocline; thus it is linked to events of nutrient upwelling. Beyond episodic upwelling events, it is not clear if and how SSH is linked to broader changes in the biogeochemical state of marine ecosystems. Our analysis of 23 years of satellite observations and biogeochemical measurements from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre shows that SSH is associated with numerous biogeochemical changes in distinct layers of the water column. From the sea surface to the depth of the chlorophyll maximum, dissolved phosphorus and nitrogen enigmatically increase with SSH, enhancing the abundance of heterotrophic picoplankton. At the deep chlorophyll maximum, increases in SSH are associated with decreases in vertical gradients of inorganic nutrients, decreases in the abundance of eukaryotic phytoplankton, and increases in the abundance of prokaryotic phytoplankton. In waters below ∼100 m depth, increases in SSH are associated with increases in organic matter and decreases in inorganic nutrients, consistent with predicted consequences of the vertical displacement of isopycnal layers. Our analysis highlights how satellite measurements of SSH can be used to infer the ecological and biogeochemical state of open-ocean ecosystems

Interpreting Mosaics of Ocean Biogeochemistry

Advances in technology and modeling capabilities are driving a surge in progress in our understanding of how ocean ecosystems mix and mingle on medium to small scales