What is an Upwelling Ecosystem?

Abstract

As a tentative answer to the question posed by Boje and Tomczak, and perhaps as a rejoinder to the views expressed by them, I would like to present my opinions on the subject. Upwelling areas are the site of processes of fertilization. They represent a local deformation of the ecological fields. The deformation is the result of a stress applied on a limited space. In the case of upwelling, the stress consists of energy made available in such area by some mechanism. The energy is degraded in relation with its transfer from the sea to the atmosphere or vice versa. The exchange means a locally enhanced increase in entropy. Careful models of the dependence of primary production on light, nutrients, temperature, and so on, may be useful in many situations, but in upwelling areas they may be replaced, probably with advantage, by the simple dependence of primary production on the auxiliary energy made available (Fig. 1). It is like in agriculture, where yield can be simply related to the input of subsidiary energy (in machines, oil power, fertilizers, irregation).