Abstract
Upwelling due to vortex contraction on the anticyclonic flank of transient mesoscale jets is fast enough and sustained for long enough to effect substantial local increase in primary production. Dynamical constraints limit upwelling to patches with horizontal dimensions of about ten kilometres, similar to those of primary production “hot spots” observed in satellite images. In situ surveys suggest that the distribution of these mesoscale patches of high plankton concentration strongly influences the large scale variation of primary production. The latter can be estimated from the statistics of mesoscale upwelling events. Given the new understanding of mesoscale dynamics, those statistics can be computed using geostrophic turbulence theory, provided the large scale distribution of isopycnic potential vorticity Q is known. (The relevant properties of Q are summarized in an appendix.) The seasonal climatology of Q in the euphotic zone is described, and it is shown how inter-annual variations can be predicted by means of a model of ocean circulation and mixed layer dynamics. A multi-year programme of experiments in the North Atlantic has been undertaken to test the theory. This has involved a series of high resolution sections extending 2,000 km between the Azores and Greenland, and synoptic mapping of mesoscale structure at the inter-gyre front. The phase relationships between distributions of Q, temperature, velocity and concentrations of particles and chlorophyll in the maps are consistent with the theory. The distributions of Q, upwelling and chlorophyll in the sections supports the hypothesis that large scale variation of primary production is best viewed in terms of the statistics of mesoscale events.
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Woods, J. (1988). Scale Upwelling and Primary Production. In: Rothschild, B.J. (eds) Toward a Theory on Biological-Physical Interactions in the World Ocean. NATO ASI Series, vol 239. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3023-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3023-0_2
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