Seasonal Variation in the Correlation Between Anomalies of Sea Level and Chlorophyll in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
Name
SongEtAL.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
2.81 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
60042d1e200f0e6241a01268c07884e5
Author(s)
Song, Hajoon
Long, Matthew C.
Gaube, Peter
Frenger, Ivy
Marshall, Johh C.
McGillicuddy, Dennis J. Jr.
Date Issued
May 2018
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Citation
Song, Hajoon, et al. “Seasonal Variation in the Correlation Between Anomalies of Sea Level and Chlorophyll in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.” Geophysical Research Letters 45, 10 (May 2018): 5011–19.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current has highly energetic mesoscale phenomena, but their impacts on phytoplankton biomass, productivity, and biogeochemical cycling are not understood well. We analyze satellite observations and an eddy-rich ocean model to show that they drive chlorophyll anomalies of opposite sign in winter versus summer. In winter, deeper mixed layers in positive sea surface height (SSH) anomalies reduce light availability, leading to anomalously low chlorophyll concentrations. In summer with abundant light, however, positive SSH anomalies show elevated chlorophyll concentration due to higher iron level, and an iron budget analysis reveals that anomalously strong vertical mixing enhances iron supply to the mixed layer. Features with negative SSH anomalies exhibit the opposite tendencies: higher chlorophyll concentration in winter and lower in summer. Our results suggest that mesoscale modulation of iron supply, light availability, and vertical mixing plays an important role in causing systematic variations in primary productivity over the seasonal cycle.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2017GL076246
