Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean
The spring bloom dominates the annual cycle of phytoplankton abundance in large regions of the world oceans. The mechanisms that trigger blooms have been studied for decades, but are still keenly debated, due in part to a lack of data on phytoplankton stocks in winter and early spring. Now however a...
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ftcaltechauth:oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:99240 2023-05-15T17:31:04+02:00 Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean Rumyantseva, Anna Henson, Stephanie Martin, Adrian Thompson, Andrew F. Damerell, Gillian M. Kaiser, Jan Heywood, Karen J. 2019-11 application/pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/99240/ https://authors.library.caltech.edu/99240/2/1-s2.0-S0079661119303829-main.pdf https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20191011-113153425 en eng Elsevier https://authors.library.caltech.edu/99240/2/1-s2.0-S0079661119303829-main.pdf Rumyantseva, Anna and Henson, Stephanie and Martin, Adrian and Thompson, Andrew F. and Damerell, Gillian M. and Kaiser, Jan and Heywood, Karen J. (2019) Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean. Progress in Oceanography, 178 . Art. No. 102202. ISSN 0079-6611. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2019.102202. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20191011-113153425 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20191011-113153425> cc_by CC-BY Article PeerReviewed 2019 ftcaltechauth https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2019.102202 2021-11-18T18:52:42Z The spring bloom dominates the annual cycle of phytoplankton abundance in large regions of the world oceans. The mechanisms that trigger blooms have been studied for decades, but are still keenly debated, due in part to a lack of data on phytoplankton stocks in winter and early spring. Now however autonomous underwater gliders can provide high-resolution sampling of the upper ocean over inter-seasonal timescales and advance our understanding of spring blooms. In this study, we analyze bio-optical and physical observations collected by gliders at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain observatory site to investigate the impact of atmospheric forcing and light conditions on phytoplankton blooms in the temperate North Atlantic. We contrast three hypotheses for the mechanism of bloom initiation: the critical depth, critical turbulence, and dilution-recoupling hypotheses. Bloom initiation at our study site corresponded to an improvement in growth conditions for phytoplankton (increasing light, decreasing mixing layer depth) and was most consistent with the critical depth hypothesis, with the proviso that mixing depth (rather than mixed layer depth) was considered. After initiation, the observed bloom developed slowly: over several months both depth-integrated inventories and surface concentrations of chlorophyll a increased only by a factor of ≈2 and ≈3 respectively. We find that periods of convective mixing and high winds in winter and spring can substantially decrease (up to an order of magnitude) light-dependent mean specific growth rate for phytoplankton and prevent the development of rapid, high-magnitude blooms. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) Progress in Oceanography 178 102202 |
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Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) |
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English |
description |
The spring bloom dominates the annual cycle of phytoplankton abundance in large regions of the world oceans. The mechanisms that trigger blooms have been studied for decades, but are still keenly debated, due in part to a lack of data on phytoplankton stocks in winter and early spring. Now however autonomous underwater gliders can provide high-resolution sampling of the upper ocean over inter-seasonal timescales and advance our understanding of spring blooms. In this study, we analyze bio-optical and physical observations collected by gliders at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain observatory site to investigate the impact of atmospheric forcing and light conditions on phytoplankton blooms in the temperate North Atlantic. We contrast three hypotheses for the mechanism of bloom initiation: the critical depth, critical turbulence, and dilution-recoupling hypotheses. Bloom initiation at our study site corresponded to an improvement in growth conditions for phytoplankton (increasing light, decreasing mixing layer depth) and was most consistent with the critical depth hypothesis, with the proviso that mixing depth (rather than mixed layer depth) was considered. After initiation, the observed bloom developed slowly: over several months both depth-integrated inventories and surface concentrations of chlorophyll a increased only by a factor of ≈2 and ≈3 respectively. We find that periods of convective mixing and high winds in winter and spring can substantially decrease (up to an order of magnitude) light-dependent mean specific growth rate for phytoplankton and prevent the development of rapid, high-magnitude blooms. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rumyantseva, Anna Henson, Stephanie Martin, Adrian Thompson, Andrew F. Damerell, Gillian M. Kaiser, Jan Heywood, Karen J. |
spellingShingle |
Rumyantseva, Anna Henson, Stephanie Martin, Adrian Thompson, Andrew F. Damerell, Gillian M. Kaiser, Jan Heywood, Karen J. Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean |
author_facet |
Rumyantseva, Anna Henson, Stephanie Martin, Adrian Thompson, Andrew F. Damerell, Gillian M. Kaiser, Jan Heywood, Karen J. |
author_sort |
Rumyantseva, Anna |
title |
Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: the impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate north atlantic ocean |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://authors.library.caltech.edu/99240/ https://authors.library.caltech.edu/99240/2/1-s2.0-S0079661119303829-main.pdf https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20191011-113153425 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://authors.library.caltech.edu/99240/2/1-s2.0-S0079661119303829-main.pdf Rumyantseva, Anna and Henson, Stephanie and Martin, Adrian and Thompson, Andrew F. and Damerell, Gillian M. and Kaiser, Jan and Heywood, Karen J. (2019) Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean. Progress in Oceanography, 178 . Art. No. 102202. ISSN 0079-6611. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2019.102202. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20191011-113153425 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20191011-113153425> |
op_rights |
cc_by |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2019.102202 |
container_title |
Progress in Oceanography |
container_volume |
178 |
container_start_page |
102202 |
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1766128370655952896 |