The role of mesoscale eddy stirring and microscale turbulence in supplying nutrients to phytoplankton in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre ...

• Main Authors: Oglethorpe, Kate, Spingys, Carl, Naveira Garabato, Alberto, Fernandez-Castro, Bieito
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences 2023
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.57757/iugg23-0720; https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5016768

<!--!introduction!--> Sustaining phytoplankton primary production requires the physical supply of nutrients to the thermocline and the mixed layer. In the extensive downwelling regions of the subtropical gyres, the pathways of this nutrient supply remain unclear. Global estimates of mesoscale eddy mixing and internal-wave driven diapycnal mixing and climatological nitrate, salinity, and temperature data are combined to explore the relative importance of microscale turbulence and eddy stirring in supplying nutrients to phytoplankton in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. The nutrient fluxes by eddy stirring and microscale turbulence are estimated in terms of their advective and diffusive transfers associated with the evolution of a nutrient. Mesoscale eddy stirring and microscale turbulence together supply an average of 0.10 mol N m -2 yr -1 to the mixed layer over the gyre. There is substantial spatial variation in the relative importance of the eddy- and turbulence-driven supplies across the gyre, ... : The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023) ...