A potential mechanism sustaining the biological hotspot around Palmer Deep Canyon ...

• Main Author: Hudson, Katherine L.
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Delaware 2022
• Subjects: Krill; Palmer Deep Canyon; Penguin foraging; ROMS; Zooplankton; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Krill; Antarctic Peninsula; Euphausia superba
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.58088/vpzf-xj53; https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/30819

Palmer Deep Canyon (PDC) is a submarine canyon located along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. The region is considered a biological hotspot due to the high number of marine predators during the austral summer. The mechanisms that drive this hotspot, however, are poorly understood. Glider and satellite-based temperature and chlorophyll measurements in the region previously suggested that upwelling of warm, nutrient-rich water was fueling phytoplankton blooms in the area. These phytoplankton blooms would support Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the region who feed on the phytoplankton blooms occurring over the canyon, providing a reliable food source for marine predator populations. ☐ Gliders deployed in the austral summer of 2015, however, illustrate that upwelling of mUCDW does not occur over PDC. Spatial decorrelation analysis of surface and deep (100 m) water masses suggest PDC is a two-layer system: a surface mixed layer that does not feel the presence of the canyon, and a deep subsurface layer that ...