Transport Pathways of Shelf Source Micronutrients to the Southern Ocean
We use a numerical ocean model to evaluate the hypothesis that the continental shelves are significant sources of dissolved iron to the Southern Ocean. We simulate the distribution of passive tracers released from the 18 different continental shelf regions of the extra-tropical southern hemisphere o...
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Georgia Institute of Technology
2015
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ftgeorgiatech:oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/53728 2023-05-15T18:23:56+02:00 Transport Pathways of Shelf Source Micronutrients to the Southern Ocean Birmingham, Ryan W. Ito, Takamitsu Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Hartley, Dana Ingall, Ellery 2015-08-18T19:14:03Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1853/53728 en_US eng Georgia Institute of Technology http://hdl.handle.net/1853/53728 Iron Ocean Biogeochemistry Nutrient transport Southern ocean Text Undergraduate Thesis 2015 ftgeorgiatech 2022-12-12T18:38:09Z We use a numerical ocean model to evaluate the hypothesis that the continental shelves are significant sources of dissolved iron to the Southern Ocean. We simulate the distribution of passive tracers released from the 18 different continental shelf regions of the extra-tropical southern hemisphere oceans using an offline, eddy-permitting transport model. The circulation fields are taken from the Southern Ocean State Estimate, and we only simulate the transport of inert tracers focusing on the physical transport pathways. The resulting tracer fields are then compared with the remotely sensed ocean color data, revealing a remarkable resemblance between the distributions of shelf-source tracers and the climatological surface chlorophyll-a concentrations. We further analyze the spatial pattern of simulated tracer fields in relation to satellite ocean color data. Dynamic ocean features such as the Southern Ocean fronts and coastal waters are reflected in both the tracer model and the observed biological productivity. Our results support the overall importance of continental shelves as a potential source region for dissolved iron. The relative importance of different shelf regions is found to vary significantly depending on the relevant circulation features. Undergraduate Bachelor Thesis Southern Ocean Georgia Institute of Technology: SMARTech - Scholarly Materials and Research at Georgia Tech Southern Ocean |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Georgia Institute of Technology: SMARTech - Scholarly Materials and Research at Georgia Tech |
op_collection_id |
ftgeorgiatech |
language |
English |
topic |
Iron Ocean Biogeochemistry Nutrient transport Southern ocean |
spellingShingle |
Iron Ocean Biogeochemistry Nutrient transport Southern ocean Birmingham, Ryan W. Transport Pathways of Shelf Source Micronutrients to the Southern Ocean |
topic_facet |
Iron Ocean Biogeochemistry Nutrient transport Southern ocean |
description |
We use a numerical ocean model to evaluate the hypothesis that the continental shelves are significant sources of dissolved iron to the Southern Ocean. We simulate the distribution of passive tracers released from the 18 different continental shelf regions of the extra-tropical southern hemisphere oceans using an offline, eddy-permitting transport model. The circulation fields are taken from the Southern Ocean State Estimate, and we only simulate the transport of inert tracers focusing on the physical transport pathways. The resulting tracer fields are then compared with the remotely sensed ocean color data, revealing a remarkable resemblance between the distributions of shelf-source tracers and the climatological surface chlorophyll-a concentrations. We further analyze the spatial pattern of simulated tracer fields in relation to satellite ocean color data. Dynamic ocean features such as the Southern Ocean fronts and coastal waters are reflected in both the tracer model and the observed biological productivity. Our results support the overall importance of continental shelves as a potential source region for dissolved iron. The relative importance of different shelf regions is found to vary significantly depending on the relevant circulation features. Undergraduate |
author2 |
Ito, Takamitsu Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Hartley, Dana Ingall, Ellery |
format |
Bachelor Thesis |
author |
Birmingham, Ryan W. |
author_facet |
Birmingham, Ryan W. |
author_sort |
Birmingham, Ryan W. |
title |
Transport Pathways of Shelf Source Micronutrients to the Southern Ocean |
title_short |
Transport Pathways of Shelf Source Micronutrients to the Southern Ocean |
title_full |
Transport Pathways of Shelf Source Micronutrients to the Southern Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Transport Pathways of Shelf Source Micronutrients to the Southern Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Transport Pathways of Shelf Source Micronutrients to the Southern Ocean |
title_sort |
transport pathways of shelf source micronutrients to the southern ocean |
publisher |
Georgia Institute of Technology |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1853/53728 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1853/53728 |
_version_ |
1766204135078625280 |