Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study
The supply of nitrate to surface waters plays a crucial role in maintaining marine life. Physical processes at the mesoscale (~10-100?km) and smaller have been advocated to provide a major fraction of the global supply. Whilst observational studies have focussed on well-defined features, such as iso...
Published in: | Global Biogeochemical Cycles |
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Online Access: | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/7/Pidcock_et_al-2016-Global_Biogeochemical_Cycles.pdf https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/1/gbc20442.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005383 |
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:514208 2023-05-15T16:51:48+02:00 Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study Pidcock, Rosalind E.M. Martin, Adrian P. Painter, Stuart C. Allen, John T. Srokosz, Meric A. Forryan, Alex Stinchcombe, Mark Smeed, David A. 2016-08-29 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/7/Pidcock_et_al-2016-Global_Biogeochemical_Cycles.pdf https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/1/gbc20442.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005383 en eng https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/7/Pidcock_et_al-2016-Global_Biogeochemical_Cycles.pdf https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/1/gbc20442.pdf Pidcock, Rosalind E.M.; Martin, Adrian P. orcid:0000-0002-1202-8612 Painter, Stuart C.; Allen, John T.; Srokosz, Meric A. orcid:0000-0002-7347-7411 Forryan, Alex; Stinchcombe, Mark; Smeed, David A. orcid:0000-0003-1740-1778 . 2016 Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 30 (8). 1206-1223. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005383 <https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005383> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2016 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005383 2023-02-04T19:43:22Z The supply of nitrate to surface waters plays a crucial role in maintaining marine life. Physical processes at the mesoscale (~10-100?km) and smaller have been advocated to provide a major fraction of the global supply. Whilst observational studies have focussed on well-defined features, such as isolated eddies, the vertical circulation and nutrient supply in a typical 100-200?km square of ocean will involve a turbulent spectrum of interacting, evolving and decaying features. A crucial step in closing the ocean nitrogen budget is to be able to rank the importance of mesoscale fluxes against other sources of nitrate for surface waters for a representative area of open ocean. While this has been done using models, the vital observational equivalent is still lacking. To illustrate the difficulties that prevent us from putting a global estimate on the significance of the mesoscale observationally, we use data from a cruise in the Iceland Basin where vertical velocity and nitrate observations were made simultaneously at the same high spatial resolution. Local mesoscale nitrate flux is found to be an order of magnitude greater than that due to small-scale vertical mixing and exceeds coincident nitrate uptake rates and estimates of nitrate supply due to winter convection. However, a non-zero net vertical velocity for the region introduces a significant bias in regional estimates of the mesoscale vertical nitrate transport. The need for synopticity means that a more accurate estimate can not be simply found by using a larger survey area. It is argued that time-series, rather than spatial surveys, may be the best means to quantify the contribution of mesoscale processes to the nitrate budget of the surface ocean. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Global Biogeochemical Cycles 30 8 1206 1223 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
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ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
The supply of nitrate to surface waters plays a crucial role in maintaining marine life. Physical processes at the mesoscale (~10-100?km) and smaller have been advocated to provide a major fraction of the global supply. Whilst observational studies have focussed on well-defined features, such as isolated eddies, the vertical circulation and nutrient supply in a typical 100-200?km square of ocean will involve a turbulent spectrum of interacting, evolving and decaying features. A crucial step in closing the ocean nitrogen budget is to be able to rank the importance of mesoscale fluxes against other sources of nitrate for surface waters for a representative area of open ocean. While this has been done using models, the vital observational equivalent is still lacking. To illustrate the difficulties that prevent us from putting a global estimate on the significance of the mesoscale observationally, we use data from a cruise in the Iceland Basin where vertical velocity and nitrate observations were made simultaneously at the same high spatial resolution. Local mesoscale nitrate flux is found to be an order of magnitude greater than that due to small-scale vertical mixing and exceeds coincident nitrate uptake rates and estimates of nitrate supply due to winter convection. However, a non-zero net vertical velocity for the region introduces a significant bias in regional estimates of the mesoscale vertical nitrate transport. The need for synopticity means that a more accurate estimate can not be simply found by using a larger survey area. It is argued that time-series, rather than spatial surveys, may be the best means to quantify the contribution of mesoscale processes to the nitrate budget of the surface ocean. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pidcock, Rosalind E.M. Martin, Adrian P. Painter, Stuart C. Allen, John T. Srokosz, Meric A. Forryan, Alex Stinchcombe, Mark Smeed, David A. |
spellingShingle |
Pidcock, Rosalind E.M. Martin, Adrian P. Painter, Stuart C. Allen, John T. Srokosz, Meric A. Forryan, Alex Stinchcombe, Mark Smeed, David A. Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study |
author_facet |
Pidcock, Rosalind E.M. Martin, Adrian P. Painter, Stuart C. Allen, John T. Srokosz, Meric A. Forryan, Alex Stinchcombe, Mark Smeed, David A. |
author_sort |
Pidcock, Rosalind E.M. |
title |
Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study |
title_short |
Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study |
title_full |
Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study |
title_fullStr |
Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study |
title_sort |
quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/7/Pidcock_et_al-2016-Global_Biogeochemical_Cycles.pdf https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/1/gbc20442.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005383 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/7/Pidcock_et_al-2016-Global_Biogeochemical_Cycles.pdf https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514208/1/gbc20442.pdf Pidcock, Rosalind E.M.; Martin, Adrian P. orcid:0000-0002-1202-8612 Painter, Stuart C.; Allen, John T.; Srokosz, Meric A. orcid:0000-0002-7347-7411 Forryan, Alex; Stinchcombe, Mark; Smeed, David A. orcid:0000-0003-1740-1778 . 2016 Quantifying mesoscale-driven nitrate supply: a case study. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 30 (8). 1206-1223. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005383 <https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005383> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005383 |
container_title |
Global Biogeochemical Cycles |
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30 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
1206 |
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1223 |
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