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http://hdl.handle.net/2122/3434
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| Title: | A process-oriented model study of equatorial Pacific phytoplankton: the role of iron supply and tropical instability waves |
| Authors: | Vichi, M.*
Nencioli, F.*
Masina, S.* |
| Keywords: | biogeochemical model
BFM
PELAGOS
tropical instability waves
iron
equatorial Pacific |
| Issue Date: | 2007 |
| Title of journal: | Progress in oceanography |
| Abstract: | The response of phytoplankton growth to iron supply and its modulation by large scale
circulation and tropical instability waves (TIWs) in the eastern equatorial Pacific has been
investigated with an ocean biogeochemistry model. This process study shows that iron can
be efficiently advected from the New Guinea shelf through the Equatorial Undercurrent
(EUC) to the eastern Pacific. In this region phytoplankton production is enhanced when
an additional source of iron is applied in the New Guinea shelf and advected in the model
by the EUC. In the eastern Pacific, phytoplankton variability is linked to TIWs activity,
as revealed by a wavelet analysis of the total autotrophic carbon. The net local effect of
the waves on phytoplankton can be either positive or negative depending on several fac-
tors. In some cases the effect of the waves is to enhance iron availability in the euphotic
zone leading to a net local increase of phytoplankton biomass, provided that the iron nu-
tricline is sufficiently shallow to be reached by the wave vertical scale. In these cases it is
also suggested that local maxima of phytoplankton observed in moorings off equator are sustained by advected iron and subsequent local production instead of being the result of concentration mechanisms. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2122/3434 |
| Appears in Collections: | 03.04.01. Biogeochemical cycles
Manuscripts
03.04.04. Ecosystems
03.01.02. Equatorial and regional oceanography
03.01.07. Physical and biogeochemical interactions
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