The Effect of Mesoscale Physics on the Upper Ocean Carbon Cycle

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Subject: The Effect of Mesoscale Physics on the Upper Ocean Carbon Cycle In field studies and in global scale models, it has been difficult to understand how dissolved nutrients are supplied to support the observed discrepancy between eddy diffusive transport and production demand: (1) the transport of nutrients in the until recently "invisible" pool of dissolved organic matter; (2) the transport of inorganic nutrients by episodic mixing or nutrient injection. According to recent work, mesoscale upwelling in the upper ocean associated with fronts and eddies may drive a significant vertical nutrient transport. Global scale circulation nutrient cycle models are unable to reproduce the observed nutrient cycle in the upper ocean without recourse to either (1) transport of nutrients in the form of dissolved organic nutrients, or (2) incresased concentrations of inorganic nutrients at the sea surface, which allows presumably unrealistic horizontal advective transport. GCM results may be biased by inadequate resolution of the mesoscale processes that are responsible for vertical nutrient transport in the real ocean. To test this hypothesis, a nutrient dynamics model will be run with the physical variables from the eddy-resolving circulation model of Semtner and Chervin (1992).