Assessing the role of eddies in exchanging nutrients across the European Shelf

海洋中充满了时变的、旋转的环流，我们称之为旋涡。这些漩涡将热量、营养物质和碳从一个地区转移到另一个地区，影响到这些特性的当地储存。这种涡旋交换在强流中可能变得重要，例如边界流、急流和斜流。然而，虽然可以看到整个海洋都存在涡流(例如遥感观测)，但很少有系统的、重复的观测揭示涡流如何在水平方向，特别是在表面以下转移特性。相反，我们必须依靠模型和理论研究的结合来了解涡流在海洋中的作用，通常将其与天气系统在大气中的行为进行比较。在这项研究中，我们希望使用新的滑翔机技术来确定涡流如何在水平方向转移营养物质。我们希望在现有项目Fastnet的支持下，在三个不同的地点调查欧洲大陆架上的这种涡流转移，该项目研究了跨大陆架断裂的实物交换。我们的目标是在两架滑翔机上安装营养传感器，一架由Fastnet支持，另一架通过这次调用支持。与Fastnet邮轮的营养数据一起，我们的目标是利用滑翔机的数据来估计公海和陆架海之间这三个不同地点的营养物质的涡流通量。我们的假设是，涡旋提供了从开阔海洋到陆架海、穿过陆架断裂的无机营养物质的流动，以及从陆架海到开放海洋的溶解有机营养物质的回流。进入陆架的营养物质涡流对维持生物生产力具有潜在的重要作用，因为这里的光合作用速率特别高，维持了渔业活动，并提供了大气二氧化碳的生物吸收。从长远来看，滑翔机技术有可能提供量化整个海洋的涡流通量所需的重复观测。要真正了解热量、营养物质和碳是如何在整个海洋中转移的，以及海洋如何在气候系统中运行这一更广泛的目标，这一步骤是必要的。

The ocean is full of time-varying, swirling circulations, called eddies. These eddies transfer heat, nutrients and carbon from one region to another, affecting the local store of each of these properties. This eddy exchange potentially becomes important across strong flows, such as boundary currents, jets and slope currents. However, while eddies are seen to occur throughout the ocean (such as remotely sensed observations), there have been very few systematic, repeated observations revealing how eddies transfer properties in the horizontal, particularly below the surface. Instead we have to rely on a combination of model and theoretical studies to understand the role of eddies in the ocean, often drawing parallels with how weather systems behave in the atmosphere.In this study, we wish to use the new glider technology to identify how eddies transfer nutrients in the horizontal. We wish to investigate this eddy transfer on the European Shelf at three different sites, drawing on the support of an existing programme, FASTNET, examining the physical exchange across the shelf break. Our aim is to include nutrient sensors in two gliders, one supported under FASTNET and the other supported via this call. Together with nutrient data from FASTNET cruises, we aim to use the glider data to estimate the eddy flux of nutrients in these three different sites between the open ocean and shelf seas. Our hypothesis is that the eddies provide a flux of inorganic nutrients from the open ocean to the shelf seas, across the shelf break, as well as a return flux of dissolved organic nutrients from the shelf seas to the open ocean.The eddy fluxes of nutrients onto the shelf are potentially important in sustaining biological productivity, there are particularly high rates of photosynthesis here, sustaining fishing activity and providing a biological drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide.In the longer term, the glider technology has the potential to provide the repeated observations needed to quantify eddies fluxes throughout the ocean. This step is necessary to really understand how heat, nutrients and carbon are transferred throughout the ocean, as well as the wider goal of how the ocean operates in the climate system.