International Research Fellowship Program: The Effect of Subsurface Variability on Nutrient Fluxes and the Biological Response to Upwelling off Northwest Africa

0701252Palter国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到24个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持Jaime Palter博士与Josep L.从伊比利亚半岛向南延伸到热带大西洋的西北非洲上升流区是世界四大东部边界上升流区之一。除了在那里繁荣的渔业的经济重要性所引起的强烈的区域兴趣之外，该地区还具有全球利益，因为它形成了北大西洋亚热带环流的东部边界条件，并与南极水团的地球化学循环有关。最近的研究表明，这种上升流区域的生物变化不能仅用风的强迫来解释。据推测，复杂的和随时间变化的电流改变地下营养水库，从而影响生物反应上升流。Josep Pelegri博士是CANOA的首席研究员，CANOA是一个大规模的观测和建模计划，旨在全面了解西北非洲上升流地区水团的循环和变化。这项工作与CANOA接口，以评估这种地下变化对上升流区域的营养水库的影响。为此，PI正在分析历史和新收集的水文、ARGO浮标和营养数据，并在CANOA系泊装置上部署一个现场硝酸盐传感器，以获得该地区第一个连续的营养时间序列。这项工作的第二部分旨在利用对区域动态的进一步了解来深入了解卫星叶绿素模式。这项工作的这一部分将联合收割机结合卫星叶绿素和其他卫星观测变量的分析与上述现场数据集，以探索对该区域浮游植物生物量的主要控制。

0701252PalterThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twelve-month research fellowship by Dr. Jaime Palter to work with Dr. Josep L. Pelegri at CMIMA Marine Institute in Barcelona, Spain.The Northwest African upwelling region, which extends southward from the Iberian Peninsula to the tropical Atlantic, is one of the world's four major eastern boundary upwelling regions. In addition to intense regional interest spawned by the economic importance of the fisheries that thrive there, the locale is of global interest as it forms the eastern boundary condition of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre and has been implicated in the biogeochemical cycling of Antarctic water masses. Recent studies have revealed that variability in the biology of this upwelling region cannot be explained by wind forcing alone. It is hypothesized that complex and time-varying currents alter the subsurface nutrient reservoir and thereby impact the biological response to upwelling. Dr. Josep Pelegri is the principal investigator of CANOA, a large-scale observational and modeling program that seeks a comprehensive understanding of the circulation and variability of the water masses in the Northwest African upwelling region. This work interfaces with CANOA to assess the impact of such subsurface variability on the nutrient reservoir of the upwelling region. To these ends, the PI is analyzing historical and newly collected hydrographic, ARGO float, and nutrient data, and deploying an in-situ nitrate sensor on a CANOA mooring to obtain the first continuous nutrient time series in the region. The second piece of this work is aimed at using an enhanced understanding of the regional dynamics to gain insight into satellite chlorophyll patterns. This component of the work will combine the analysis of satellite chlorophyll and other satellite-observed variables with the in situ data sets described above to explore the primary controls on phytoplankton biomass in the region.