Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
© The Author(s), 2016. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Systems 166 (2017): 73-86, doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2016.10.008.
Description:
Phytoplankton production in the Ross Sea is regulated by the availability of
dissolved iron (dFe), a limiting micro-nutrient, whose sources include Circumpolar
Deep Water, sea ice melt, glacial melt, and benthic sources (sediment
efflux and remineralization). We employ a passive tracer dye to model the
benthic dFe sources and track pathways from deep areas of the continental
shelf to the surface mixed layer in simulations with and without tidal forcing,
and at 5 and 1.5km horizontal resolution. This, combined with dyes for
each of the other dFe sources, provides an estimate of total dFe supply to
surface waters. We find that tidal forcing increases the amount of benthic
dye that covers the banks on the continental shelf. Calculations of mixed
layer depth to define the surface ocean give similar average values over the shelf, but spatial patterns differ between simulations, particularly along the
ice shelf front. Benthic dFe supply in simulations shows an increase with tidal
forcing and a decrease with higher resolution. The changes in benthic dFe
supply control the difference in total supply between simulations. Overall,
the total dFe supply from simulations varies from 5.60 to 7.95 μmol m-2 yr-1,
with benthic supply comprising 32-50%, comparing well with recent data and
model synthesis. We suggest that including tides and using high horizontal
resolution is important, especially when considering spatial variability of iron
supply on the Ross Sea shelf.
Description:
The authors acknowledge funding from NSF's Antarctic Research Program
496 (ODU: ANT-0944174; WHOI: ANT-0094165).
Keywords:
Ross Sea
;
Tides
;
Mesoscale
;
Modelling
;
Tracers
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
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