Abstract
Warm-core eddies1 are large lenses of subtropical water (radius 100–150 km) wandering through a cooler sea. Figure 1 shows the path of one such eddy (eddy F) in the south-west Tasman Sea. Warm-core eddies in this area are shed by the East Australian Current (EAC)3. Because the EAC is fed mainly by central waters from the western South Pacific4,5, it is low in surface nutrient and generally unproductive6,7. The eddies which it sheds might, therefore, be expected to be equally unproductive. However, the phytoplankton concentration in eddy F increased about fivefold between September8 and November 19787. This ‘anomaly’ is considered here.
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Tranter, D., Parker, R. & Cresswell, G. Are warm-core eddies unproductive?. Nature 284, 540–542 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/284540a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/284540a0
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