Hurricane Arthur and its effect on the short-term variability of pCO2 on the Scotian Shelf, NW Atlantic
| Autor: | Blair J. W. Greenan, Helmuth Thomas, William J. Burt, Susanne E. Craig, Katja Fennel, Jonathan Lemay |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
education.field_of_study 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Mixed layer 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Population Spring bloom 01 natural sciences Carbon cycle Oceanography Water column Phytoplankton education Thermocline Surface water Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Geology 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Earth-Surface Processes |
| Zdroj: | Biogeosciences. 15:2111-2123 |
| ISSN: | 1726-4189 |
| Popis: | The understanding of the seasonal variability of carbon cycling on the Scotian Shelf in the NW Atlantic Ocean has improved in recent years; however, very little information is available regarding its short-term variability. In order to shed light on this aspect of carbon cycling on the Scotian Shelf we investigate the effects of Hurricane Arthur, which passed the region on 5 July 2014. The hurricane caused a substantial decline in the surface water partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), even though the Scotian Shelf possesses CO2-rich deep waters. High-temporal-resolution data of moored autonomous instruments demonstrate that there is a distinct layer of relatively cold water with low dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) slightly above the thermocline, presumably due to a sustained population of phytoplankton. Strong storm-related wind mixing caused this cold intermediate layer with high phytoplankton biomass to be entrained into the surface mixed layer. At the surface, phytoplankton begin to grow more rapidly due to increased light. The combination of growth and the mixing of low DIC water led to a short-term reduction in the partial pressure of CO2 until wind speeds relaxed and allowed for the restratification of the upper water column. These hurricane-related processes caused a (net) CO2 uptake by the Scotian Shelf region that is comparable to the spring bloom, thus exerting a major impact on the annual CO2 flux budget. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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