Abstract. The distribution and formation of mesothermal structure (temperature inversions) in the North Pacific subarctic region are investigated through analysis of climatological hydrographic data. It is suggested that the heat and salt that maintain the mesothermal water and thus the halocline in the density range of 26.7-27.2cr0 are transported as a crossgyre flow from the transition domain just east of Japan, where the waters are influenced by the subtropical gyre water mass, to the eastern subarctic region. Along the transport route the isopycnal potential temperature and thus salinity are well conserved. In the western subarctic gyre, the Bering Sea, and the northern Gulf of Alaska, the temperature reaches its minimum at the surface in winter and the areal coverage agrees well with the distribution of the mesothermal structure. In the southeastern part of the zonally distributed mesothermal structure in the area of 170øE -150øW and 45ø-50øN, where the winter sea surface temperature is higher than that in the deeper layer, dichothermal water is formed by subsurface intrusion of the low-temperature and low-•alinity water that outcropped in the previous winter over the warm and saline water transported from the transition domain. The type 1 formation process should be further classified into two types. One is a pure seasonal cycle as in the Gulf of Alaska (Figure 3a). In spring and summer, mesothermal water exists at around 100 m, while in fall, at the end of the heating period, it vanishes. In the other type as observed in the Okhotsk Sea, the Bering Sea, and the western subarctic gyre (Figure3b), the mesothermal structure exists throughout the year. This type cannot be explained by verti-16,885
From the 1970s to 1990s, a reduction in the body size of Japanese chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) was observed. To investigate this body size reduction in the North Pacific, we developed a bioenergetics model for chum salmon coupled with the results from a lower trophic ecosystem model embedded into a three-dimensional global model. In the bioenergetics model, respiration and consumption terms are assumed to be functions of water temperature and prey zooplankton density, which are the determining factors of the reduction of body size. The model reproduced the body size of the 1972 and 1991 year classes of chum salmon. The reproduced body size of the 1972 year class was larger than that of 1991 year class, and this result agrees with observations from the Bering Sea. Our model also reproduced the body size trend from l970 to 2000. The prey density, especially in the eastern North Pacific, had a greater influence on the change of body size than did the SST. This suggests that the size reduction of Japanese chum salmon in the 1990s was partly affected by changes in prey zooplankton density. In the context of the global warming scenario, we discuss changes in the migration route of chum salmon and predict that the population of Japanese chum salmon experience significant declines over this century.
Anticyclonic eddies propagating southwestward in the Alaskan Stream (AS) were investigated through analysis of altimetry data from satellite observations during 1992–2006 and hydrographic data from profiling float observations during 2001–06. Fifteen long-lived eddies were identified and categorized based on their area of first appearance. Three eddies were present at the beginning of the satellite observations; another three formed in the eastern Gulf of Alaska off Sitka, Alaska; and four were first detected at the head of the Gulf of Alaska near Yakutat, Alaska. The other five eddies formed along the AS between 157° and 169°W, and were named AS eddies. While the eddies that formed in the Gulf of Alaska mainly decayed before exiting the Gulf of Alaska, the AS eddies mostly crossed the 180° meridian and reached the western subarctic gyre. Four of five AS eddies formed under negative or weakly positive wind stress curls, which possibly caused AS separation from the coast. Comparison of eddy propagation speeds in the AS with the bottom slope showed that eddies propagated faster over steeper slopes, although eddy speeds were slower than those predicted by the topographic planetary wave dispersion relation. An AS eddy was observed by profiling floats in the western subarctic gyre after it detached from the AS. Intermediate-layer water near the eddy center had low potential vorticity compared with the surrounding water, suggesting that AS eddies provided the western subarctic gyre with water just south of the Aleutian Islands.
[1] The intermediate water circulation in the North Pacific subarctic and northern subtropical regions is investigated through inverse analysis, focusing on the volume and heat transports from the subtropical to the subarctic regions. The inverse method we adopted is a hybrid method of b-spiral and box inverse methods which permits diapycnal flux. The isopycnal velocities estimated through the inverse analysis are mostly consistent with the oxygen distribution and support the hypothesis that warm and saline intermediate water is transported from the transition domain east of Japan to the northern Gulf of Alaska. The northward volume transport across 46°N between 158°E and 130°W is estimated to be À0.2 to 5.3 Sv in the density range of 26.7-27.2s q . The upward diapycnal transports in the open subarctic North Pacific (region N) across 26.7 and 27.2s q isopycnal surfaces are estimated to be 0.2 to 1.5 Sv and À0.2 to 0.9 Sv, respectively. Part of the water transported upward across 26.7s q might outcrop and be carried to the subtropical region by the southward Ekman drift. Through the examination of heat balance of the intermediate layer in the subarctic region, it is suggested quantitatively that the intermediate heat transport from the south plays an essential role in maintaining the heat of the mesothermal waters in the subarctic region.
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