Stationary Rossby waves dominate subduction of anthropogenic carbon in the Southern Ocean

Langlais, Clothilde; Lenton, Andrew; Matear, Richard J.; Monselesan, Didier; Legrésy, B.; Cougnon, Eva A.; Rintoul, Stephen R.

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-17292-3

Cited by 31 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…1) on the nutrients and other tracers is poorly understood. However, recent work has shown that the upwelling and subduction in the Southern Ocean is controlled by the complex interactions between the frontal jets, large bathymetric features, and surface winds 45,48,49 . As such, the upwelling of nutrients and subduction of CO 2 into the ocean interior is localized to regions where fronts interact with bathymetry [49][50][51] .…”

Section: Fronts Biogeochemistry and Ecosystems In The Southern Oceanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Southern Ocean fronts and their influence on biological and physical processes in a changing climate

et al. 2020

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The Southern Ocean is a critical component of the global climate system and an important ecoregion that contains a diverse range of interdependent flora and fauna. The Southern Ocean also hosts numerous fronts: sharp boundaries between waters with different characteristics. As they strongly influence exchanges between the ocean, atmosphere and cryosphere, fronts are of fundamental importance to the climate system. However, rapid advances in physical oceanography over the past 20 years have challenged previous definitions of fronts and their response to anthropogenic climate change. Here, we review the implications of this recent research for the study of climate, ecology and biology in the Southern Ocean. We include a frontal definition "user guide" to clarify the current debate and facilitate future research. The Southern Ocean, generally defined as the global ocean south of about 35 • S that encircles the Antarctic continent, is unique oceanographic environment due to the lack of continental barriers blocking its flow and the strong winds that blow over its surface 1. At large scales, the Southern Ocean is characterised by both the intense eastward flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), one of the most powerful current systems on Earth, and strongly tilted isopycnals (lines of constant density) that shallow to the south. Observations of the Southern Ocean dating back to the Discovery expedition in the 1920s revealed that the transition from warmer subtropical waters to colder Antarctic waters does not occur smoothly, but is concentrated into a series of sharp transition zones, aligned generally east-west, that have come to be called fronts 2. Further observations revealed that salinity, oxygen, nutrients and various other tracers showed similar behaviour, and that between the fronts, water properties are relatively homogeneous. As such, fronts delimit the boundaries between different water-masses with distinct environmental characteristics 3. These fronts also tend to coincide with the location of narrow yet very intense currents known as "jets" 4 that dominate the ACC's flow 5. The Southern Ocean is divided by fronts into a number of distinct biophysical zones, and hence a number of distinct habitats, which in turn support distinct biota 6, 7. Numerous studies have shown that seabirds and marine mammals tend to congregate and forage in and around fronts 7. As the Earth continues to warm due to anthropogenic climate change, it is vital that we understand how these fronts and jets will respond to changes in the global climate system, and what influence that might have on associated ecosystems 8-10. Due to its remoteness and harsh climate, undertaking field studies in the Southern Ocean is both difficult and expensive. As a result, the Southern Ocean is amongst the most data-sparse of all major ocean basins, which has hindered progress on key questions regarding its dynamics and ecological communities 10. In recent decades however, a deluge of new data from satellites and Argo profiling floats, along with e...

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Section: Fronts Biogeochemistry and Ecosystems In The Southern Oceanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Southern Ocean fronts and their influence on biological and physical processes in a changing climate

et al. 2020

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“…More generally, in the eddy-induced circulation, a steady state cross-frontal circulation can occur where Eliassen-Palm flux divergence is nonzero (e.g., Haynes et al, 1991). This eddy-induced circulation is different from the cross-frontal circulation discussed by Sekma et al (2013) and Langlais et al (2017), wherein the circulation is driven by strong bottom currents flowing over the sloping topography affecting the Fawn Trough and Kerguelen Plateau.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of Jet‐Scale Overturning Ocean Circulations in Argo Float Trajectories

Lee

Mazloff

2018

Geophysical Research Letters

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In a recent study, it was proposed that Reynolds stress by oceanic mesoscale eddies not only drives jets such as Subantarctic Front but also can force overturning circulations that are composed of rising motion on the poleward flank and sinking motion on the equatorward flank of the jets. In that study, the thermally indirect, jet‐scale overturning circulations (JSOCs) were detected in an eddy‐resolving model simulation of the Southern Ocean. Here observational evidence of the existence of JSOCs is demonstrated by showing that the Argo floats tend to drift poleward across the jet with the maximum drift speed coinciding with the corresponding jet maximum. This finding has an implication for the observed deep mixed layer because it was previously shown that in the model the JSOCs play a key role in preconditioning the formation of a deep and narrow mixed layer at just ~1° north of the Subantarctic Front.

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“…This, in turn, affects oceanic carbon sequestration. Second, the meltwater carries bioavailable iron to the Southern Ocean -which affects oceanic primary productivity and the associated export of organic carbon to depth (Grotti et al, 2005;Lannuzel et al, 2008Lannuzel et al, , 2010Raiswell et al, 2008;Smith et al, 2007;Smith and Nelson, 1986;van der Merwe et al, 2009). Figure 34 shows that the simulated Antarctic continental shelf bottom water (ASBW) changes its temperature in re- Figure 26.…”

Section: Wind-induced Anomalies In Antarctic Continental Shelf Bottommentioning

confidence: 99%

MOMSO 1.0 – an eddying Southern Ocean model configuration with fairly equilibrated natural carbon

2020

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Abstract. We present a new near-global coupled biogeochemical ocean-circulation model configuration. The configuration features a horizontal discretization with a grid spacing of less than 11 km in the Southern Ocean and gradually coarsens in meridional direction to more than 200 km at 64∘ N, where the model is bounded by a solid wall. The underlying code framework is the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL)'s Modular Ocean Model coupled to the Biogeochemistry with Light, Iron, Nutrients and Gases (BLING) ecosystem model of Galbraith et al. (2010). The configuration is unique in that it features both a relatively equilibrated oceanic carbon inventory and an eddying ocean circulation based on a realistic model geometry/bathymetry – a combination that has been precluded by prohibitive computational cost in the past. Results from a simulation with climatological forcing and a sensitivity experiment with increasing winds suggest that the configuration is sufficiently equilibrated to explore Southern Ocean carbon uptake dynamics on decadal timescales. The configuration is dubbed MOMSO, a Modular Ocean Model Southern Ocean configuration.

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Stationary Rossby waves dominate subduction of anthropogenic carbon in the Southern Ocean

Cited by 31 publications

References 59 publications

Defining Southern Ocean fronts and their influence on biological and physical processes in a changing climate

Defining Southern Ocean fronts and their influence on biological and physical processes in a changing climate

Evidence of Jet‐Scale Overturning Ocean Circulations in Argo Float Trajectories

MOMSO 1.0 – an eddying Southern Ocean model configuration with fairly equilibrated natural carbon

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