When phytoplankton growth is limited by low nutrient concentrations, full-depth-integrated phytoplankton biomass increases in response to intermittent mixing events that bring nutrient-rich waters into the sunlit surface layer. Here it is shown how oscillatory winds can induce intermittent nutrient entrainment events and thereby sustain more phytoplankton at fronts in nutrient-limited oceans. Low-frequency (i.e., synoptic to planetary scale) along-front wind drives oscillatory cross-front Ekman transport, which induces intermittent deeper mixing layers on the less dense side of fronts. High-frequency wind with variance near the Coriolis frequency resonantly excites inertial oscillations, which also induce deeper mixing layers on the less dense sidemore »
This content will become publicly available on December 1, 2022
Determining the source of phase noise: Response of a driven Duffing oscillator to low-frequency damping and resonance frequency fluctuations
- Award ID(s):
- 1708818
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10319398
- Journal Name:
- Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena
- Volume:
- 427
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0167-2789
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation