Fueling Plankton Production by a Meandering Frontal Jet: A Case Study for the Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean)

Download

journal.pone.0111482.PDF

Date

2014-11-5

Author

Oguz, Temel
Macias, Diego
Garcia-Lafuente, Jesus
Pascual, Ananda
Tintore, Joaquin

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

184
views

133
downloads

A three dimensional biophysical model was employed to illustrate the biological impacts of a meandering frontal jet, in terms of efficiency and persistency of the autotrophic frontal production, in marginal and semi-enclosed seas. We used the Alboran Sea of the Western Mediterranean as a case study. Here, a frontal jet with a width of 15–20 km, characterized by the relatively low density Atlantic water mass, flows eastward within the upper 100 m as a marked meandering current around the western and the eastern anticyclonic gyres prior to its attachment to the North African shelf/slope topography of the Algerian basin. Its inherent nonlinearity leads to the development of a strong ageostrophic cross-frontal circulation that supplies nutrients into the nutrient-starved euphotic layer and stimulates phytoplankton growth along the jet. Biological production is larger in the western part of the basin and decreases eastwards with the gradual weakening of the jet. The higher production at the subsurface levels suggests that the Alboran Sea is likely more productive than predicted by the satellite chlorophyll data. The Mediterranean water mass away from the jet and the interiors of the western and eastern anticyclonic gyres remain unproductive.

Subject Keywords

ALMERIA-ORAN FRONT, VERTICAL CIRCULATION, MESOSCALE SUBDUCTION, GEOSTROPHIC FRONT, SIZE-STRUCTURE, ATLANTIC JET, PHYTOPLANKTON, DYNAMICS, VARIABILITY, FRONTOGENESIS

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/51276

Journal

PLoS ONE

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111482

Collections

Graduate School of Marine Sciences, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Modulation of frontogenetic plankton production along a meandering jet by zonal wind forcing: An application to the Alboran Sea Oguz, Temel; Mourre, Baptiste; Tintore, Joaquin (2017-08-01) We present a coupled physical-biological modeling study to elucidate the changes in ageostrophic frontal dynamics and the frontogenetic plankton production characteristics of a meandering jet under the impacts of successive westerly/easterly wind events combined with seasonal variations in the upstream transport and buoyancy flux characteristics of the jet, using a case study for the Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean). Their nonlinear coupling is shown to result in different forms of physical and biologica...
Coupled physical and biochemical data driven simulations of Black Sea in spring-summer: real-time forecast and data assimilation Besiktepe, ST (2002-12-06) Data driven simulations in the Black Sea based upon observations during May-June 2001 in the SW part of the basin and coupled 3D physical and biochemical models have been carried out. The model was initialised with the data obtained during 22-28 May, 2001 and ran until 15 June, 2001. The data obtained in the second leg during 12-18 June, 2001 was assimilated into the model. At the time of the assimilation, the model forecast and the data were also compared. Quantitative and qualitative comparisons of the co...
Aeroelastic Analysis of a Flapping Blow Fly Wing Beker, Can; Turgut, Ali Emre; ARIKAN, KUTLUK BİLGE; Kurtuluş, Dilek Funda (2020-06-01) In this study, a 3D model of the bio-inspired blowfly wing Callphere Erytrocephala is created and aeroelastic analysis is performed to calculate its aerodynamical characteristics by use of numerical methods. To perform the flapping motion, a sinusoidal input function is created. The scope of this study is to perform aeroelastic analysis by synchronizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and structural dynamic analysis models and to investigate the unsteady lift formation on the aeroelastic flapping wing fo...
Numerical simulation of lateral jets in supersonic crossflow of missiles using computational fluid dynamics Dağlı, Efe Can; Aksel, M. Haluk.; Department of Mechanical Engineering (2019) In this thesis, numerical simulation method for modelling lateral jet in supersonic crossflow is presented. Lateral jet control provides high maneuverability to the missile at difficult flow conditions. Besides, jet in a crossflow case has a highly complicated flow domain which should be examined using numerical or experimental methods. In this study, numerical methods are used. The thesis consists of two main sections. In the first section, a validation study is conducted for numerical simulation method us...
Upstream control of the frontal jet regulating plankton production in the Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean) Oguz, Temel; Mourre, Baptiste; Tintore, Joaquin (2016-09-01) Using a coupled physical-biological model, we document that a approximate to 30 km wide meandering jet constitutes a major source of biological enrichment in the Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean) even in the absence of wind forcing and tidal dynamics. The level of enrichment is shown to vary markedly during the year depending on the upstream characteristics of the jet as it exits from the Gibraltar Strait. When its intensity is sufficiently low and characterized by weaker cross-frontal density gradients d...

Citation Formats

T. Oguz, D. Macias, J. Garcia-Lafuente, A. Pascual, and J. Tintore, “Fueling Plankton Production by a Meandering Frontal Jet: A Case Study for the Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean),” PLoS ONE, 2014, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/51276.