Marine Science Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-15-1994
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1029/93JC02907
Abstract
Eddy-induced upwelling occurs along the western edge of the Gulf Stream between Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in the South Atlantic Bight (SAB). Coastal zone color scanner images of 1-km resolution spanning the period April 13-21, 1979, were processed to examine these eddy features in relation to concurrent shipboard and current/temperature measurements at moored arrays. A quasi-one-dimensional (z), time-dependent biological model, using only nitrate as a nutrient source, has been combined with a three-dimensional physical model in an attempt to replicate the observed phytoplankton field at the northward edge of an eddy. The model is applicable only to the SAB south of the Charleston Bump, at approximately 31.5-degrees-N, since no feature analogous to the bump exists in the model bathymetry. The modeled chlorophyll, nitrate, and primary production fields of the euphotic zone are very similar to those obtained from the satellite and shipboard data at the leading edges of the observed eddies south of the Charleston Bump. The horizontal and vertical simulated fluxes of nitrate and chlorophyll show that only approximately 10% of the upwelled nitrate is utilized by the phytoplankton of the modeled grid box on the northern edge of the cyclone, while approximately 75% is lost horizontally, with the remainder still in the euphotic zone after the 10-day period of the model. Loss of chlorophyll due-to sinking is very small in this strong upwelling region of the cyclone. The model is relatively insensitive to variations in the sinking parameterization and the external nitrate and chlorophyll fields but is very sensitive to a reduction of the maximum potential growth rate to half that measured. Given the success of this model in simulating the new production of the selected upwelling region, other upwelling regions for which measurements or successful models of physical and biological quantities and rates exist could be modeled similarly.
Rights Information
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 99, issue C4, p. 7513-7538
Copyright 1994 by the American Geophysical Union.
Scholar Commons Citation
Pribble, J. Raymond; Walsh, John J.; Dieterle, Dwight A.; and Muller-Karger, Frank E., "A Numerical Analysis of Shipboard and Coastal Zone Color Scanner Time Series of New Production Within Gulf Stream Cyclonic Eddies in the South Atlantic Bight" (1994). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 66.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/66
