Final-Biological-Physical Interactions

Question 1

Nutrients: How do nutrients enter the ocean?

Answer 1

By aeolian and riverine flux

Question 2

What accounts for

the variation with depth of nutrient concentrations across the major oceans?

Answer 2

Deep Pacific Waters Concentrations greater than in Atlantic waters because the water has had more time to accumulate nutrients

Deep Atlantic Waters Concentrations are lower than in pacific waters because the water has only recently descended from the nutrient depleted surface waters

Question 3

What was Sverdrup’s Critical Depth Hypothesis?

Answer 3

The shoaling of the mixed layer above the critical depth is the cause of spring blooms

Question 4

What is responsible for the spatial

patterns of surface chlorophyll observed by satellites?

Answer 4

.

Question 5

What aspects of physical oceanography and ocean circulation are responsible for the
low-nutrient oligotrophic gyres (e.g., Sargasso Sea)? What about productive coastal sheries regions such as Peru, California, Benguela,
and the Canary Islands?

Answer 5

.

Question 6

Why is productivity enhanced along the

equator? How can rings, Langmuir circulation, and hurricanes influence biology?

Answer 6

How do Ocean Core Rings impact biology Bring animals to unusual areas, increase hurricanes.

How do hurricanes impact biology increase upwelling

Langmuir Circulation A series of shallow, slow, counter-rotating vortices at the ocean’s surface aligned with the wind