Ocean glider observations of iceberg-enhanced biological production in the northwestern Weddell Sea:Iceberg enhanced production

Biddle, Louise C., Kaiser, Jan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1553-4043, Heywood, Karen J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9859-0026, Thompson, Andrew and Jenkins, Adrian (2015) Ocean glider observations of iceberg-enhanced biological production in the northwestern Weddell Sea:Iceberg enhanced production. Geophysical Research Letters, 42 (2). pp. 459-465. ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

Icebergs affect local biological production around Antarctica. We used an ocean glider to observe the effects of a large iceberg that was advected by the Antarctic Slope Current along the continental slope in the northwestern Weddell Sea in early 2012. The high-resolution glider data reveal a pronounced effect of the iceberg on ocean properties, with oxygen concentrations of (13 ± 4) μmol kg−1 higher than levels in surrounding waters, which are most likely due to positive net community production. This response was confined to three areas of water in the direct vicinity of the iceberg track, each no larger than 2  km2. Our findings suggest that icebergs have an impact on Antarctic production presumably through local micronutrient injections, on a scale smaller than typical satellite observations of biological production in the Southern Ocean.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: ©2014. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Uncontrolled Keywords: antarctic,iceberg,production,gliders
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science
Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Atmospheric Chemistry (former - to 2018)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climate, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Meteorology, Oceanography and Climate Dynamics (former - to 2017)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 26 Feb 2015 16:56
Last Modified: 20 Mar 2023 10:40
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/52346
DOI: 10.1002/2014GL062850

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