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ToolsPortela, Esther, Meyer, Meredith G., Heywood, Karen J. and Smith, Walker O. (2025) Unprecedented summer phytoplankton bloom in the Ross Sea. Geophysical Research Letters, 52 (3). ISSN 0094-8276
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Abstract
High-resolution glider sampling in the southwestern Ross Sea revealed an extensive phytoplankton bloom in austral summer 2022–2023 that persisted for over one month and extended through the upper 100 m of the water column. The temporal mean euphotic-zone chlorophyll concentration was 20.3 (Formula presented.) 8.5 (Formula presented.), six to nine times higher than average summer Ross Sea concentrations. The bloom was likely initially dominated by Phaeocystis, favored over diatoms due to low light and high iron availability. Our observations are consistent with an ice-edge bloom likely fueled by iron supply and enhanced stratification from late sea-ice melt during an anomalously high ice-covered summer. Photoacclimation to particularly low light conditions might have enhanced Chl-a fluorescence. In the Ross Sea, the most productive region in the Southern Ocean, understanding the drivers of this extreme bloom is crucial for predicting potential impacts of the changing climate on primary production rates and carbon sequestration.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | Data Availability Statement: The glider data used in this study (doi:10.5285/0a1c43b9-4738-75e0-e063-6c86abc0ea24) are available at (Portela et al., 2024) and from British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/published_data_library/catalogue/10.5285/0a1c43b9-4738-75e0-e063-6c86abc0ea24. The longterm SIC data can be found at (https://data.seaice.uni-bremen.de/amsr2/asi_daygrid_swath/s3125/). Wind speed data were obtained from ERA5 (Hersbach et al., 2018) at (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-era5-single-levels?tab=overview), and satellite AQUA-MODIS PAR data (NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group, 2018) can be found here https://oceandata.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/directdataaccess/Level-3%20Binned/Aqua-MODIS. Acknowledgments: We thank the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), National Science Foundation (NSF), and McMurdo Station staff for funding and logistical support. The authors were supported by NSFGEO-NERC collaborative project P2P: Plankton to Predators—Biophysical Controls in Antarctic Polynyas (PI David Ainley, NSF grant ANT-2040571 and NERC grant NE/W00755X/1). The glider campaign was further supported by COMPASS: Climate-relevant Ocean Measurements and Processes on the Antarctic Continental Shelf and Slope (European Research Council, Horizon 2020: Grant 741120). We thank Gillian Damerell and Gareth Lee for their work in glider deployment and set up, and the UEA glider science team for glider piloting. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | glider survey,phytoplankton bloom,ross sea,geophysics,earth and planetary sciences(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1908 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Feb 2025 14:30 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Feb 2025 14:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98557 |
| DOI: | 10.1029/2024GL111264 |
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