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19) Effects of Surface Boundary Layer Mixing on Arctic Ocean Biogeochemistry

Presentation Date
Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 12:00pm - Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 3:00pm
Authors

Author

Abstract

Effects of Boundary Layer Mixing ThumbnailThe Arctic Ocean’s surface layer is important for many chemical, biological, and physical processes that have critical impacts on regional and pan-Arctic carbon cycles and food security. In order to better understand the food security future of coastal Arctic communities, climate simulations that can accurately capture these interacting biogeochemical processes are essential. It is hypothesize that wind-driven inertial oscillations, submesoscale currents, and tidal mixing are all potentially important physical processes for the growth of lower trophic level communities that support oceanic food sources along the Arctic coast. However, their relative importance and their mechanisms of impact have yet to be studied. Here, we use high-fidelity Large Eddy Simulations (LES) to explore the impacts of these three processes on the vertical entrainment of nutrients into the Arctic Ocean’s surface layer and how that might translate into more or less local primary production and coastal food security. Results are preliminary and a larger suite of simulations is planned to complete this study in Years 4 and 5 of the InteRFACE project. 

Category
Ocean Dynamics
Funding Program Area(s)