Citation:

35037555

Name: SeaWiFS chlorophyll imagery of the iron-fertilized area of SOIREE
Published: 2000
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Abstract:

The growth of populations is known to be influenced by dispersal, which has often been described as purely diffusive (Kierstead and Slobodkin, 1953; Okubo, 1980). In the open ocean, however, the tendrils and filaments of phytoplankton populations provide evidence for dispersal by stirring (Gower et al., 1980, doi:10.1038/288157a0; Holligan et al., 1993, doi:10.1029/93GB01731). Despite the apparent importance of horizontal stirring for plankton ecology, this process remains poorly characterized. Here we investigate the development of a discrete phytoplankton bloom, which was initiated by the iron fertilization of a patch of water (7 km in diameter) in the Southern Ocean (Boyd et al., 2000, doi:10.1038/35037500). Satellite images show a striking, 150-km-long bloom near the experimental site, six weeks after the initial fertilization. We argue that the ribbon-like bloom was produced from the fertilized patch through stirring, growth and diffusion, and we derive an estimate of the stirring rate. In this case, stirring acts as an important control on bloom development, mixing phytoplankton and iron out of the patch, but also entraining silicate. This may have prevented the onset of silicate limitation, and so allowed the bloom to continue for as long as there was sufficient iron. Stirring in the ocean is likely to be variable, so blooms that are initially similar may develop very differently.

Related to:

Boyd, Philip W; Law, Cliff S (2001): The Southern Ocean Iron RElease Experiment (SOIREE)-introduction and summary. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 48(11-12), 2425-2438, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0967-0645(01)00002-9

Further details:

SeaWiFS images of the SOIREE bloom

Project(s):

Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS)

Coverage:

Median Latitude: -51.297965 * Median Longitude: 155.227990 * South-bound Latitude: -61.000700 * West-bound Longitude: 138.998200 * North-bound Latitude: -41.595230 * East-bound Longitude: 171.457780

Date/Time Start: 1999-02-14T00:00:00 * Date/Time End: 1999-04-06T00:00:00

Event(s):

SOIREE-track * Latitude Start: -61.000700 * Longitude Start: 138.998200 * Latitude End: -41.595230 * Longitude End: 171.457780 * Date/Time Start: 1999-02-08T23:07:00 * Date/Time End: 1999-02-28T01:39:00 * Location: Southern Ocean - Australasian-Pacific Sector * Campaign: * Basis: * Method/Device: Underway cruise track measurements (CT)

Parameter(s):

#	Name	Short Name	Unit	Principal Investigator	Comment
1	DATE/TIME	Date/Time			Geocode
2	Latitude of event	Latitude
3	Longitude of event	Longitude
4	File format	File format		Abraham, Edward R
5	File size	File size	kByte	Abraham, Edward R
6	Uniform resource locator/link to raw data file	URL raw		Abraham, Edward R

License:

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)

Size:

24 data points

Data

Download dataset as tab-delimited text — use the following character encoding:

1 Date/Time	2 Latitude	3 Longitude	4 File format	5 File size [kByte]	6 URL raw
1999-02-14	-61.0007	138.9982	PNG	82	hdl:10013/epic.41086.d005
1999-03-07	-61.0007	138.9982	PNG	38	hdl:10013/epic.41086.d006
1999-03-09	-61.0007	138.9982	PNG	25	hdl:10013/epic.41086.d007
1999-03-12	-61.0007	138.9982	PNG	51	hdl:10013/epic.41086.d008
1999-03-21	-61.0007	138.9982	PNG	51	hdl:10013/epic.41086.d009
1999-03-22	-61.0007	138.9982	PNG	76	hdl:10013/epic.41086.d010
1999-03-23	-61.0007	138.9982	PNG	85	hdl:10013/epic.41086.d011
1999-04-06	-61.0007	138.9982	PNG	51	hdl:10013/epic.41086.d004