A whirling ecosystem in the equatorial Atlantic
Open accessAbstract
The equatorial Pacific and Atlantic oceans exhibit remarkable meridional undulations in temperature and chlorophyll fronts visible from space over thousands of kilometers and often referred to as tropical instability waves. Here, we present new observations of an ecosystem ranging through three trophic levels: phytoplankton, zooplankton and small pelagic fish whirling within a tropical vortex of the Atlantic ocean and associated with such undulations. Cold, nutrient and biologically rich equatorial waters are advected northward and downward to form sharp fronts visible in all tracers and trophic levels. The equatorward recirculation experiences upwelling at depth, with the pycnocline and ecosystem progressively moving toward the surface to reconnect with the equatorial water mass. The observations thus indicate that it is a fully three‐dimensional circulation that dominates the distribution of physical and biological tracers in the presence of tropical instabilities and maintains the cusp‐like shapes of temperature and chlorophyll observed from space.
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Because the horizontal and vertical patterns of temperature and nitrate in a tropical instability vortex are close, advection of nitrate anomaly by eddy zonal and meridional currents could drive nitrate losses by eddy zonal and meridional advection in the same way as advection of anomalous temperature by anomalous currents drives mixed layer warming close to the equator.
“As the horizontal and vertical patterns of temperature and nitrate in a tropical instability vortex are close (Menkes et al., 2002), the advection of nitrate anomaly by eddy zonal and meridional currents could drive nitrate losses by eddy zonal and meridional advection in the same way as the advection of anomalous temperature by anomalous currents drives a mixed layer warming close to the equator.”
From Physical drivers of the nitrate seasonal variability in the Atlantic cold tongue (2020) · cites this paper as Menkes et al., 2002
Synoptic observations of physical and ecosystem tracers in a tropical instability vortex showed that their horizontal and vertical structures were highly coherent.
“This was further settled with synoptic observations of physical (temperature, salinity, current) and ecosystem (nitrate, chlorophyll, zooplankton, micronekton) tracers in a tropical instability vortex (Menkes et al., 2002): their 405 horizontal and vertical structures were highly coherent.”
From Physical drivers of the nitrate seasonal variability in the Atlantic cold tongue (2020) · cites this paper as Menkes et al., 2002
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Cites
Biological and Chemical Response of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean to the 1997-98 El Niño
Chavez, F. P., Strutton, P. G., Friederich, G. E., Feely, R. A., Feldman, G. C., Foley, D. G., & McPhaden, M. J. (1999) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.286.5447.2126 · Cited by 642 · cited 2× · see citing works
“…distributions of nutrients, CO2, primary productivity, phytoplankton, and zooplankton [Murray et al., 1994; Roman et al., 1995; Foley et al., 1997;Chavez et al., 1999] and, more generally, the equatorial ecosystem just as eddyinduced processes have been invoked to enhance production in other…”
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- Deschamps, P.-Y., F. M. Bre ´on, M. Leroy, A. Podaire, A. Bricaud, J. C. Buriez, and G. Seze, The POLDER mission: Instrument characteristics and scientific objectives, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 32, 598 -615, 1994.
- Kennan, S. C., Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ. Hawaii, Honolulu, 190 pp., 1997.
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Near-surface Circulation in the Tropical Atlantic Ocean
Lumpkin, R., & Garzoli, S. L. (2005) · Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers · doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2004.09.001 · Cited by 238 · see citing works
Bioenergetics, Trophic Ecology, and Niche Separation of Tunas
(2016) · Advances in Marine Biology · doi:10.1016/bs.amb.2016.06.002 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Athie, G., & Marin, F. (2008) · Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · doi:10.1029/2007jc004332 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Biogeochemical impact of tropical instability waves in the equatorial Pacific
Gorgues, T., Menkes, C., Aumont, O., Vialard, J., Dandonneau, Y., & Bopp, L. (2005) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/2005gl024110 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Self-citationPhysical drivers of the nitrate seasonal variability in the Atlantic cold tongue
Radenac, M.-H., Jouanno, J., Tchamabi, C. C., Awo, M., Bourlès, B., Arnault, S., & Aumont, O. (2020) · Biogeosciences · doi:10.5194/bg-17-529-2020 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
- Authors
- Menkes, C. E., Kennan, S. C., Flament, P., Dandonneau, Y., Masson, S., Biessy, B., Marchal, E., Eldin, G., Grelet, J., Montel, Y., Morlière, A., Lebourges‐Dhaussy, A., Moulin, C., Champalbert, G., & Herbland, A.
- Affiliations
- IRD LODYC/UPMC Paris France
- Nova Southeastern University (US)
- University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR)
- LOB Campus de Luminy Marseille France
- CREMA L'houmeau Nieul sur mer France
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2002-06
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 48-1-48-4
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-8007
- OpenAlex
- W2109685337
- Cited by
- 87
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 2.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Institutional Archive of Ifremer (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Marine and fisheries research
- Keywords
- tropical instability waves, equatorial Atlantic, equatorial upwelling, three-dimensional ocean circulation, phytoplankton, zooplankton, small pelagic fish, temperature front, pycnocline, nutrient advection
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