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Mechanism of the biological response to winter cooling in the northeastern Arabian Sea

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title Mechanism of the biological response to winter cooling in the northeastern Arabian Sea
 
Creator Madhupratap, M.
PrasannaKumar, S.
Bhattathiri, P.M.A.
DileepKumar, M.
Raghukumar, S.
Nair, K.K.C.
Ramaiah, N.
 
Subject winter
cooling
biological resistance
biological production
upwelling
nutrients
monssons
 
Description The Arabian Sea is one of the most biologically productive ocean regions, mainly due to the upwelling of nutrients during the summer (southwest) monsoon. But the northern Arabian Sea continues to sustain fairly high biological production after the upwelling season and during much of the winter (northeast) monsoon. The processes that enable this high winter productivity have hitherto been poorly understood, being variously attributed to surface cooling effects or wind-driven changes in ocean circulation. Here we present physical, chemical and biological data that indicate that sea cooling drives convection processes that lead to the upwelling of nutrients into the surface waters of the north-eastern Arabian Sea during winter, and that this mechanism of nutrient supply is a dominant control on winter primary productivity. Observed seasonal changes in bacterial and microzooplankton populations may provide an explanation for the Arabian Sea 'paradox' that mesozooplankton biomass remains more or less invariable throughout the year
 
Date 2009-01-21T11:25:28Z
2009-01-21T11:25:28Z
1996
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Nature, Vol.384; 549-552p.
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/2274
 
Language en
 
Rights Copyright [1996]. All efforts have been made to respect the copyright to the best of our knowledge. Inadvertent omissions, if brought to our notice, stand for correction and withdrawal of document from this repository.
 
Publisher Macmillan