Abstract
Abstract. The Canary upwelling system (CanUS) is a productive coastal region characterized by strong seasonality and an intense offshore transport of organic carbon (Corg) to the adjacent oligotrophic offshore waters. There, the respiration of this Corg substantially modifies net community production (NCP). While this transport and the resulting coupling of the biogeochemistry between the coastal and open ocean has been well studied in the annual mean, the temporal variability, and especially its seasonality, has not yet been investigated. Here, we determine the seasonal variability of the offshore transport of Corg, its mesoscale component, latitudinal differences, and the underlying physical and biological drivers. To this end, we employ the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) coupled to a nutrient–phytoplankton–zooplankton–detritus (NPZD) ecosystem model. Our results reveal the importance of the mesoscale fluxes and of the upwelling processes (coastal upwelling and Ekman pumping) in modulating the seasonal variation of the offshore Corg transport. We find that the region surrounding Cape Blanc (21∘ N) hosts the most intense Corg offshore flux in every season, linked to the persistent, and far reaching Cape Blanc filament and its interaction with the Cape Verde Front. Coastal upwelling filaments dominate the seasonality of the total offshore flux up to 100 km from the coast, contributing in every season at least 80 % to the total flux. The seasonality of the upwelling modulates the offshore Corg seasonality hundreds of kilometers from the CanUS coast via lateral redistribution of nearshore production. North of 24.5∘ N, the sharp summer–fall peak of coastal upwelling results in an export of more than 30 % of the coastal Corg at 100 km offshore due to a combination of intensified nearshore production and offshore fluxes. To the south, the less pronounced upwelling seasonality regulates an overall larger but farther-reaching and less seasonally varying lateral flux, which exports between 60 % and 90 % of the coastal production more than 100 km offshore. Overall, we show that the temporal variability of nearshore processes modulates the variability of Corg and NCP hundreds of kilometers offshore from the CanUS coast via the offshore transport of the nearshore production.
Highlights
Eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUSs) are coastal regions of immense socioeconomic value for human communities, as they constitute some of the most important fisheries yields worldwide, fueled by the high productivity that characterizes these systems (Pauly and Christensen, 1995; Chavez and Toggweiler, 1995)
The Iberian upwelling coast is often included in the definition of the Canary upwelling system (CanUS) (Arístegui et al, 2009), in this paper we only focus on the northwestern African sector
The portion of time occupied by filaments for each grid point according to our identification algorithm is highest in correspondence with capes that are known to be associated to recurrent upwelling filaments
Summary
Eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUSs) are coastal regions of immense socioeconomic value for human communities, as they constitute some of the most important fisheries yields worldwide, fueled by the high productivity that characterizes these systems (Pauly and Christensen, 1995; Chavez and Toggweiler, 1995). The high nearshore productivity of these regions is sustained by the upwelling of nutrient-rich waters, primarily impacting the first 100 km from the coast (Mackas et al, 2006; Carr, 2001). The main driver of this upwelling are trade winds blowing towards the Equator which, combined with the Coriolis effect, induce an offshore Ekman transport of the near-surface waters. This forces a surfacing of thermocline waters along the coast and a net upward transport, i.e., upwelling (Carr and Kearns, 2003). Et al.: Seasonality of the Corg offshore transport in the CanUS that occurs in many offshore regions of the EBUSs (Messié et al, 2009)
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