Iron limitation impact on eddy-induced ecosystem variability in the coastal Gulf of Alaska

Abstract

A data assimilative, coupled physical–biological model for the northwestern coastal Gulf of Alaska (CGOA) is used to characterize lower trophic level ecosystem response to eddy variability at the shelfbreak over a 5-year period (1998–2002). The ocean circulation component is an implementation of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), the lower trophic level ecosystem component is a six-compartment Nutrient-Phytoplankton-Zooplankton-Detritus (NPZD) model with iron limitation, and the data assimilation component is the adjoint-based, four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) system available in ROMS. Assimilated observations consist of weekly satellite sea surface height and temperature, as well as bimonthly in situ temperature and salinity measurements. Overall, the model results are in agreement with earlier observational studies, and confirm that eddy-induced cross-shelf transport of biological properties can potentially enhance phytoplankton concentrations in the basin by: (1) alleviating iron limitation on phytoplankton growth by transporting iron-rich shelf waters offshore, and (2) transporting elevated shelf phytoplankton concentrations offshore. Simulated nutrient anomalies during eddy events indicate a substantial increase in dissolved iron concentrations in near-surface waters, thereby suggesting that eddy-induced offshore transport of iron-rich shelf waters is the dominant mechanism regulating locally-generated offshore production in the CGOA high nutrient-low chlorophyll (HNLC) region during eddy events. In fact, for the period 1998–2002, the model results predict that approximately two thirds of the eddy-induced production in the Yakutat/Sitka “eddy corridor” is associated with locally-generated production resulting from alleviated iron limitation conditions on phytoplankton growth. The remaining third can be attributed to eddy-induced offshore export of chlorophyll concentrations of shelf origin.