Mixing and Stabilization of Phytoplankton Distributions on the Northwest European Continental Shelf

Abstract

This chapter examines the effects of mixing and stabilization on phytoplankton distributions on the northwest European shelf (Figure 1). The European continental shelf is an area of generally large tide with associated currents frequently exceeding 1 m sec−1. It has been estimated that approximately 10% of the total global dissipation of the M2 tide in shallow seas occurs on the northwest European shelf. It is interesting to note that this large tidal energy dissipation is not evenly distributed over the area under consideration but varies geographically by nearly four orders of magnitude. Since the effects of wind mixing, on the other hand, are more uniform, in an initial simplification it is convenient to consider only the mixing due to tidal stirring on the spatial patterns of phytoplankton.