Abstract
Reviews and syntheses: Physical and biogeochemical processes associated with upwelling in the Indian Ocean
Highlights
Tangential winds that blow parallel to the coast result in the transport of water away from the coast (Ekman, 1905)
Upwelling off the East African coast was first documented by Newell (1959), later confirmed by Iversen et al (1984), Bakun et al (1998), and Roberts et al (2008), it is only recently that the importance of these coastal upwelling cells have been given their deserved consideration through various regional research initiatives, such as the Productivity in the East African Coastal Current (PEACC) project; the Sustainable Oceans, Livelihoods and food Security Through Increased Capacity in Ecosystem research in the Western Indian Ocean (SOLSTICE-WIO) programme; and the Western Indian Ocean Upwelling Research Initiative (WIOURI) flagship programme of Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE)-2, due to their potential to sustain food security in local coastal communities (Roberts, 2015)
Shankar and Shetye (1997) further highlighted the mechanism for the early onset of upwelling using an analytical model. They showed that the upwelling along the west coast of India and the Lakshadweep low formed in the southeastern Arabian Sea resulted from poleward propagation of Kelvin waves and westward radiation of Rossby waves, which supported the results shown by McCreary et al (1993)
Summary
Tangential winds that blow parallel to the coast result in the transport of water away from the coast (Ekman, 1905). The transport away from the coast is governed by Ekman dynamics, and owing to the higher density of the upwelled water near the coast, a current is established parallel to the coast. The California, Iberian, Canary, Humboldt, and Benguela systems are the well-known EBUS in the world oceans (Kampf and Chapman, 2016) These classical eastern boundary upwelling systems are driven by winds blowing towards the Equator and are effected by the offshore Ekman transport. In the Indian Ocean, the upwelling is seasonal and the strongest upwelling regions are located along the western boundary Even for these upwelling systems, the dynamics that have been demonstrated to be in effect in EBUS hold well. In the section that follows, upwelling in each of the above regions is described
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