Summer phytoplankton blooms in Auke Bay, Alaska, driven by wind mixing of the water column1

Abstract

Winds blowing from the southeast along the only significant fetch into Auke Bay mixed nitrate into the photic zone from deeper in the water column; major summer phytoplankton blooms in the bay resulted. The wind‐mixing effect could be monitored by measuring salinity changes in the water column caused by mixing of freshwater from the glacially originating Mendenhall River down into the water column.