Tidal jets, nutrient upwelling and their influence on the productivity of the alga Halimeda in the Ribbon Reefs, Great Barrier Reef

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out to study water circulation and benthic biological productivity near a passage through the Ribbon Reefs in the northern Great Barrier Reef of Australia. The currents through the passage were phase-locked with the tide. During rising tides, strong currents through the passage generated localized upwelling on the upper continental slope, enriching the depleted surface waters in nutrients, particularly nitrate and phosphate. Simultaneously, on the shelf side of the passage, a tidal jet-vortex pair system developed, which separated from the Ribbon Reefs so that the coral reefs themselves received little of the upwelled water. This was propagated as a bottom-trapped layer towards the meadows of the calcareous alga Halimeda situated several kilometres inshore of the reefs. Halimeda can accumulate nutrients, particularly nitrate, from the relatively low concentrations available from the upwelling events. The quantity of nitrogen upwelled was more than sufficient to supply the total nitrogen requirements of the Halimeda vegetation. A tidal jet also formed, offshore from the reef passage, during falling tides and the coral-covered offshore side of the Ribbon Reefs may be sustained by the subsequent vertical turbulent entrainment into the jet of deep, nutrient-rich water immediately offshore from the reef passages. These processes require a continuous barrier reef with only narrow passages several kilometers apart. Numerical models successfully reproduce the observations of jet-driven upwelling and of the dynamics of the tidal jet-vortex pair system. The model predictions are very sensitive to the details of the bathymetry of reef passages. As such data are presently unavailable, it is not yet possible to use these models to calculate the jet-driven nutrient upwelling for the whole Great Barrier Reef.