When Mixed Layers Are Not Mixed. Storm‐Driven Mixing and Bio‐optical Vertical Gradients in Mixed Layers of the Southern Ocean

Abstract

AbstractMixed layers are defined to have homogeneous density, temperature, and salinity. However, bio‐optical profiles may not always be fully homogenized within the mixed layer. The relative timescales of mixing and biological processes determine whether bio‐optical gradients can form within a uniform density mixed layer. Vertical profiles of bio‐optical measurements from biogeochemical Argo floats and elephant seal tags in the Southern Ocean are used to assess biological structure in the upper ocean. Within the hydrographically defined mixed layer, the profiles show significant vertical variance in chlorophyll‐a (Chl‐a) fluorescence and particle optical backscatter. Biological structure is assessed by fitting Chl‐a fluorescence and particle backscatter profiles to functional forms (i.e., Gaussian, sigmoid, exponential, and their combinations). In the Southern Ocean, which characteristically has deep mixed layers, only 40% of nighttime bio‐optical profiles were characterized by a sigmoid, indicating a well‐mixed surface layer. Of the remaining 60% that showed structure, ∼40% had a deep fluorescence maximum below 20‐m depth that correlated with particle backscatter. Furthermore, a significant fraction of these deep fluorescence maxima were found within the mixed layer (20–80%, depending on mixed‐layer depth definition and season). Results suggest that the timescale between mixing events that homogenize the surface layer is often longer than biological timescales of restratification. We hypothesize that periods of quiescence between synoptic storms, which we estimate to be ∼3–5 days (depending on season), allow bio‐optical gradients to develop within mixed layers that remain homogeneous in density.