Meyer
Amelie
Meyer
Amelie
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ArticleMixing variability in the Southern Ocean(American Meteorological Society, 2015-04) Meyer, Amelie ; Sloyan, Bernadette M. ; Polzin, Kurt L. ; Phillips, Helen E. ; Bindoff, Nathaniel L.A key remaining challenge in oceanography is the understanding and parameterization of small-scale mixing. Evidence suggests that topographic features play a significant role in enhancing mixing in the Southern Ocean. This study uses 914 high-resolution hydrographic profiles from novel EM-APEX profiling floats to investigate turbulent mixing north of the Kerguelen Plateau, a major topographic feature in the Southern Ocean. A shear–strain finescale parameterization is applied to estimate diapycnal diffusivity in the upper 1600 m of the ocean. The indirect estimates of mixing match direct microstructure profiler observations made simultaneously. It is found that mixing intensities have strong spatial and temporal variability, ranging from O(10−6) to O(10−3) m2 s−1. This study identifies topographic roughness, current speed, and wind speed as the main factors controlling mixing intensity. Additionally, the authors find strong regional variability in mixing dynamics and enhanced mixing in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current frontal region. This enhanced mixing is attributed to dissipating internal waves generated by the interaction of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the topography of the Kerguelen Plateau. Extending the mixing observations from the Kerguelen region to the entire Southern Ocean, this study infers a large water mass transformation rate of 17 Sverdrups (Sv; 1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) across the boundary of Antarctic Intermediate Water and Upper Circumpolar Deep Water in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. This work suggests that the contribution of mixing to the Southern Ocean overturning circulation budget is particularly significant in fronts.
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ArticleThe seeding of ice algal blooms in Arctic pack ice : the multiyear ice seed repository hypothesis(John Wiley & Sons, 2017-07-03) Olsen, Lasse M. ; Laney, Samuel R. ; Duarte, Pedro ; Kauko, Hanna Maria ; Fernández-Méndez, Mar ; Mundy, Christopher J. ; Rösel, Anja ; Meyer, Amelie ; Itkin, Polona ; Cohen, Lana ; Peeken, Ilka ; Tatarek, Agnieszka ; Róźańska-Pluta, Magdalena ; Wiktor, Jozef ; Taskjelle, Torbjørn ; Pavlov, Alexey K. ; Hudson, Stephen R. ; Granskog, Mats A. ; Hop, Haakon ; Assmy, PhilippDuring the Norwegian young sea ICE expedition (N-ICE2015) from January to June 2015 the pack ice in the Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard was studied during four drifts between 83° and 80°N. This pack ice consisted of a mix of second year, first year, and young ice. The physical properties and ice algal community composition was investigated in the three different ice types during the winter-spring-summer transition. Our results indicate that algae remaining in sea ice that survived the summer melt season are subsequently trapped in the upper layers of the ice column during winter and may function as an algal seed repository. Once the connectivity in the entire ice column is established, as a result of temperature-driven increase in ice porosity during spring, algae in the upper parts of the ice are able to migrate toward the bottom and initiate the ice algal spring bloom. Furthermore, this algal repository might seed the bloom in younger ice formed in adjacent leads. This mechanism was studied in detail for the dominant ice diatom Nitzschia frigida. The proposed seeding mechanism may be compromised due to the disappearance of older ice in the anticipated regime shift toward a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean.
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ArticleLeads in Arctic pack ice enable early phytoplankton blooms below snow-covered sea ice(Nature Publishig Group, 2019-01-17) Assmy, Philipp ; Fernández-Méndez, Mar ; Duarte, Pedro ; Meyer, Amelie ; Randelhoff, Achim ; Mundy, Christopher J. ; Olsen, Lasse M. ; Kauko, Hanna Maria ; Bailey, Allison ; Chierici, Melissa ; Cohen, Lana ; Doulgeris, Anthony P. ; Ehn, Jens K. ; Fransson, Agneta ; Gerland, Sebastian ; Hop, Haakon ; Hudson, Stephen R. ; Hughes, Nick ; Itkin, Polona ; Johnsen, Geir ; King, Jennifer A. ; Koch, Boris P. ; Koenig, Zoe ; Kwasniewski, Slawomir ; Laney, Samuel R. ; Nicolaus, Marcel ; Pavlov, Alexey K. ; Polashenski, Christopher M. ; Provost, Christine ; Rösel, Anja ; Sandbu, Marthe ; Spreen, Gunnar ; Smedsrud, Lars H. ; Sundfjord, Arild ; Taskjelle, Torbjørn ; Tatarek, Agnieszka ; Wiktor, Jozef ; Wagner, Penelope M. ; Wold, Anette ; Steen, Harald ; Granskog, Mats A.The Arctic icescape is rapidly transforming from a thicker multiyear ice cover to a thinner and largely seasonal first-year ice cover with significant consequences for Arctic primary production. One critical challenge is to understand how productivity will change within the next decades. Recent studies have reported extensive phytoplankton blooms beneath ponded sea ice during summer, indicating that satellite-based Arctic annual primary production estimates may be significantly underestimated. Here we present a unique time-series of a phytoplankton spring bloom observed beneath snow-covered Arctic pack ice. The bloom, dominated by the haptophyte algae Phaeocystis pouchetii, caused near depletion of the surface nitrate inventory and a decline in dissolved inorganic carbon by 16 ± 6 g C m−2. Ocean circulation characteristics in the area indicated that the bloom developed in situ despite the snow-covered sea ice. Leads in the dynamic ice cover provided added sunlight necessary to initiate and sustain the bloom. Phytoplankton blooms beneath snow-covered ice might become more common and widespread in the future Arctic Ocean with frequent lead formation due to thinner and more dynamic sea ice despite projected increases in high-Arctic snowfall. This could alter productivity, marine food webs and carbon sequestration in the Arctic Ocean.
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ArticleInternal waves and mixing near the Kerguelen Plateau(American Meteorological Society, 2015-12-07) Meyer, Amelie ; Polzin, Kurt L. ; Sloyan, Bernadette M. ; Phillips, Helen E.In the stratified ocean, turbulent mixing is primarily attributed to the breaking of internal waves. As such, internal waves provide a link between large-scale forcing and small-scale mixing. The internal wave field north of the Kerguelen Plateau is characterized using 914 high-resolution hydrographic profiles from novel Electromagnetic Autonomous Profiling Explorer (EM-APEX) floats. Altogether, 46 coherent features are identified in the EM-APEX velocity profiles and interpreted in terms of internal wave kinematics. The large number of internal waves analyzed provides a quantitative framework for characterizing spatial variations in the internal wave field and for resolving generation versus propagation dynamics. Internal waves observed near the Kerguelen Plateau have a mean vertical wavelength of 200 m, a mean horizontal wavelength of 15 km, a mean period of 16 h, and a mean horizontal group velocity of 3 cm s−1. The internal wave characteristics are dependent on regional dynamics, suggesting that different generation mechanisms of internal waves dominate in different dynamical zones. The wave fields in the Subantarctic/Subtropical Front and the Polar Front Zone are influenced by the local small-scale topography and flow strength. The eddy-wave field is influenced by the large-scale flow structure, while the internal wave field in the Subantarctic Zone is controlled by atmospheric forcing. More importantly, the local generation of internal waves not only drives large-scale dissipation in the frontal region but also downstream from the plateau. Some internal waves in the frontal region are advected away from the plateau, contributing to mixing and stratification budgets elsewhere.
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ArticleAntarctic circumpolar current impacts on internal wave life cycles(American Geophysical Union, 2021-02-16) Waterman, Stephanie N. ; Meyer, Amelie ; Polzin, Kurt L. ; Naveira Garabato, Alberto C. ; Sheen, Katy L.Major gaps exist in our understanding of the pathways between internal wave generation and breaking in the Southern Ocean, with important implications for the distribution of internal wave-driven mixing, the sensitivity of ocean mixing rates and patterns to changes in the ocean environment, and the necessary ingredients of mixing parameterizations. Here we assess the dominant processes in internal wave evolution by characterizing wave and mesoscale flow scales based on full-depth in situ measurements in a Southern Ocean mixing hot spot and a ray tracing calculation. The exercise highlights the importance of Antarctic Circumpolar Current jets as a dominant influence on internal wave life cycles through advection, the modification of wave characteristics via wave-mean flow interactions, and the set-up of critical layers for both upward- and downward-propagating waves. Our findings suggest that it is important to represent mesoscale flow impacts in parameterizations of internal wave-driven mixing in the Southern Ocean.