Open AccessLocal and deep‐ocean forcing contributions to anomalous water properties on the West Florida Shelf
Author(s) -
Weisberg Robert H.,
He Ruoying
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2002jc001407
Subject(s) - oceanography , geology , continental shelf , forcing (mathematics) , deep sea , ekman transport , current (fluid) , hydrography , ocean current , buoyancy , mixed layer , lead (geology) , deep water , climatology , upwelling , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics
Material property distributions on continental shelves result from the mixing and modifications of estuarine and deep‐ocean source waters. How this occurs depends on the momentum and buoyancy that are input either locally on the shelf or from the deep‐ocean at the shelf break. We address this question of local versus deep‐ocean forcing for the West Florida Shelf (WFS) using in situ data and a numerical circulation model. The spring and summer seasons of 1998 and 1999 show distinctively different water properties on the shelf and at the shelf break. We account for these differences by a combination of local forcing, independent of the adjacent Gulf of Mexico Loop Current, and interactions of the Loop Current with the shelf. The primary role of the deep ocean is to set the height of material isopleths along the shelf slope. Whether or not these material isopleths broach the shelf break is then a consequence of local, shelf‐wide wind and buoyancy forcing. The subsequent along‐ and across‐shelf distributions are accomplished through a combination of local and deep‐ocean effects, with the bottom Ekman layer being the major conduit for the across‐shelf transport of ecologically important materials.