Open AccessPlankton are not passive tracers: Plankton in a turbulent environment
Author(s) -
Currie Warren J. S.,
Roff John C.
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2005jc002967
Subject(s) - zooplankton , plankton , phytoplankton , transect , environmental science , oceanography , scaling , spectral line , atmospheric sciences , range (aeronautics) , chlorophyll a , physics , geology , ecology , biology , materials science , nutrient , astronomy , geometry , mathematics , botany , composite material
Spectral analysis was performed on a series of oceanographic transects collected using an optical plankton counter and conductivity‐temperature‐depth probe. The “physical” time series (i.e., temperature) power spectra showed a single passive scaling relationship across the entire range of sampling scales (1–8192 s) that was expected from turbulence. However, the “biological” time series possessed more than one scaling region. The Chl a fluorescence had three scaling regions, a flattened (whitened) intermediate range bound by passive regions at scales approximately <30 and >300 s. Cross‐spectral analysis indicated that the chlorophyll‐temperature spectra were similar at these scales. The zooplankton biomass had a single break in the power spectrum and was passive only at scales >300 s, the zooplankton‐temperature spectra being similar only at these scales. The zooplankton‐chlorophyll cross‐spectra were often negatively coupled at the intermediate (300–30 s) scale giving a strong indication that zooplankton grazing was affecting the phytoplankton distributions.