Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

DOI

10.5670/oceanog.2024.502

Publication Title

Oceanography

Volume

Advance online publication

Pages

6 pp.

Abstract

Western boundary currents (WBCs) adjacent to subtropical continental shelves (STCSs; between ~25° and 35° latitude; Figure 1) transport heat, nutrients, and biota poleward along the western margins of major ocean basins, interacting with the continental margins and influencing their physics and biology. Eddies and meanders along the shelf edge upwell deep, nutrient-laden water that can be advected onto the adjacent shelves with a corresponding export of particle-rich shelf water (e.g., Lee et al., 1991; Kimura et al., 1997; Campos et al., 2000; Roughan and Middleton, 2002, 2004; Lutjeharms, 2006; Savidge and Savidge, 2014). Despite their similarities, the various STCS regions display key differences with respect to boundary current strength and variability, shelf width and geometry, and trophic structure. Comparative analyses of the physical forcing and biological responses among STCS have the potential to reveal common underlying properties, forcing mechanisms, and sensitivities to climatic perturbations that are not possible to elucidate with region-specific studies. This kind of fundamental understanding of relationships between physics and biological responses is critical to predicting consequences of environmental change across a wide range of spatiotemporal scales.

Rights

© This is an open access article made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format as long as users cite the materials appropriately, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate the changes that were made to the original content. Images, animations, videos, or other third-party material used in articles are included in the Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If the material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission directly from the license holder to reproduce the material.

Original Publication Citation

Savidge, W. B., Savidge, D. K., Brandini, F., Greer, A. T., Hofmann, E. E., Roughan, M., da Silveira, I., & Suthers, I. M. (2024). Western boundary current-subtropical continental shelf interactions. Oceanography, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2024.502

ORCID

0009-0004-3375-7146 (Hoffman)

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