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Announcements Proposed special session on: Nutrient return pathways to the upper ocean and their climate sensitivity on decadal to centennial time scales Data from large-scale surveys and process studies as well as results from ecosystem-circulation models now begin to unravel details of the complex three-dimensional pathways that return nutrients from thermocline and deeper waters back to the ocean surface. Recent studies have revealed the potential of various mode and intermediate water masses to modulate nutrient supply on decadal to centennial time scales. However, the mechanisms that control the nutrient and associated carbon fluxes and their climate sensitivity are not yet well understood. Processes that may be relevant range from upwelling and subsequent modification of nutrient-rich deep water masses, large-scale balances of mode-water formation and destruction, and eddy-mediated transports, to local enhancements of diapycnal mixing. We invite contributions from both data and model based studies that help to identify the relevant pathways along which nutrients are carried back to the ocean surface, to quantify the associated transport rates and transition times, and to determine their sensitivity to climate change. Conveners:
Andreas Oschlies, School of Ocean and Earth Science, Southampton Oceanography Centre, GB Southampton SO14 3ZH, Tel ++44 (0) 23 8059 3559, Fax ++44 (0) 23 8059 3052, andreas.oschlies@soc.soton.ac.uk |