Sea life's importance to the climate
Does the marine biosphere mix the ocean? A group of oceanographers led by W.K. Dewar of Florida State University argue that the swimming action of fish and other marine organisms may play a critical role in driving ocean currents. If true, large-scale over-fishing or the collapse of the marine food chain due to pollution or ocean acidification may cause significant changes in ocean currents--and Earth's climate.
Figure 1. Rainbow made From a sperm whale using his blowhole. Image taken June 17, 2006 in Kaikora, New Zealand by wunderphotographer jhfelder.
The Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) or Thermohaline Circulation is a well-known feature of the ocean circulation. In the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream current forms a portion of the MOC. Gulf Stream waters flow to the region near Greenland, where an input of fresh, denser water from melting ice and river run-off creates a downward flow of water that then moves southward along the ocean bottom towards the Equator. This deep water eventually returns to the surface in the mid-Atlantic to complete a cell of the MOC. Scientists have long thought that the energy needed to drive the MOC came from winds and tides--about two terrawatts of energy (Munk and Wunsch, 1998). However, Dewar et al. show that the mechanical energy added to the ocean by the swimming action of whales is about 1% of this total, and the swimming action of other marine organisms (primarily zooplankton) adds up to 50% of this total--one terrawatt of energy. While the authors admit that their calculations may have large errors, this research shows that marine life may have a heretofore unappreciated large impact on Earth's climate. Our climate is intimately connected to the sun, life on land, life in the ocean, and human activities in an incredibly complex web of interconnections. It is our challenge to understand this system, even as we change it and it changes of its own accord.
My next blog will be Thursday afternoon, when the new Dr. Bill Gray/Phil Klotzbach Atlantic hurricane season forecast will be released.
Jeff Masters
Dewar, W.K., R.J. Bingham, R.L. Iverson, D.P. Nowacek, L.C. St. Laurent, and P.H. Wiebe, 2006, "Does the marine biosphere mix the ocean?", Journal of Marine Research, 64, 541-561.
Munk, W., and C. Wunsch, 1998, "Abyssal recipes II: Energetics of tidal and wind mixing", Deep-Sea Res., 45, 1976-2009.
Reader Comments
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But because itr will be in a dseep tropical invirnment, it must be watched just in case, but it will likely be a hybrid.
Whether it does or not folks, looks like we got a big rain maker to kick off our wet season here, and thats exactly what we need.
Well. The Good Morning America "weatherman" is expecting a named system near the Yucatan.
Time to buy shutters then.LOL!
Still dont see any real signs of real organized in the NW caribbean but all signs indicate to some much needed rains for florida.If a system were to organize which in my opinion should non-tropical in nature look for all the rain to on the east side of the system.Overall looks like a rainy weekend.Adrian
FLBoy,
Maybe I misunderstood...but I thought this blog is here for many to *LEARN* about tropical weather...that is the point of "discussion"...the exchange of ideas and knowledge. That implies not being afraid to ask questions of any time (blog topic related that is).
Its clear that he has issues. Ive been lurking here since early 2005. Its fun to watch the well known names bicker with each other. In the end it all comes down to:
"My weather knowledge is greater than your weather knowledge, No its not, yes it is, not its not."
Do what i do go make a bag of popcorn and then read the blog.
P.S. Right about the time it all gets too crazy to keep up with Gulfscotsman comes in with his pictures and makes it all better. Then everything comes back togather and weather discussion continues.
Lake Okeechobee on fire.
Why does ricderr or anyone else bother you? I enjoy weather discussion but, as I wrote once in the past, I don't understand all the silly bickering. This is a weather discussion group not a playground. If you like to flame people there are much better places to practice that art. Usenet's alt.flame would be a classic starting point. You could learn to be really nasty at alt.alien.religion but ... here?
So silly.
Weather Question: where do people find those track-maps that show the projected tracks from all the models at once? I would like to bookmark such a site for when things really start hoppin in the Atlantic!
Thanks!
We had that problem in southwest LA back in the mid 90's. No fires, but many water wells were salty. Some were so salty, we couldn't pump on rice ground for a couple years.
Computer models used to forecast hurricanesLink
AccuWeather.com is forecasting an active tropical season, and although Friday is only the first official day of the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season, we might already have something to watch. A tropical low will be developing over the northwest Caribbean over the next two days, and upper-level winds will help to pull this storm northward. While it is unlikely that this will become a strong tropical system, it will have to be monitored for development. There is a good chance that much of the Florida peninsula will receive significant rainfall from this system, and there are indications that it may reach northward into Georgia and the Carolinas. After several months of abnormally dry weather, any rainfall is welcome, and a big rainmaker like this would be a blessing.
The QS pass indicates a low near 13N 78W but the sat image does not show anything at those coordinates. Does anyone know why that would be so ?
Looks like Fl will finally get some relief!! Yeah :)
Here's a link to the Corp of Engineers that keeps track of Lake Okeechobee and may be of interest.
With yesterday's numbers it is already at +8.97' which is the record low; since it is going lower it will set new records daily.
A brief summary (cfs):
"Total Inflows: 0 ...
Total Outflows: 1721 (BAD VALUE)"
It would definitely help for that crazy blob to sit there for a week.
you guys are just too funny, keep it up! :D
What I think I was looking for was an aggragate map, a single map showing the current predicted storm paths for a given active system from each of the prime models all overlaid on each other. I see these maps from time to time on some sites, but they are static images, don't update, and don't link to the source. They look like they might come from the NOAA NHC but I can't find where.
But thanks! Appreciate your response!
Yes, that was more like what I had in mind! Thanks! :)
I am an armchair storm chaser, and have been lurking here for ages. I am by no means a meterologist, but I really do enjoy this blog, and Dr. Masters commentary, when stuff gets cooking.
For those in parched Florida, let's hope the rain, when it comes, comes gently...otherwise you will have some nasty flooding from runoff that won't soak into the pottery that passes for ground over there at the moment!
Here.
WITH EVOLVING SFC LOW PRESSURE BY THE LATTER HALF OF THE PERIOD...
PREFER LEANING TOWARD THE UKMET/12Z ECMWF/00Z NCEP-GEFS ENSEMBLE
MEAN... OR LACKING THOSE OPTIONS... A WEAKER VERSION OF THE NAM.
TYPICALLY PREMATURE EVOLUTION OF SYSTEMS ORIGINATING FROM TROPICAL
LATITUDES FAVORS DISCOUNTING THE CANADIAN GLBL WHICH BRINGS A WELL
DEFINED SFC LOW INTO NERN FL BY EARLY SAT. THE GFS IS THE NEXT
FASTEST MODEL WITH A TRACK MUCH FARTHER WSW OF THE CANADIAN GLBL.
THE NAM IS LIKELY TOO DEEP BASED ON ITS HISTORY OF LOWER LATITUDE
SYSTEMS FROM LAST YEAR... THOUGH ITS SLOWER PROGRESSION AND
INTERMEDIATE SFC LOW TRACK ARE GENERALLY SUPPORTED BY THE
UKMET/12Z ECMWF. NAM EVOLUTION THAT CONSOLIDATES ENERGY FROM
CNTRL AMERICA AND VICINITY AND GFS EVOLUTION USING ENERGY
INITIALLY OVER/NEAR THE YUCATAN PENINSULA ARE BOTH LOW CONFIDENCE
FCSTS... ESPECIALLY WITH THE LACK OF A CURRENT WELL DEFINED
FEATURE OVER THE ORIGINATING REGION IN SATL IMAGERY AND APPEARANCE
OF FEEDBACK IN THE MODEL QPF PATTERN. THE LARGE SCALE PATTERN
DOES FAVOR INCREASED FLOW OF MOISTURE AND SOME GRADUAL LOWERING OF
SFC PRESSURES OVER THE SERN GULF/FL LATER IN THE PERIOD THOUGH. ABOVE CONSIDERATIONS MAKE THE UKMET/12Z ECMWF/00Z NCEP-GEFS
ENSEMBLE MEAN THE BEST OPTIONS AT THIS TIME.
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