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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Get out the generators, grab the babies and run, run I say, to the hills for your lives.
But wait till I get back from Hattiesburg to clog up the roads! ;-D.
a collective picture of a warming world
and other changes in the climate system." Link
BUT if this is true and all the sea life has an effect on the oceans currents then WHAT are WE doing to the worlds weather?? EGADS!!! We've conjured up a baby hurricane in our back yard!!
LOL LOL LOL Tongue in cheek totally. NO OFFENSE OK??
"Long range (friday night-wednesday)...all eye's focused on what may
develop out in the Gulf for the weekend. Models continue in good
agreement to bring a hybrid system across the state...bringing
beneficial rains out ahead of it on Saturday and possibly into
Sunday. Timing still a little uncertain...but given hybrid nature of
system prefer to keep best rain chances...60 percent...while area is
on east side of the low Saturday. Otherwise have numbers that are a
blend of 00z and 12z operational guidance."
"Thursday night-Sat...significant change in the pattern is expected as the
ridge in the western Atlantic breaks down Thursday night-Fri.
Meanwhile...broad cyclonic flow in the western Gulf will draw
tropical moisture northward towards the state...ultimately resulting
in increasing rain changes late this week and early this weekend.
NAM-WRF suggests an area of low pressure north of the Yucatan will
lift northward through the Gulf...which would produce beneficial
rainfall across the forecast area. However...recent trends in the
GFS indicate that a track further to the south and east is more
likely. This would keep the deep tropical moisture to our
south...with only scattered shower activity Friday and Sat as a wave of
low pressure tracks across the southern peninsula. It would not be
fair to totally rule out a wetter solution at this point as depicted
by HPC and the European model (ecmwf)...which takes the low across The Big Bend and
northeastward up the southeast coast. Given the anomalous nature of
the pattern along with the fact that the event is still a few days
out...plan at this point is to only nudge probability of precipitation up slightly from
previous forecast."...........
They don't even mention convective feedback w/the GFS...I still think north Florida is where whatever it is...comes inland.
NOTE: MM5FSU model is outdated from last year.
The NAMM brings a lot of rain into Florida with this low, the NAMM tends to be somewhat drier as far as QPF goes then many models so if the NAMM looks as wet as it does thats probably a good sign.
We probably won't be able to pin down how much rain will occurr and where accurately till Flriday, by that point forecasters should have a good fix on things.
lol
2007 ATLANTIC STORM NAMES
Andrea - Sub-Tropical, Outcast, Voted most likely to drop out of high school and get divorced in the same year. It happened.
Barry - Has to be on steroids, will spin itself out over right field bleachers and into a poor man's kayak.
Chantal - She got lost in the club and now she has one more baby to feed.
Dean - Thought of as the nerdy storm, has a strong resentment toward the Delta House Fraternity.
Erin - Sounds more like the Boss's Daughter gets what she wants: a trip to Bermuda for 10 days.
Felix - The Hurricane, the wonderful, wonderful, Hurricane.
Gabrielle - French storm my nature. Keep an "eye" on this one for some strange reason. OOooOOooh!
Lorenzo - Back when Cube was rollin wit' Lorenzo in a Benzo to somewhere
Melissa - "Plain Jane" Name Came, Hurricane to Blame.
Noel - They looked up and saw a storm
Shining in the East beyond them far
And to the earth it gave great wind
And so it continued both day and night.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the Hurricane of Israel!
Humberto - This storm is quick to jump infront of your car and try to get you to buy some papayas.
Ingrid - I've seen little Dutch girls sporting long pigtails with more fearsome names..
Jerry - Started out as a strong candidate but got busted with a hooker and settled down to host the most ridiculous talk show ev... hear that??....JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!
Karen - "And its too late, baby, yeah its too late.."
Olga - Seen em before, European names don't fair well in the Gulfo de Mexico, mein.
Pablo - Not only will he cut the grass cheap but he'll do the roof, windows, shrubs, trees, car, garage door, and the neighborhood's 20 transformers for an extra 10 bucks!
Rebekah - Don't think they're going to let this one off the plane, we're safe, no worries.
Sebastien - Too busy playing cribbage with Tucker, Hunter and Todd to care about causing any problems.
Tanya - My exgirlfriend's name! Does that mean my car is going to get some fender damage!?
Van - Too busy getting high and skateboarding to care about convection and what not..
Wendy - Where's the beef?
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