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Buoyancy-forced downwelling, often termed convection, is the deepening of a water parcel due to a change in the density of that parcel.Density changes in the surface ocean are primarily the result of evaporation, precipitation, heating, cooling, or the introduction and mixing of an alternate water or salinity source, such as river input or brine rejection.
Algal bloom - a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater o marine water systems; Baroclinic instability - fluid dynamical instability of fundamental importance in the atmosphere and ocean; Ekman pumping - Ekman Pumping is the component of Ekman transport that results in areas of downwelling due to the convergence ...
Ocean stratification is the natural separation of an ocean's water into horizontal layers by density, and occurs in all ocean basins. Denser water is below lighter water, representing a stable stratification. The pycnocline is the layer where the rate of change in density is largest. Ocean stratification is generally stable because warmer water ...
The downwelling of water that occurs in subtropical gyres takes nutrients deeper in the ocean, removing them from surface waters. Organic particles can also be removed from surface waters through gravitational sinking, where the particle is too heavy to remain suspended in the water column. [ 39 ]
Ocean stratification is the natural separation of an ocean's water into horizontal layers by density. This is generally stable stratification , because warm water floats on top of cold water, and heating is mostly from the sun, which reinforces that arrangement.
Internal tides are generated as the surface tides move stratified water up and down sloping topography, which produces a wave in the ocean interior. So internal tides are internal waves at a tidal frequency. The other major source of internal waves is the wind which produces internal waves near the inertial frequency.
Downwelling, due to Ekman pumping, leads to nutrient poor waters, therefore reducing the biological productivity of the area. [11] Additionally, it transports heat and dissolved oxygen vertically down the water column as warm oxygen rich surface water is being pumped towards the deep ocean water. [11]
The Southern Ocean plays a key role in the closure of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation by compensating for the North Atlantic downwelling by upwelling of North Atlantic Deep Water and connects the interior ocean to the surface. This upwelling is induced by the strong westerly winds that blow over the ACC.