The distribution of nutrients in the Equatorial Atlantic: Relation to physical processes and phytoplankton biomass

Type Article
Date 1987
Language English
Author(s) Oudot C, Morin P
Meeting International Symposium on Vertical Motion in the Equatorial Upper Ocean and its Effects Upon Living Resources and the Atmosphere, Paris (France), 6 May 1985
Source Oceanologica Acta, Special issue (0399-1784) (Gauthier-Villars), 1987
Abstract In the Gulf of Guinea (4 degree W), the equatorial upwelling, generated by the divergence of surface current meridional components, appears only during the boreal (northern) summer (June to September) south of the Equator and exhibits a considerable enrichment in nitrate and phosphate at the sea surface. At the Equator below the surface, there is also a seasonal nutrient enrichment due to vertical mixing or/and vertical motion of the thermocline. Zonal advection from the African coastal zone, often advanced to explain the equatorial fertility, does not completely agree with the observed surface distributions of nitrate. In the western equatorial Atlantic (35 degree W), the seasonal surface nutrient enrichment does not appear in July and the surface layer seems to remain impoverished in nutrient throughout the year.
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Oudot C, Morin P (1987). The distribution of nutrients in the Equatorial Atlantic: Relation to physical processes and phytoplankton biomass. Oceanologica Acta, Special issue Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00267/37856/