Post by icefisher on Feb 16, 2015 17:22:37 GMT
I think we should not be anymore surprised to discover gigantic waves, or should I say huge and subtle movements of water currents undersea. Its good there are not over the water currents. A lot of forces affect these, some are already there by nature and have their own uses most probably. I don't really see anything disadvantageous or harmful related to this phenomenon.
Probably just the opposite. Cold water upwellings which occur world wide are believed to be greatly beneficial to the productivity of the ocean.
The cold waters carry nutrient rich water with it. The upper oceans are depleted of nutrients via all sorts of wild growth of algae and plankton. This becomes a huge source of forage for ocean life. Its like a huge natural Russ George scheme. Nutrients are constantly being lost to oceans by fishing where nutrients are removed entirely from the ocean and natural mortality where expiring biomass falls to the bottom of the ocean beyond the light zone where it does not support the fabrication of life. These nutrients accumulate to much higher levels beyond the light zone and it is this ocean mixing that brings it back to the surface.
Among the most rich oceans are the oceans that surround antarctica where these blooms supports a huge number of whales, fish, squid, and birds.
"The prolific zooplankton of Antarctic waters feed on the copious phytoplankton and, in turn, form the basic diet of whales, seals, fish, squid, and seabirds. The Antarctic waters, because of their upwelled nutrients, are more than seven times as productive as subantarctic waters." www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/27068/Antarctica/24719/Sea-life
This may well be a direct result of these subsurface oceanic waves.
Another well known upwelling zone is off the coast of Peru and Ecuador in ENSO zones 1 and 2. Here strong upwelling of the deep nutrient rich water supports massive schools of anchovies and sardines which in turn support huge tuna populations. www.o3d.org/web_db_data/articles/10/Ayo%CC%81n-10.pdf
This is likely a result of the ENSO upwelling process. We see these kinds of productivity blooms along all coastal upwelling zones. Recently in California Marine Protected Areas were implemented along the northern and central California coast where numerous highly productive upwelling zones exist. Upwelling zones were specifically identified by marine biologists as prime areas to enact protections against fishing.
Sort of shines a somewhat different light over the issue of ocean acidification where ocean bottoms are fully saturated with gases (e.g. will not absorb any more). While science has not been able to establish that more acidic oceans will kill off shell fish patterns (been unable to do it in labs and aquaculture experiments, instead usually spurring growth and making for larger shell fish), more carbon dioxide in the upper oceans may be a huge boon to ocean productivity.