A tale of four seasons : investigating the seasonality of physical structure and its biogeochemical responses in a temperate continental shelf sea

Wihsgott, JU ORCID: 0000-0002-7909-0007 (2018) A tale of four seasons : investigating the seasonality of physical structure and its biogeochemical responses in a temperate continental shelf sea PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

Due to their high biological productivity, continental shelf seas are significant sinks of anthropogenic carbon. To better understand the cycling of carbon within them, an accurate prediction of their vertical density stratification is required, as this is a critical control on the carbon drawdown. While the dominant controls on density structure are boundary driven mixing and seasonal heating, internal waves have been shown to play a small but critical role in both open ocean and shelf sea physical and biogeochemical cycles. Current knowledge on the spatial and temporal variability in internal mixing is however still severely limited. The aim of the work in this thesis was to develop new insight into the seasonal variability of physical controls on the vertical density structure and examine its biogeochemical responses in a temperate shelf sea. This thesis presents and examines new results that test the impact of boundary layer and internal wave forcing on stratification and vertical density structure in continental shelves. A new series of continuous measurements of full depth density and velocity structure, meteorological and wave forcing, surface nitrate and surface chlorophyll a spanning 17 months (March’14 ... (continues)

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	internal mixing, primary production, seasonal cycle, stratification, temperate continental shelf sea
Divisions:	Faculty of Science & Engineering > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	14 Aug 2018 10:05
Last Modified:	05 Apr 2025 17:24
DOI:	10.17638/03016599
Supervisors:	Sharples, J ORCID: 0000-0002-7031-3593 Hopkins, J Green, Mattias
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3016599
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