Oceanic frontal divergence alters phytoplankton competition and distribution
arXiv:2202.11745 · doi:10.1029/2023JC019902
Abstract
Ecological interactions among phytoplankton occur in a moving fluid environment. Oceanic flows can modulate the competition and coexistence between phytoplankton populations, which in turn can affect ecosystem function and biogeochemical cycling. We explore the impact of submesoscale velocity gradients on phytoplankton ecology using observations, simulations, and theory. Observations reveal that the relative abundance of Synechoccocus oligotypes varies on 1--10 km scales at an ocean front with submesoscale velocity gradients at the same scale. Simulations in realistic flow fields demonstrate that regions of divergence in the horizontal flow field can substantially modify ecological competition and dispersal on timescales of hours to days. Regions of positive (negative) divergence provide an advantage (disadvantage) to local populations, resulting in up to ~20% variation in community composition in our model. We propose that submesoscale divergence is a plausible contributor to observed taxonomic variability at oceanic fronts, and can lead to regional variability in community composition.
arXiv comment14 pages, 5 figures; SI: 13 pages, 13 figures
References in corpus (12)
- Lagrangian tracers on a surface flow: the role of time correlations
- Population genetics in compressible flows
- Population dynamics at high Reynolds number
- Growth, competition and cooperation in spatial population genetics
- Diversity of growth rates maximizes phytoplankton productivity in an eddying ocean
- Fisher equation with turbulence in one dimension
- Time-Evolution of a Fractal Distribution: Particle Concentrations in Free-Surface Turbulence
- Fixation Probabilities in Weakly Compressible Fluid Flows
- Clustering of vertically constrained passive particles in homogeneous, isotropic turbulence
- Spatial population genetics with fluid flow
- Motion, fixation probability and the choice of an evolutionary process
- Discrete Eulerian model for population genetics and dynamics under flow