GFI/BCCR Seminar | John Grue: Internal waves as nutrient pump in the ocean

John Grue (Dept of Mathematics, UiO)

Internal waves as nutrient pump in the ocean

Summary
The talk starts out with a short review of the newest results of the internal waves in the ocean, discussing in short the internal waves in the South China Sea and their implications, where the most important is how internal waves contribute to a vertical velocity, an up-welling on very short scale (Alford et al. Nature, 2015). This dimension is discussed in relation to the Norwegian internal wave research which has been motivated by offshore applications. The internal waves acting as a nutrient pump received a keen interest by the former President Obama, who used the US Antiquities Act to extend by a substantial amount America's protected waters, at locations where these processes take place. The similar areas in Norway include: Lofoten, Vesterålen and Sørøya (Finnmark), where strong tidally driven internal wave fields are observed by SAR. Likewise there is a strong tidal conversion of energy from long to short modes in the Northern Barents Sea and around the Svalbard Archipelago. Maps of the internal tide and SAR-images of short internal waves in the Northern Barents Sea will be shown.We point to a new research potential on: the role of tidally driven internal wave processes as nutrient pump for marine production.