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Upper ocean stratification and sea ice growth rates during the summer-fall transition, as revealed by Elephant seal foraging in the Ad´elie Depression, East Antarctica
Citation
Williams, GD and Hindell, M and Houssais, MN and Tamura, T and Field, IC, Upper ocean stratification and sea ice growth rates during the summer-fall transition, as revealed by Elephant seal foraging in the Ad´elie Depression, East Antarctica, Ocean Sciences, 7, (2) pp. 185-202. ISSN 1812-0784 (2011) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
DOI: doi:10.5194/os-7-185-2011
Abstract
Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), fitted with Conductivity-Temperature-Depth sensors at Macquarie Island in January 2005 and 2010, collected unique oceanographic observations of the Ad谷lie and George V Land continental shelf (140每148∼ E) during the summer-fall transition (late February through April). This is a key region of dense shelf water formation from enhanced sea ice growth/brine rejection in the local coastal polynyas. In 2005, two seals occupied the continental shelf break near the grounded icebergs at the northern end of the Mertz Glacier Tongue for several weeks from the end of February. One of the seals migrated west to the Dibble Ice Tongue, apparently utilising the Antarctic Slope Front current near the continental shelf break. In 2010, immediately after that year's calving of the Mertz Glacier Tongue, two seals migrated to the same region but penetrated much further southwest across the Ad谷lie Depression and sampled the Commonwealth Bay polynya from March through April. Here we present observations of the regional oceanography during the summer-fall transition, in particular (i) the zonal distribution of modified Circumpolar Deep Water exchange across the shelf break, (ii) the upper ocean stratification across the Ad谷lie Depression, including alongside iceberg C-28 that calved from the Mertz Glacier and (iii) the convective overturning of the deep remnant seasonal mixed layer in Commonwealth Bay from sea ice growth. Heat and freshwater budgets to 200每300 m are used to estimate the ocean heat content (400↙50 MJ m−2), flux (50每200 W m−2 loss) and sea ice growth rates (maximum of 7.5每12.5 cm day−1). Mean seal-derived sea ice growth rates were within the range of satellite-derived estimates from 1992每2007 using ERA-Interim data. We speculate that the continuous foraging by the seals within Commonwealth Bay during the summer/fall transition was due to favorable feeding conditions resulting from the convective overturning of the deep seasonal mixed layer and chlorophyll maximum that is a reported feature of this location.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | ocean stratification, sea ice, Elephant seal, Antarctica |
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Oceanography |
| Research Field: | Physical oceanography |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
| Objective Group: | Management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments |
| Objective Field: | Antarctic and Southern Ocean oceanic processes |
| UTAS Author: | Williams, GD (Mr Guy Williams) |
| UTAS Author: | Hindell, M (Professor Mark Hindell) |
| UTAS Author: | Tamura, T (Dr Takeshi Tamura) |
| ID Code: | 76814 |
| Year Published: | 2011 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 24 |
| Deposited By: | CRC-Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems |
| Deposited On: | 2012-03-14 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-10-31 |
| Downloads: | 573 View Download Statistics |
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