Summary
During 16–23 January 1982, an interdisciplinary oceanographic study was carried out in the southwestern Ross Sea, supported by a grid of hydro-stations spaced along 175°E, 173°E, 171°E and 169°E at 5 min latitude intervals from 76° 50′S to the Ross Ice Shelf. To extend previous studies of oceanic nutrient dynamics and pathways of biogeochemical nutrient cycling we sought to define summer-time scales of spatial variability in water-column NH +4 in relation to water-mass characteristics, geostrophic flow, distance from ice edges, and plankton biomass. Near-surface NH +4 was correlated negatively with near-surface chlorophyll and with distance from ice edges. Lowest concentrations (0.05–0.35 µg at. NH +4 1−1) occurred at open water stations north of 77° 10’S along transects 173°E and 175°E. Highest concentrations (0.50–1.35 µg at. NH +4 1−1) occurred close along the Ross Ice Shelf, and at stations west of 171°E and within 50 km of a transition from open water to pack-ice. Ammonium maxima underlying the mixed layer clustered into 2 groups of sigma-theta density, reflecting local melting of continental, NH +4 -rich ice of the Ross Ice Shelf and a net biological regeneration and accumulation of NH +4 under pack-ice. At locations and/or times where internal wave activity and the passage of meso-scale eddies flux this sub-surface NH +4 into the mixed layer, it is taken up preferentially to NO3 and may help promote or maintain high chlorophyll standing stocks that are characteristic of mid-summer in this part of the Ross embayment.
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© 1985 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Biggs, D.C., Amos, A.F., Holm-Hansen, O. (1985). Oceanographic Studies of Epi-Pelagic Ammonium Distributions: The Ross Sea NH +4 Flux Experiment. In: Siegfried, W.R., Condy, P.R., Laws, R.M. (eds) Antarctic Nutrient Cycles and Food Webs. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82275-9_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82275-9_14
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