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Ocean Circulation and Marine Life

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Advances in Oceanography

Abstract

The geostrophic nature of the gross patterns of ocean circulation, with the wind-driven convergences within the anticyclonic gyres and the divergences within the cyclonic gyres, along the equator and the eastern boundaries, provides a set of quite different biological provinces. Because of their several climates and differences in vertical circulation, the various gyres contain different sets of nutrient and temperature characteristics, and these provide separate oceanic habitats. The principal cyclonic gyres are in the subarctic and subantarctic latitudes and have equatorward extensions along the eastern boundaries. They are cold, high in nutrients, and undergo large seasonal changes: a relatively small number of species is indigenous to these gyres, but the biomass is relatively large.

The principal anticyclonic gyres are in the subtropical zones, are warm and low in nutrients, with less seasonal variations than at higher latitudes: a larger number of species is indigenous to these gyres, but the biomass is small. The subequatorial zone contains a series of alternate eastward and westward flows, with associated ridging in thermocline depth. It is the warmest of the zones at the surface but is colder beneath the upper layer than the anticyclonic gyres. It also contains a large number of species and a large biomass, but there is substantial east-west variation: some species are confined to the east. There are also species that inhabit the zones between the subtropical and subarctic gyres. It is not certain how these maintain their geographical position within predominantly eastward flow. Perhaps some extend farther equatorward at greater depths, where the westward flow extends into somewhat higher latitudes; perhaps a resident population along the western boundary can maintain these mid-ocean patterns.

While these general patterns are observed in all oceans, there are notable differences. The tropical gyre of the North Atlantic, which is the warmest of the oceans, extends into higher latitudes; some species can extend all the way from the central North Atlantic into the Barents Sea and as far as Novaya Zemblya (75°N), at least in summer.

In the eastern tropical oceans the waters just beneath the upper layer are cold and, farthest from their surface sources, are lowest in oxygen concentration. Many of the shallow-living zooplankters that inhabit the anticyclonic gyres extend into the eastern tropical Pacific without showing any effect from these subsurface oxygen minima, but some of the more deeply vertically-migrating forms, while present in the surrounding waters, are excluded from the areas of lowest subsurface oxygen concentration. Some species, however, occupy only the waters in and above these low-oxygen layers.

Within this system of circulation the number of plankton species appears to vary with the biological province. The fewest species occur at latitudes poleward of about 45° within the subarctic and subantarctic gyres. The numbers increase abruptly equatorward from there within the anticyclonic gyres and remain high almost to the equator where there may be a small decrease. Perhaps the highest numbers are found where the subtropical and subequatorial types overlap, and where these are carried by the equatorial currents into the western boundary current and encounter a few of the local forms and some of the subarctic forms.

Phytoplankton species appear to have patterns somewhat different from those of the zooplankton. The subarctic and subantarctic gyres contain some bipolar species of zooplankton but few if any of phytoplankton, and the subequatorial zone appears to contain no endemic species of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton species tend to be more widespread and less environmentally specialized than zooplankton species. There is a higher percentage of cosmopolitan species and a higher percentage of circumglobal species in the subarctic environments; however, there are few if any bipolar species. There are no species restricted to environments which are not defined by one of the major circulation gyres. Apparently many of the mechanisms which effectively isolate populations of zooplankton, allowing genetic divergence, are not effective for phytoplankton. The dominance of asexual reproduction among phytoplankton may also be a factor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, 92093, USA

    Joseph L. Reid, Edward Brinton, Abraham Fleminger, Elizabeth L. Venrick & John A. McGowan

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  1. The University Southampton, England

    Henry Charnock

  2. Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Surrey, England

    George Deacon

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Reid, J.L., Brinton, E., Fleminger, A., Venrick, E.L., McGowan, J.A. (1978). Ocean Circulation and Marine Life. In: Charnock, H., Deacon, G. (eds) Advances in Oceanography. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-8273-1_3

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