Satellite observations of unprecedented phytoplankton blooms  in the Maud Rise polynya, Southern Ocean

Jena, Babula; Pillai, Anilkumar N.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1385-2020

Articles | Volume 14, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1385-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1385-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 4

Research article

|

24 Apr 2020

Research article |

| 24 Apr 2020

Satellite observations of unprecedented phytoplankton blooms in the Maud Rise polynya, Southern Ocean

Babula Jena and Anilkumar N. Pillai

Data sets

Primary production data for the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean B. Jena and N. Anil Kumar https://doi.org/10.17632/k438knz9zs.5

Global Marine Argo Atlas Argo http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/Marine_Atlas.html

Short summary

Records of multiple ocean color satellite data indicated unprecedented phytoplankton blooms on the Maud Rise with a backdrop of anomalous upper ocean warming and sea ice loss in 2017. The bloom appearance may indicate it as a potential sink of atmospheric CO₂ through biological pumping, and it can be a major source of carbon and energy for the regional food web. The reoccurrence of the bloom is important considering the high-nutrient low-chlorophyll conditions of the Southern Ocean.