Fluid dynamical niches of phytoplankton types

d'Ovidio, Francesco; de Monte, Silvia; Alvain, Séverine; Dandonneau, Yves; Lévy, Marina

Document type :

Article dans une revue scientifique: Article original

DOI :

10.1073/pnas.1004620107

Title :

Fluid dynamical niches of phytoplankton types

Author(s) :

d'Ovidio, Francesco [Auteur]
Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques [LOCEAN]
de Monte, Silvia [Auteur]
Alvain, Séverine [Auteur]
Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale [ULCO]
Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences (LOG) - UMR 8187 [LOG]
Dandonneau, Yves [Auteur]
Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques [LOCEAN]
Lévy, Marina [Auteur]
Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques [LOCEAN]

Journal title :

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Pages :

18366-18370

Publisher :

National Academy of Sciences

Publication date :

2010-10-26

ISSN :

0027-8424

HAL domain(s) :

Physique [physics]/Physique [physics]/Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]

English abstract : [en]

The biogeochemical role of phytoplanktonic organisms strongly varies from one plankton type to another, and their relative abundance and distribution have fundamental consequences at the global and climatological scales. ...
Show more >The biogeochemical role of phytoplanktonic organisms strongly varies from one plankton type to another, and their relative abundance and distribution have fundamental consequences at the global and climatological scales. In situ observations find dominant types often associated to specific physical and chemical water properties. However, the mechanisms and spatiotemporal scales by which marine ecosystems are organized are largely not known. Here we investigate the spatiotemporal organization of phytoplankton communities by combining multisatellite data, notably high-resolution ocean-color maps of dominant types and altimetry-derived Lagrangian diagnostics of the surface transport. We find that the phytoplanktonic landscape is organized in (sub-)mesoscale patches (10–100 km) of dominant types separated by physical fronts induced by horizontal stirring. These physical fronts delimit niches supported by water masses of similar history and whose lifetimes are comparable with the timescale of the bloom onset (few weeks). The resonance between biological activity and physical processes suggest that the spatiotemporal (sub-)mesoscales associated to stirring are determinant in the observation and modeling of marine ecosystems.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Peer reviewed article :

Oui

Audience :

Internationale

Popular science :

Non

Collections :