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Physical controls on oxygen distribution and denitrification potential in the North West Arabian Sea

Physical controls on oxygen distribution and denitrification potential in the North West Arabian Sea
Physical controls on oxygen distribution and denitrification potential in the North West Arabian Sea

At suboxic oxygen concentrations, key biogeochemical cycles change and denitrification becomes the dominant remineralization pathway. Earth system models predict oxygen loss across most ocean basins in the next century; oxygen minimum zones near suboxia may become suboxic and therefore denitrifying. Using an ocean glider survey and historical data, we show oxygen loss in the Gulf of Oman (from 6-12 to <2 μmol/kg-1) not represented in climatologies. Because of the nonlinearity between denitrification and oxygen concentration, resolutions of current Earth system models are too coarse to accurately estimate denitrification. We develop a novel physical proxy for oxygen from the glider data and use a high-resolution physical model to show eddy stirring of oxygen across the Gulf of Oman. We use the model to investigate spatial and seasonal differences in the ratio of oxic and suboxic water across the Gulf of Oman and waters exported to the wider Arabian Sea.

Arabian sea, Denitrifcation, Deoxygenation, Eddies, Glider, Oman
0094-8276
Queste, Bastien Y.
126304a1-66b4-414c-a1dd-5e1dad91cff7
Vic, Clément
408e7f4a-468f-4139-90a6-3a95228ad758
Heywood, Karen J.
83d91436-76bc-4d55-ae41-9af6a6fc8869
Piontkovski, Sergey A.
b29a33ac-d3ff-4119-852b-19e418867e2b
Queste, Bastien Y.
126304a1-66b4-414c-a1dd-5e1dad91cff7
Vic, Clément
408e7f4a-468f-4139-90a6-3a95228ad758
Heywood, Karen J.
83d91436-76bc-4d55-ae41-9af6a6fc8869
Piontkovski, Sergey A.
b29a33ac-d3ff-4119-852b-19e418867e2b

Queste, Bastien Y., Vic, Clément, Heywood, Karen J. and Piontkovski, Sergey A. (2018) Physical controls on oxygen distribution and denitrification potential in the North West Arabian Sea. Geophysical Research Letters. (doi:10.1029/2017GL076666).

Record type: Article

Abstract

At suboxic oxygen concentrations, key biogeochemical cycles change and denitrification becomes the dominant remineralization pathway. Earth system models predict oxygen loss across most ocean basins in the next century; oxygen minimum zones near suboxia may become suboxic and therefore denitrifying. Using an ocean glider survey and historical data, we show oxygen loss in the Gulf of Oman (from 6-12 to <2 μmol/kg-1) not represented in climatologies. Because of the nonlinearity between denitrification and oxygen concentration, resolutions of current Earth system models are too coarse to accurately estimate denitrification. We develop a novel physical proxy for oxygen from the glider data and use a high-resolution physical model to show eddy stirring of oxygen across the Gulf of Oman. We use the model to investigate spatial and seasonal differences in the ratio of oxic and suboxic water across the Gulf of Oman and waters exported to the wider Arabian Sea.

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Accepted/In Press date: 28 March 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 April 2018
Keywords: Arabian sea, Denitrifcation, Deoxygenation, Eddies, Glider, Oman

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 420859
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/420859
ISSN: 0094-8276
PURE UUID: b92fb144-5d4b-4674-92c7-6d23a01e8f51

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Date deposited: 17 May 2018 16:30
Last modified: 05 Jun 2024 19:27

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Contributors

Author: Bastien Y. Queste
Author: Clément Vic
Author: Karen J. Heywood
Author: Sergey A. Piontkovski

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