Life in Motion From turbulence to climate

Life in Motion: From turbulence to climate
Mara Freilich / Brown University
Physics Colloquium 2024-09-12
Ocean currents shape the distribution and magnitude of ocean carbon and nutrient fluxes with cascading influences on the global carbon cycle. Ocean dynamics at the submesoscale (1-10 km) play a particularly important role in shaping the abundance and distribution of primary production and carbon export. However, these dynamics are difficult to observe and challenging to model due to the nonlinear and multiscale nature of submesoscale dynamics. As a result, there is substantial uncertainty in the magnitude of the eddy effects on carbon and nutrient fluxes. In this talk, I will use ship-board observations and numerical models to examine the interaction between ocean eddy processes and microbial communities revealing how ocean currents impact microbial diversity and the global importance of eddies in the distribution of ocean carbon.