Comment on "Eddy/wind interactions stimulate extraordinary mid-ocean plankton blooms".
McGillicuddy et al. (Reports, 18 May 2007, p. 1021) proposed that eddy/wind interactions enhance the vertical nutrient flux in mode-water eddies, thus feeding large mid-ocean plankton blooms. We argue that the supply of nutrients to ocean eddies is most likely affected by submesoscale processes that act along the periphery of eddies and can induce vertical velocities several times larger than those due to eddy/wind interactions.
Mahadevan
Amala
A
Department of Earth Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Thomas
Leif N
LN
Tandon
Amit
A
D000818:Animals; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000254:growth & development*; D010933:Plankton / Q000254:growth & development; D012623:Seawater; D014872:Water Movements; D014919:Wind