The California Undercurrent as a Source of Upwelled Waters in a Coastal Filament

In the California Current System, cross-shore transport of upwelled, nutrient-rich waters from coastal margin to open ocean can occur within intermittent, submesoscale-to-mesoscale features such as filaments. Time-varying spatial gradients filaments affect net fluxes physical, biological, and chemical tracers but require high-resolution measurements accurately estimate. June 2017, Ecosystem Long Term Ecological Research program process cruise (P1706) conducted repeat sections by an autonomous Spray glider a towed SeaSoar investigate role one upwelling feature, Morro Bay filament, which was characterized enhanced cross-filament (both physical biological) along-filament jet. Within jet, speeds were up 0.78 m/s offshore 1.5 Sverdrups (3.8 Sverdrups) in upper 100 m (500 m). A climatological data product sustained Underwater Glider Network provided necessary information for water mass differentiation. The analysis revealed that cold, salty side filament carried recently upwelled Undercurrent corresponded higher chlorophyll-a fluorescence than warm, fresh side, water. Thus, there convergence heterogeneous masses core filament’s offshore-flowing These have different geographic origins thermohaline characteristics, has implications filament-related biological community structure gradients.