This paper reports on the results of a trawls survey in 2011 to assess the amount of biomass and Catch Per Unit of Area (CPUA) as well as to determine the distribution pattern of Synodontidae family of demersal fishes (with emphasize on great lizardfish, Saurida tumbil) as one of the most important and commercial fish species in the northwest of the Persian Gulf.  Samples were collected fr...

Ocean upwelling rates are difficult to measure because of the relatively small velocities involved, and therefore are typically inferred from indirect methods such as heat budget estimates or tracer observations. Here we present the first results using a novel technique, based on the isotope Be, to infer rates of upwelling along the equator. Beryllium-7 (half-life1⁄453.3 d) is a cosmic-ray prod...

In this work, we compare three turbulence models used to parameterize the oceanic boundary layer. These three models depend on the bulk Richardson number, which is coherent with the studied region, the West Pacific Warm Pool, because of the large mean shear associated with the equatorial undercurrent. One of these models, called R224, is new and the others are Pacanowski and Philander's model (...

We propose here that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) plays an important role in setting the effective heat capacity of the World Ocean and thus impacts the pace of transient climate change. The depth and strength of AMOC are shown to be strongly correlated with the depth of heat storage across a suite of state-of-the-art general circulation models (GCMs). In those models ...

[1] Iron solubility measurements in the Mauritanian upwelling and the adjacent Open Ocean of the Tropical Atlantic show for all stations lower values in the surface mixed layer than at depth below the pycnocline. We attribute this distribution to a combination of loss terms, chiefly photo-oxidation of organic ligands in the surface, and supply terms, predominantly from the release of ligands fr...

A coupled air–sea general circulation model is used to simulate the global circulation. Different parameterizations of lateral mixing in the ocean by eddies, horizontal, isopycnal, and isopycnal plus eddy advective flux, are compared from the perspective of water mass transformation in the Southern Ocean. The different mixing physics imply different buoyancy equilibria in the surface mixed laye...

A new ocean mixed layer model (OMLM) was embedded into an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) with the aim of providing an OGCM that is ideal for application to a climate model by predicting the sea surface temperature (SST) more accurately. The results from the new OMLM showed a significant improvement in the prediction of SST compared to the cases of constant vertical mixing and the vertic...

The ocean mixed layer (OML), the ocean region adjacent to the air–sea interface, is typically tens of meters deep, and due to the fact that it is well mixed, the temperature and salinity (and therefore the density) are fairly uniform. The rapidly changing regions below these uniform regions of temperature, salinity, and density are called the thermocline, halocline, and pycnocline, respectively...

Ocean sunfish Mola mola are a seasonally common inhabitant of southern Californian waters, and comprise the largest bycatch component (29% of total catch) of the California drift gillnet fishery for swordfish. We used temperature and depth-sensing acoustic transmitters to quantify the fine-scale movement patterns of ocean sunfish near Santa Catalina Island, California. Eight ocean sunfish were ...

The first theory of wind-driven flow is that of Ekman, who assumed a uniform eddy viscosity and derived the velocity spiral that bears his name. Over the years, observations of wind stress and current have improved to the point that frictional momentum transfer in the upper ocean can be quantified. Observations of velocity spirals are reviewed to address such issues as the vertical structure an...