Physical Controls on Oxygen Distribution and Denitrification Potential in the North West Arabian Sea
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 −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.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 05, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1029/2017gl076666
Entities
People
- Bastien Queste
- Clément Vic
- Karen Heywood
- Sergey Piontkovski
Organizations
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Office of Naval Research Global
- Sultan Qaboos University
- University of East Anglia
- University of Southampton