Coastal upwelling off Peru and Mauritania inferred from helium isotope disequilibrium

Steinfeldt, R.; Sültenfuß, J.; Dengler, M.; Fischer, T.; Rhein, M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-7519-2015

Articles | Volume 12, issue 24

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-7519-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Biogeochemical processes, tropospheric chemistry and interactions...

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-7519-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 24

Research article

|

21 Dec 2015

Research article |

| 21 Dec 2015

Coastal upwelling off Peru and Mauritania inferred from helium isotope disequilibrium

R. Steinfeldt, J. Sültenfuß, M. Dengler, T. Fischer, and M. Rhein

Data sets

Noble gases measured on water bottle samples during METEOR cruise M68/3. Steinfeldt, R., Rütten, S, Sültenfuß, J., Dengler, M., Fischer, T., and Rhein, M. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.808222

Noble gases measured on water bottle samples during POSEIDON cruise POS347. Steinfeldt, R., Rütten, S, Sültenfuß, J., Dengler, M., Fischer, T., and Rhein, M. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.808223

Noble gases measured on water bottle samples during L'Atalante cruise ATA3. Steinfeldt, R., Rütten, S, Sültenfuß, J., Dengler, M., Fischer, T., and Rhein, M. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.808221

Noble gases measured on water bottle samples during METEOR cruise M91. Steinfeldt, R., Rütten, S, Sültenfuß, J., Dengler, M., Fischer, T., and Rhein, M. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.845703

Short summary

The coastal upwelling systems, e.g. off Peru and Mauritania, are key regions for the emissions of climate relevant trace gases from the ocean into the atmosphere. Here, gases and nutrients are transported into the ocean mixed layer from below. The upwelling velocities, however, are too small to be measured directly. We use the enhancement of helium-3 in upwelled waters to quantify the vertical velocity, which varies between 1.0 and 2.5 metres per day in the coastal regions.