The influence of tide-topography interaction on low-frequency heat and nutrient fluxes. Application to Cape Trafalgar

Abstract During July 1994, 1995 and 1996, the Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia carried out three multidisciplinar surveys in the Northwestern Alboran Sea, Strait of Gibraltar and Gulf of Cadiz. Conductivity–temperature–depth (CTD) data and nutrient measurements revealed the existence of a pool of cool surface waters, rich in nutrients and with high fluorescence values offshore Cape Trafalgar during the three surveys. These data are considered as an indication of some sort of upwelling. The presence of a submarine ridge, breaking the continental shelf off Trafalgar and intercepting along shore tidal currents, and the intense winds in this area make us think that tide-topography interaction, probably enhanced by wind stirring in surface layers, is responsible for this phenomenon. Its permanence is inspected by means of the sea surface temperature (SST) satellite images recompiled for one year. They show that the pool is very frequent in summer and autumn, more unusual in spring and exceptional in winter. The explanation considered is that the mixing of deep and surface waters is only an effective means of heat exchange when the water column is stratified. To support our initial hypothesis and to get some insight of the relevant factors involved, we develop a bidimensional model aimed at studying along shore variations on the temperature, nutrient and chlorophyll distributions. Although the physical–biological model is very simple, it is able to show how large vertical excursions due to tide-topography interaction produce an eddy flux of heat and nutrients, cooling and fertilising areas around the topographic accident. The model is initialised with along-shore homogeneous distributions of all the variables modelled to check if the mechanism proposed is able to break this homogeneity in a similar way to the observed in experimental data. Appreciable differences between areas affected by tide-topography interaction and those far away from it appear in several days, a time scale much shorter than that associated with seasonal changes. Although the model is aimed at studying just the capability of tide-topography interaction for creating a similar situation to the pool off Trafalgar, a sensitivity test revealed the importance of time dependence of eddy diffusion coefficients (not considered in our bidimensional model) when studying seasonal cycles of temperature and nutrients. On the other hand, this dependence is not so relevant for shorter scales as those affecting our problem. The magnitude of the cooling, nutrient and chlorophyll concentrations and the shape of chlorophyll vertical profiles around topography are sensitive to the choice of eddy coefficients in upper layers, which is our way of parameterising the effect of wind stirring. They also have an effect on determining which is the limiting factor (light or nutrients) at the sea surface of areas affected by vertical forcing.