Comment on "Eddy/Wind Interactions Stimulate Extraordinary Mid-Ocean Plankton Blooms"
Amala Mahadevan,1*
Leif N. Thomas,2
Amit Tandon3
McGillicuddy
et al. (Reports, 18 May 2007, p. 1021) proposed
that eddy/wind interactions enhance the vertical nutrient flux
in mode-water eddies, thus feeding large mid-ocean plankton
blooms. We argue that the supply of nutrients to ocean eddies
is most likely affected by submesoscale processes that act along
the periphery of eddies and can induce vertical velocities several
times larger than those due to eddy/wind interactions.
2 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
3 Physics Department and Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA 02747, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: amala{at}bu.edu
