Influence of intraseasonal eastern boundary circulation variability on hydrography and biogeochemistry off Peru

Abstract

The intraseasonal evolution of physical and biogeochemical properties during a coastal trapped wave event off central Peru is analysed using data from an extensive shipboard observational programme conducted between April and June 2017, and remote sensing data. The poleward velocities in the Peru–Chile Undercurrent were highly variable and strongly intensified to above 0.5 m s−1 between the middle and end of May. This intensification was likely caused by a first-baroclinic-mode downwelling coastal trapped wave, excited by a westerly wind anomaly at the Equator and originating at about 95∘ W. Local winds along the South American coast did not impact the wave. Although there is general agreement between the observed cross-shore-depth velocity structure of the coastal trapped wave and the velocity structure of first vertical mode solution of a linear wave model, there are differences in the details of the two flow distributions. The enhanced poleward flow increased water mass advection from the equatorial current system to the study site. The resulting shorter alongshore transit times between the Equator and the coast off central Peru led to a strong increase in nitrate concentrations, less anoxic water, likely less fixed nitrogen loss to N2 and a decrease of the nitrogen deficit compared to the situation before the poleward flow intensification. This study highlights the role of changes in the alongshore advection due to coastal trapped waves for the nutrient budget and the cumulative strength of N cycling in the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone. Enhanced availability of nitrate may impact a range of pelagic and benthic elemental cycles, as it represents a major electron acceptor for organic carbon degradation during denitrification and is involved in sulfide oxidation in sediments.