The Earth rotates on its axis from west to east. Because of this rotation, winds tend to veer right in the northern hemisphere and left in the southern hemisphere. This is known as
the Coriolis effect
What factors contribute to upwelling?
Conditions are optimal for upwelling along the coast
when winds blow along the shore
. Winds blowing across the ocean surface push water away. Water then rises up from beneath the surface to replace the water that was pushed away. This process is known as “upwelling.”
Where does upwelling occur the most?
Upwelling is most common along
the west coast of continents
(eastern sides of ocean basins). In the Northern Hemisphere, upwelling occurs along west coasts (e.g., coasts of California, Northwest Africa) when winds blow from the north (causing Ekman transport of surface water away from the shore).
How does climate change affect upwelling?
At regional scales, especially in coastal upwelling systems, the ecosystem response to surface warming becomes more complex. It is hypothesized that global warming will enhance land–
sea temperature gradients that in turn will increase upwelling favorable winds
(i.e., the Bakun hypothesis)
10
.
What causes upwelling in California?
Upwelling in the California Current is influenced by
seasonal changes in the intensity of northwesterly winds
. The upwelling season is most pronounced in spring and summer, when northwesterly winds are at their highest of the year. Upwelling is reduced in fall and winter, when winds relax and are more variable.
What causes Deepsets?
In contrast to wind-driven surface currents, deep-ocean currents are caused by
differences in water density
. The process that creates deep currents is called thermohaline circulation—“thermo” referring to temperature and “haline” to saltiness. … This water also cools and sinks, keeping a deep current in motion.
What are 3 areas of upwelling in the world?
Worldwide, there are five major coastal currents associated with upwelling areas: the
Canary Current (off Northwest Africa)
, the Benguela Current (off southern Africa), the California Current (off California and Oregon), the Humboldt Current (off Peru and Chile), and the Somali Current (off Somalia and Oman).
What makes upwellings and Downwellings occur?
What makes upwellings and downwellings occur? … A coastal upwelling and downwellings occurs
when the wind blows offshore ore parallel to shore
. Sometimes they occur when offshore wind creates a current that pushes the surface water out to sea.
What causes upwelling at the equator?
Upwelling is a result of winds and the rotation of the Earth. The Earth rotates on its axis from west to east. …
The Coriolis effect
also causes upwelling in the open ocean near the Equator. Trade winds at the Equator blow surface water both north and south, allowing upwelling of deeper water.
How do Downwellings and upwellings affect nutrient and oxygen contents?
Downwelling is where surface water is forced downwards,
where it may deliver oxygen to deeper water
. … As the surface waters diverge, deeper water must be brought to the surface to replace it, creating upwelling zones. The upwelled water is cold and rich in nutrients, leading to high productivity.
What severe and widespread changes in the climate does El Niño produce?
El Niño also produces widespread and sometimes severe changes in the climate. Convection above warmer surface waters bring
increased precipitation
. Rainfall increases drastically in Ecuador and northern Peru, contributing to coastal flooding and erosion.
How does El Niño affect coastal upwelling?
During El Niño, upwelling of
cooler oceanic water decreases along the S. American coast
. What typically happens is that the trade winds move from S. America to Asia/Australia, and warm surface water is dragged away from the coast and colder, nutrient water rises to shallow depths.
What happens to the United States during an El Niño?
During strong El Niño events, the
Gulf Coast and Southeast
are consistently wetter than average. … Elsewhere over the United States, El Niño impacts are associated with drier conditions in the Ohio Valley, and there is a less-reliable dry signal in the Pacific Northwest and the northern Rockies.
Why is upwelling such an important factor in creating areas of high biologic productivity?
Why is upwelling such an important factor in creating areas of high biologic productivity? a) Upwelling
brings nutrient-rich deep water to the surface where productivity is limited by the availability of nutrients
. … Rates of productivity can be ESTIMATED by measuring what?
What drives the global conveyor belt?
The global ocean conveyor belt is a constantly moving system of deep-ocean circulation driven by
temperature and salinity
. … This motion is caused by a combination of thermohaline currents (thermo = temperature; haline = salinity) in the deep ocean and wind-driven currents on the surface.
Why does coastal upwelling lead to high biological productivity quizlet?
Why does coastal upwelling lead to high biological productivity?
It brings cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface, where phytoplankton reside
. … This is where wind direction forces surface water away from the shore.
What factors influence the direction that ocean currents take?
Winds, water density, and tides
all drive ocean currents. Coastal and sea floor features influence their location, direction, and speed. Earth’s rotation results in the Coriolis effect which also influences ocean currents.
What causes the Coriolis effect that deflects global winds?
Because the Earth rotates on its axis, circulating air is deflected toward the right in the Northern Hemisphere and toward the left in the Southern Hemisphere
. This deflection is called the Coriolis effect.
Why is nutrient upwelling so powerful around Antarctica?
Why is nutrient upwelling so powerful around Antarctica? The deep water in the global conveyer belt flows across the seafloor all the way from the North Atlantic before it reaches Antarctica, so
it has a lot of time to pick up a lot of nutrients
.
Why are upwellings important to ocean ecosystems?
The deeper water that rises to the surface during upwelling is
rich in nutrients
. These nutrients “fertilize” surface waters, encouraging the growth of plant life, including phytoplankton. … Upwelling can also play an important role in the movement of marine animals.
What factors are responsible for currents?
- Wind. Wind is the single biggest factor in the creation of surface currents. …
- Water Density. Another major factor in the creation of currents is water density, caused by the amount of salt in a body of water, and its temperature. …
- Ocean Bottom Topography. …
- Coriolis Effect.
Which conditions would most likely occur as a result of ocean upwelling?
The surface water eventually sinks toward the bottom. Subsurface water that rises to the surface as a result of upwelling is typically
colder, rich in nutrients
, and biologically productive. Therefore, good fishing grounds typically are found where upwelling is common.
What causes a Halocline?
A halocline is also a layer of separation between two water masses by difference in density, but this time it is not caused by temperature. It occurs
when two bodies of water come together, one with freshwater and the other with saltwater
. Saltier water is denser and sinks leaving fresh water on the surface.
Where are the trade winds?
The trade winds can be found
about 30 degrees north and south of the equator
. Right at the equator there is almost no wind at all—an area sometimes called the doldrums.
What causes El Nino?
El Niño occurs when
warm water builds up along the equator in the eastern Pacific
. The warm ocean surface warms the atmosphere, which allows moisture-rich air to rise and develop into rainstorms.
Where are Downwellings commonly found?
Locations. Downwelling occurs in areas such as in the
subpolar gyre of the North Atlantic
where several surface currents meet, where cold waters meet warmer waters, such as along the outermost boundary of the Southern Ocean where cold Antarctic water sinks below warmer South Pacific and South Atlantic waters.
What are two ways living things are affected by El Niño and La Niña?
El Niño and La Niña affect
not only ocean temperatures, but also how much it rains on land
. Depending on which cycle occurs (and when), this can mean either droughts or flooding. Typically, El Niño and its warm waters are associated with drought, while La Niña is linked to increased flooding.
What is the effect of the presence of El Niño in the western Pacific ocean?
During an El Niño event,
sea surface temperatures over the central and eastern Pacific become warmer than normal
. The normal easterly trade winds weaken and sometimes, the winds will switch and blow from the west to the east!
What causes trade winds to weaken?
The air-sea interaction that occur during an El Niño event
feed off of each other. As the pressure falls in the east and rises in the west, the surface pressure gradient is reduced and the trade winds weaken.
What are the reasons for upwelling and sinking along the Indian Ocean coasts?
Upwelling is a seasonal phenomenon in the Indian Ocean
because of the monsoon regime
. During the southwest monsoon, upwelling occurs off the Somali and Arabian coasts and south of Java. It is most intense between 5° and 11° N, with replacement of warmer surface water by water of about 57 °F (14 °C).
How do the effects of nutrients in upwellings compare to the effects of nutrients from agricultural runoff?
Upwellings tend to positively impact marine ecosystems by delivering nutrients that support healthy levels of marine productivity, while nutrients from agricultural runoff tend to
harm marine ecosystems by causing hypoxia as a
result of eutrophication.
What are the causes and effects of El Niño phenomenon?
An El Niño condition occurs
when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer than average and east winds blow weaker than normal
. The opposite condition is called La Niña. During this phase of ENSO, the water is cooler than normal and the east winds are stronger. El Niños typically occur every 3 to 5 years.
How does La Niña affect the climate of the Pacific Ocean quizlet?
The Eastern
Pacific Ocean’s temperature decreases during
La Nina. It is still warmer than our ocean but compared to an average year, the water is cooler. … The Atlantic Ocean’s temperature increases during La Nina. It is still cooler than the Eastern Pacific, but compared to an average year, the water is warmer.
How does El Niño affect climate?
El Niño can affect our weather significantly. … El Niño
causes the Pacific jet stream to move south and spread further east
. During winter, this leads to wetter conditions than usual in the Southern U.S. and warmer and drier conditions in the North. El Niño also has a strong effect on marine life off the Pacific coast.
Does El Nino increase or decrease upwelling?
El Niño Conditions
The result is the normal flow of water away from South America decreases and ocean water piles up off South America. This pushes the thermocline deeper and a
decrease in the upwelling
.
What happens to trade winds during La Nina?
During La Niña conditions, the easterly trade winds near the equator get even stronger than they usually are.
Stronger winds push surface water into the western Pacific
. Meanwhile, cool water from deeper in the ocean rises up in the eastern Pacific.
How does the El Nino phenomenon affect agricultural production?
ENSO affects crop production because
it disrupts normal weather patterns
. More specifically, El Niño creates water shortages and La Niña creates water abundance, including flooding. Water shortages reduce crop planting areas, delay planting seasons, and generally lower crop yields.
What limits productivity of Photosynthesizers on the very surface?
Water
.
Water
is also essential for photosynthesis. Obviously, lack of water is never a factor in oceanic primary production, but plays a great role in terrestrial production. Lack of water is the main limit on primary production on the Earth’s surface.
Where is upwelling most likely to occur?
Upwelling is most common along
the west coast of continents
(eastern sides of ocean basins). In the Northern Hemisphere, upwelling occurs along west coasts (e.g., coasts of California, Northwest Africa) when winds blow from the north (causing Ekman transport of surface water away from the shore).
What causes the upwelling of deeper cold waters in the equatorial zone of the oceans?
Upwelling is a result of winds and the rotation of the Earth. The Earth rotates on its axis from west to east. … The Coriolis effect also causes upwelling in the open ocean near the Equator.
Trade winds at the Equator
blow surface water both north and south, allowing upwelling of deeper water.
