The new wave of oceanographers: Melly Lauze
Master’s degree in Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution looking for a PhD position in marine biodiversity conservation.
BioSWOT- Med Blog
Publication: Disentangling noise and signal contributions in SWOT sea level data to improve surface current estimation
Drawing on fine-scale surface dynamics observed during a large drifter experiment in the Western Mediterranean Sea, a recent study assessed the quality of SWOT sea level measurements acquired during the 1-day repeat orbit phase. This work establishes a benchmark for extending SWOT sea level assessments to the global ocean.
Song: The eddy melody
“La mélodie du tourbillon” is a musical poem inspired by research on eddies in the Mediterranean Sea. It was produced by Tomasi Record and released on the 3rd anniversary of the BioSWOT-Med campaign.
Publication: SWOT-guided sampling reveals distinct phytoplankton communities within a fine-scale front
An adaptive, multidisciplinary sampling strategy across a fine-scale front in the North Balearic Sea revealed distinct phytoplankton communities within the front. Results underscore the role of fine-scale variability in maintaining community heterogeneity, suggesting that fronts may act as refuges for non-dominant phytoplankton groups in moderately energetic, oligotrophic conditions.
Video: “Fabuleuses Rencontres”
The animated video "Fabuleuse Rencontres" - currently available in French - focuses on some of the first scientific findings of the BioSWOT-Med campaign, which investigated what drives phytoplankton diversity at fine scales in the Mediterranean Sea.
Publication: SWOT helps revealing the role of fine-scale eddies in nutrient redistribution in oligotrophic waters
A study published on Geophysical Research Letters shows that in the North Western Mediterranean Sea, fine-scale eddies can contribute to redistribution of nutrients across distinct scales, first by their accumulation deep inside the eddy and then through lateral diffusion outside it. With climate change, the oligotrophic conditions typical of the Mediterranean Sea are expected to expand in the global ocean and results from this work represents an important contribution in understanding the evolution of biogeochemical processes in the future.
Challenging physical and biological assumptions on the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems in low energy/ low nutrient concentration
The BioSWOT-Med cruise was the main study site for CNES during SWOT fast-sampling phase. Guided by early SWOT images, it located a fine-scale front in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea and adopted an adaptive Langrangian sampling strategy to gather an unprecedented high-resolution dataset of physical and biological variables across and within the front as well as in a nearby fine-scale eddy. The first four scientific papers from the cruise challenge assumptions about the physical and biological functioning of marine ecosystemsin low energy and low nutrient conditions. Results might apply to the other oligotrophic and moderately energetic regions of the global ocean and provide indication for future developments of earth system models and biogeochemical models.
Publication: SWOT reveals that fine-scale eddies are as efficient as larger and more energetic structures in modulating turbulence in the ocean interior
Using data collected during SWOT fast-sampling phase, a new study shows that fine-scale eddies (<100 km) in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea are as efficient as large and intense structures found in western boundary currents and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current system in transferring wind energy into the ocean interior. These findings might apply to the rest of the global ocean characterized by low energy and thus provide a new challenge to parameterize this process in Earth system models.
Publication: Uncovering the relationship between ephemeral fine-scale oceanic fronts and phytoplankton community composition using a statistical modeling approach
A new study developed a generative statistical approach to reanalyse a scarce and highly variable phytoplankton dataset collected in a frontal zone in the South of the Balearic Islands in 2018. The method will be applied to larger datasets, including both global satellite analyses and in situ data (nutrients, fluxes, phytoplankton, zooplankton and grazing rates) such as those acquired during the BioSWOT-Med campaign.
Investigating zooplankton at SWOT scales in the NW Mediterranean: a legacy of François Carlotti
The first detailed investigation of zooplankton distribution at fine scales in the North Balearic Front has been published in Biogeosciences. The work was carried out during the BioSWOT-Med cruise under the coordination of François Carlotti. Francois, who passed away earlier this January, has been a pioneer in the study of zooplankton from the polar oceans to the Mediterranean Sea.