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Linear and nonlinear internal waves are widespread phenomena with important implications for the ocean's ecology. Here, we review the biological impacts of non-breaking internal waves for three broad categories of organisms: sessile organisms, passive plankton, and depth-keeping plankton. We use heuristic simulations to contrast the effects of passing internal waves for each of these groups. In the case of irradiance, an isobaric quantity, light availability is only modulated for passive plankton. Wave-induced horizontal transport enhances this effect, because transport in the direction of wave propagation implies that passive plankton spend longer within each wave. This is true for both linear waves, where horizontal transport is due exclusively to Stokes drift, as well as for weakly nonlinear waves, where transport arises from both nonlinearity and Stokes drift. In the case of depth-keeping plankton, a similar effect is seen for isopycnal properties. In a simple example, where we set the vertical distribution of temperature to match that of density, wave-induced horizontal transport alters the overall water temperatures depth-keeping plankton are exposed to. These results emphasize that horizontal transport within internal waves is not only important to dispersal but also modulates the effects of wave-induced vertical disturbances on plankton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Equatorial Current (NEC) transports water westward around numerous islands and over submarine ridges in the western Pacific. As the currents flow over and around this topography, the central question is: how are momentum and energy in the incident flow transferred to finer scales? At the south point of Peleliu Island, Palau, a combination of strong NEC currents and tides flow over a steep, submarine ridge. Energy cascades suddenly from the NEC via the 1 km scale lee waves and wake eddies to turbulence. These submesoscale wake eddies are observed every tidal cycle, and also in model simulations. As the flow in each eddy recirculates and encounters the incident flow again, the associated front contains interleaving temperature (T) structures with 1-10 m horizontal extent. Turbulent dissipation (e) exceeds 10-5 W kg-1 along this tilted and strongly sheared front. A train of such submesoscale eddies can be seen at least 50 km downstream. Internal lee waves with 1 km wavelengths are also observed over the submarine ridge. The mean form drag exerted by the waves (i.e., upward transport of eastward momentum) of about 1 Pa is sufficient to substantially reduce the westward NEC, if not for other forcing, and is greater than the turbulent bottom drag of about 0.1 Pa. The effect on the incident flow of the form drag from only one submarine ridge may be similar to the bottom drag along the entire coastline of Palau. The observed e is also consistent with local dissipation of lee wave energy. The circulation, including lee waves and wake eddies, was simulated by a datadriven primitive equation ocean model. The model estimates of the form drags exerted by pressure drops across the submarine ridge and due to wake eddies were found to be about 10 times higher than the lee wave and turbulent bottom drags. The ridge form drag was correlated to both the tidal flow and winds while the submesoscale wake eddy drag was mainly tidal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure and variability of upper-ocean properties in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) modulate air-sea interactions, which profoundly influence the pattern and intensity of monsoonal precipitation across the Indian subcontinent. In turn, the bay receives a massive amount of freshwater through river input at its boundaries and from heavy local rainfall, leading to a salinity-stratified surface ocean and shallow mixed layers. Small-scale oceanographic processes that drive variability in near-surface BoB waters complicate the tight coupling between ocean and atmosphere implicit in this seasonal feedback. Unraveling these ocean dynamics and their impact on airsea interactions is critical to improving the forecasting of intraseasonal variability in the southwest monsoon. To that end, we deployed a wave-powered, rapidly profiling system capable of measuring the structure and variability of the upper 100 m of the BoB. The evolution of upper-ocean structure along the trajectory of the instrument's roughly two-week drift, along with direct estimates of vertical fluxes of salt and heat, permit assessment of the contributions of various phenomena to temporal and spatial variability in the surface mixed layer depth. Further, these observations suggest that the particular "barrier-layer" stratification found in the BoB may decrease the influence of the wind on mixing processes in the interior, thus isolating the upper ocean from the interior below, and tightening its coupling to the atmosphere above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bay of Bengal (BoB), a semi-enclosed basin in the northern Indian Ocean, is a complex region with large freshwater inputs and strong vertical stratification that result in a shallow, spatially variable mixed layer. With the exception of shortwave insolation, the air-sea heat exchange occurs at the sea surface and is vertically redistributed by mixing and advection. Strongly stratified, shallow mixed layers inhibit vertical mixing, and the penetration of solar radiation through the base of the mixed layer can lead to redistribution of upper-ocean heat. This paper compiles observations of hyperspectral downwelling irradiance (Ed) from 67 profiles collected during six research cruises in the BoB that span a broad range of regions and seasons between 2009 and 2014. We report attenuation length scales computed using double and single exponential models and quantify the penetration of radiative flux below the mixed layer depth (Qpen). We then evaluate estimates of Qpen obtained from published chlorophyll-based models and compare them to our observations. We find that the largest penetrative heat flux (up to 40% of the incident Ed) occurs near 16°N where the mixed layers are shallow and the water is optically clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a part of the US Air-Sea Interactions Regional Initiative, the first extensive set of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate (e) measurements from microstructure profilers were obtained in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) and around Sri Lanka during 2013-2015. The observations span almost 1,200 km meridionally, and capture the dynamics associated with a variety of mesoscale and submesoscale features. High freshwater input in the northern part of the basin leads to regions of intense near-surface stratification, which become weaker moving south. The thin layers trap mechanical energy input from the atmosphere, often confining turbulence to the surface boundary layer. These thin layers can form shallow fronts, which at times resemble turbulent gravity currents (Sarkar et al., 2016, in this issue), and are associated with high levels of mixing. Away from the local frontal zones, turbulence in the surface low-salinity layer appears to be decoupled from the underlying pycnocline, where turbulence occurs only in rare and sporadic breaking events. A striking feature common to all of the data acquired is a dearth of turbulent mixing at depth, a condition that appears to be pervasive throughout the basin except during the passage of tropical storms. It is likely that the strong near-surface stratification effectively isolates the deeper water column from mechanical penetration of atmospheric energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upper-ocean turbulent heat fluxes in the Bay of Bengal and the Arctic Ocean drive regional monsoons and sea ice melt, respectively, important issues of societal interest. In both cases, accurate prediction of these heat transports depends on proper representation of the small-scale structure of vertical stratification, which in turn is created by a host of complex submesoscale processes. Though half a world apart and having dramatically different temperatures, there are surprising similarities between the two: both have (1) very fresh surface layers that are largely decoupled from the ocean below by a sharp halocline barrier, (2) evidence of interleaving lateral and vertical gradients that set upper-ocean stratification, and (3) vertical turbulent heat fluxes within the upper ocean that respond sensitively to these structures. However, there are clear differences in each ocean's horizontal scales of variability, suggesting that despite similar background states, the sharpening and evolution of mesoscale gradients at convergence zones plays out quite differently. Here, we conduct a qualitative and statistical comparison of these two seas, with the goal of bringing to light fundamental underlying dynamics that will hopefully improve the accuracy of forecast models in both parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]