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The Equatorial Pacific is an oceanic province characterized by nearly year-round upwelling due to the convergence of trade winds from the northeast and southeast at the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The Equatorial Pacific spans nearly half of Earth’s circumference and plays a major role in global marine new primary production. [25]
Upwelling occurs near the Galapagos Islands. This brings food supplies to the surface for Galápagos penguin. Upwelling, however, is a sporadic phenomenon; it fails to occur on a regular basis, and so the food supply comes and goes. The penguins have several adaptations to cope with this, including versatility in their breeding habits.
Upwelling (i.e. reduced sea level) associated with Rossby waves on the Pacific side reduces the Pacific-to-Indian pressure gradient and reduces the ITF. Interannual variability of Indian Ocean westerlies acts in the same manner as the seasonal equatorial Kelvin waves to reduce the normal westward ITF flow as well.
Upwelling intensity depends on wind strength and seasonal variability, as well as the vertical structure of the water, variations in the bottom bathymetry, and instabilities in the currents. In some areas, upwelling is a seasonal event leading to periodic bursts of productivity similar to spring blooms in coastal waters. Wind-induced upwelling ...
The replacing upwelling water will be colder than the surrounding surface waters, again creating a strong vertical gradient in temperature that leads to the formation of a front. [2] As the location of the trade winds varies seasonally, the location of the equatorial upwelling front does so as well. [25]
In the Pacific Ocean, the increase of stratification in the eastern equatorial has found to be greater than in the western equatorial. [1] This is likely to be linked to the weakening of the trade winds and reduced upwelling in the eastern Pacific, which can be explained by the weakening of the Walker circulation. [1]
This also creates ocean upwelling off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador and brings nutrient-rich cold water to the surface, increasing fishing stocks. [10] The western side of the equatorial Pacific is characterized by warm, wet, low-pressure weather as the collected moisture is dumped in the form of typhoons and thunderstorms. The ocean is some ...
The Equatorial Counter Current is an eastward flowing, wind-driven current which extends to depths of 100–150 metres (330–490 ft) in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. More often called the North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC) , this current flows west-to-east at about 3-10°N in the Atlantic , Indian Ocean and Pacific basins ...