The importance of wind in modulating Karenia brevis blooms along southwest coast of Florida: an observation-modeling synthesis
Abstract
The recurrent Karenia brevis bloom along the southwest coast of Florida produces aerosolized toxins that poses a respiratory health risk to humans. Here we report recent advances in understanding K. brevis bloom dynamics, combining in-situ observed cell counts, beach respiratory irritation reports, satellite-derived K. brevis detection, wind, and coupled physical-biological model simulations. Results show that wind plays an important role in modulating the bloom impacts in different ways. First, variations in the frequency of onshore wind can explain differences between respiratory irritation (beach reports) and blooms (cell counts). Second, stronger (weaker) wind-induced southerly transport has coincided with less (more) persistent bloom. Lastly, a case study using a coupled bio-physical model indicates that wind-induced vertical mixing can largely account for near-surface bloom variations as estimated by satellite (RBD product).
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMOS13D1537L
- Keywords:
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- 4299 General or miscellaneous;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL