Atlantic Ocean Upwelling

An Integrative Research Focus (IRF) of GEOMAR

Multidisciplinary research on natural and societal systems in tropical upwelling regimes enables assessment of future fisheries and economic potential, conservation strategies and climate connections. Tropical upwelling regions play an active role in climate and oceanic biogeochemical cycles as well as supporting the most productive ocean food chains. They support the largest fisheries of the world and are home to a biodiverse marine environment. Anthropogenic impacts in these regions will therefore have disproportionately large consequences for human society. Climate change, fishing pressure and pollution will alter the tropical upwelling systems in the future.

However, despite intense research activities in the past, process understanding in upwelling regions spanning the physical, biogeochemical, ecological and geological systems and their interactions remains poor. For example, model projections indicate that climate change could strongly impact the intensity of upwelling in these systems, but there is low confidence in even the sign of these changes.