Fig. 18

Submesoscale nutrient flux. A time series of a scatterplot of the product of w and inorganic N for all spatial points at 50 m depth in the California current in the region 20–200 km offshore. A submesoscale-permitting simulation (\(dx = 1\) km; red) shows much greater variability than a mesoscale-resolving one (\(dx = 4\) km; blue). In this eastern-boundary upwelling system, both simulations have a mean \(\overline{w'N'} < 0\), indicating “eddy quenching”, i.e., a reduction in primary productivity by burial of unconsumed nutrients by eddy fluxes along the descending isopycnal surfaces. The SMCs enhance \(\overline{w'N'}\) by about 40% in this comparison (Kessouri et al. 2019).