Fig. 4

The difference of 5-year wintertime mean vertical eddy fluxes averaged within the Kuroshio extension region. a Shows the difference of eddy buoyancy fluxes (\(w^{\prime}b^{\prime}\)) between CTRL and noU_e (blue line) and that between CTRL and noU_tot (red line). b Is similar to a but for eddy heat fluxes (\(\rho_{0} C_{\text{p}} w^{\prime}T^{\prime}\), \(C_{\text{p}}\) = 4000 J kg⁻¹ °C⁻¹ is the ocean heat capacity). The grey lines represent zero