On the Role of Western Boundary Currents to Fertilize Adjacent Continental Shelves at Interannual Scales: a Case Study in the Southwestern Atlantic

On the Role of Western Boundary Currents to Fertilize Adjacent Continental Shelves at Interannual Scales: a Case Study in the Southwestern Atlantic | Authorea try { document.documentElement.classList.add('js'); } catch (e) { } var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'G-8VDV14Y67G']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Skip to main content Preprints Collections Wiley Open Research IET Open Research Ecological Society of Japan All Collections About About Authorea FAQs Contact Us Quick Search anywhere Search for preprint articles, keywords, etc. Search Search ADVANCED SEARCH SCROLL This is a preprint and has not been peer reviewed. Data may be preliminary. 4 November 2025 V1 Latest version Share on On the Role of Western Boundary Currents to Fertilize Adjacent Continental Shelves at Interannual Scales: a Case Study in the Southwestern Atlantic Authors : Carola Ferronato 0000-0002-5189-6746 [email protected] , Martin Saraceno 0000-0002-5657-4420 , and Valeria Ana Guinder 0000-0002-3852-9570 Authors Info & Affiliations https://doi.org/10.22541/au.176229347.74817124/v1 Published Geophysical Research Letters Version of record Peer review timeline 143 views 78 downloads Contents Abstract Supplementary Material Information & Authors Metrics & Citations View Options References Figures Tables Media Share Abstract Exchanges between continental shelves and open ocean basins regulate the transport of heat, salt, and nutrients. In the Southwestern Atlantic, the western boundary current known as the Malvinas Current (MC) fertilizes the outer shelf through recurrent slope-water intrusions. Here we analyze the 2003–2024 interannual variability of satellite chlorophyll-a around 41°S, where the inflection of the 100-m isobath promotes these incursions. The first Empirical Orthogonal Function mode explains 43% of the variance and exhibits a spatial pattern consistent with the MC intrusion zone. Backward Lagrangian simulations reveal that low-chlorophyll periods correspond to waters advected by the onshore MC jet, whereas high-chlorophyll years are linked to offshore-origin parcels richer in nutrients. Sea-level anomaly composites indicate that mesoscale eddies near 40°S can block or deflect the MC, favoring intrusions onto the shelf. These results provide new quantitative evidence that variability in boundary-current pathways drives interannual changes in phytoplankton biomass over continental shelves. Supplementary Material File (1052718_0_merged_1761578083.pdf) Download 1.40 MB File (agu_ferronato_et_al_grl.docx) Download 2.71 MB File (agu_ferronato_et_al_grl_suppinfo.docx) Download 6.08 MB Information & Authors Information Version history V1 Version 1 04 November 2025 Peer review timeline Published Geophysical Research Letters Version of Record 8 Feb 2026 Published Copyright This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Keywords algal blooms intrusions lagrangian analysis malvinas current satellite choroplhyll Authors Affiliations Carola Ferronato 0000-0002-5189-6746 [email protected] Instituto Argentino de Oceanografia View all articles by this author Martin Saraceno 0000-0002-5657-4420 Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmosfera (CIMA/CONICET-UBA) and Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmosfera y los Oceanos, FCEN, Universidad de Buenos Aires View all articles by this author Valeria Ana Guinder 0000-0002-3852-9570 Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía (IADO), CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS) View all articles by this author Metrics & Citations Metrics Article Usage 143 views 78 downloads .FvxKWukQNSOunydq8rnd { width: 100px; } Citations Download citation Carola Ferronato, Martin Saraceno, Valeria Ana Guinder. On the Role of Western Boundary Currents to Fertilize Adjacent Continental Shelves at Interannual Scales: a Case Study in the Southwestern Atlantic. Authorea . 04 November 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22541/au.176229347.74817124/v1 If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download. For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu . 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