Patchiness of plankton communities at fronts explained by Lagrangian history of upwelled water parcels

Patchiness of plankton communities at fronts explained by Lagrangian history of upwelled water parcels | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Patchiness of plankton communities at fronts explained by Lagrangian history of upwelled water parcels Shailja Gangrade, Inès Mangolte This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4250467/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The transport of plankton by highly dynamic (sub)mesoscale currents–-often associated with fronts and eddies–-shapes the structure of plankton communities on the same time scales as biotic processes, such as growth and predation. The resulting bio-physical couplings generate heterogeneities in their finescale distributions (1-10 km), or "patchiness." Here, we test the hypothesis that cross-frontal plankton patchiness at a front found 200-250 km offshore in the California Current System was influenced by wind-driven upwelling conditions upstream of the front. We show that in situ Eulerian measurements (cross-frontal transects) can be interpreted in a Lagrangian framework by using satellite-derived current velocities to trace water parcels backward in time to their coastal origins. We find that the majority of the water parcels sampled at this front originated along the central California coast during different episodic wind-driven upwelling pulses and followed various trajectories before converging temporarily at the front. In response to nutrient injections at the coast, plankton communities transformed during their journeys from the coast to the sampling zone, with a succession of phytoplankton and zooplankton blooms. The cross-frontal sampling captured the convergence of these distinct water parcels at different points in their biological histories, which resulted in the observed spatial patchiness. Our results suggest that identifying the processes controlling frontal plankton communities requires understanding them in the context of their spatial and temporal histories, rather than as two-dimensional responses to local frontal processes. In particular, Lagrangian approaches should be more widely applied to understand critical ecological patterns in highly dynamic systems. Oceanography plankton patchiness convergence front Lagrangian backtracking upwelling ecology transport Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files GangradeMangolteLO9April2024submitedSupportingInformation.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4250467","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":289971529,"identity":"8b2ac3b8-f6ed-4b47-b3cd-e1e868df6a9a","order_by":0,"name":"Shailja Gangrade","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAzElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBADxn4QyQNkNBCtZWYDyVo2HCBWi3z/4mcPv+6xk918I/nxhzcMNrJgvfiAwY1n5sYyz5KNt91IM5Ocw5BmTFiLxAEzaYkDzInbbuSwMfMwHE4kqEV+xvFvQC31iZtn5DB/5mH4T1gLw/keM8kPB4CGS+QwSPMwHCCsxeAGT5k0w4HjxjPOPAP6xSDZeCZBh/Uf3yb540C1bH87KMQq7GT7CDpMIoEB6Gu4pYSUgwD/AQbGH8QoHAWjYBSMgpELAK5lSMYWmU20AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shailja","middleName":"","lastName":"Gangrade","suffix":""},{"id":289971530,"identity":"5756bbfb-39ec-4043-894a-88c5a00557c8","order_by":1,"name":"Inès Mangolte","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0358-844X","institution":"Institut de Recherche pour le Développement","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Inès","middleName":"","lastName":"Mangolte","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-04-11 06:03:56","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4250467/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4250467/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":54589215,"identity":"c9bdf396-997a-459a-98d9-290319d0f6a5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-04-12 16:37:31","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":7610610,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"GangradeMangolteLO9April2024submited.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4250467/v1_covered_f508a63e-6c6a-4d5b-9c29-49beb1420b0a.pdf"},{"id":54588741,"identity":"6d0a5d89-50a8-4ead-bfb3-c89127f72e6c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-04-12 16:29:14","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":4537132,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"GangradeMangolteLO9April2024submitedSupportingInformation.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4250467/v1/14d3895ad3d307f33a67b7df.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003ePatchiness of plankton communities at fronts explained by Lagrangian history of upwelled water parcels\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Scripps Institution of Oceanography","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"plankton, patchiness, convergence, front, Lagrangian, backtracking, upwelling, ecology, transport","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4250467/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4250467/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe transport of plankton by highly dynamic (sub)mesoscale currents–-often associated with fronts and eddies–-shapes the structure of plankton communities on the same time scales as biotic processes, such as growth and predation. The resulting bio-physical couplings generate heterogeneities in their finescale distributions (1-10 km), or \"patchiness.\" Here, we test the hypothesis that cross-frontal plankton patchiness at a front found 200-250 km offshore in the California Current System was influenced by wind-driven upwelling conditions upstream of the front. We show that \u003cem\u003ein situ\u003c/em\u003e Eulerian measurements (cross-frontal transects) can be interpreted in a Lagrangian framework by using satellite-derived current velocities to trace water parcels backward in time to their coastal origins. We find that the majority of the water parcels sampled at this front originated along the central California coast during different episodic wind-driven upwelling pulses and followed various trajectories before converging temporarily at the front. 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