Sedimentation in the western Arabian Sea the role of coastal and open-ocean upwelling

Monsoon-induced coastal and open-ocean upwelling explain 84% of the variations of the organic carbon fluxes measured in the deep western Arabian Sea. In this paper, sea-level measurements, satellite-derived wind speeds, sea surface temperatures, and nutrient profiles are used to discern the relative importance of these factors on fluxes measured during nine years of continuous sediment trap deployments. This exercise shows: (i) the increase in fluxes observed during the initial stages of the SW monsoons are caused by open-ocean upwelling, which develops faster than the coastal upwelling; (ii) coastal upwelling triggers diatom blooms from nutrients from subsurface water and sediment resuspension and, more importantly, by injecting resting stages of diatoms back into the euphotic zone; (iii) silica depletion resulting from diatom blooms in laterally advecting water masses leads to a replacement of diatoms by other nitrate-limited organisms; (iv) organic carbon fluxes to the deep Arabian Sea increase in response to an intensification of both coastal and open-ocean upwelling; weak coastal upwelling and strong open-ocean upwelling also increase organic carbon fluxes. The varying dominance of their influence is reflected in the timing and the composition of the peak fluxes; (v) the link between organic carbon flux and monsoon strength is non-linear probably due to changes in the surface currents and to vigorous turbulence in the surface water during strong SW monsoons. These processes could reduce the organic carbon flux in the western Arabian Sea by about 65%. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.