Mexico CICESE Discovers Unique Subsurface Upwelling

Researchers of Mexico CICESE announced the discovery of a subsurface upwelling in the basin of Baja California. The leader of the investigation Jose Gomez Valdes of the Center of Scientific Investigation and Superior Education of Ensenada CICESE explained the importance of the finding.

“No oceanographic investigation at international level has observed that this (upwelling dynamics) occurs in the subsurface (of the ocean),” Gomez stated.

El Occidental of Mexico was one of the few media that reported on February 25th on the discovery of the subsurface upwelling.

The news of the finding of the CICESE investigation did not receive massive international nor local coverage despite its importance. The discovery passed inadvertent perhaps due to the complexity and specificity of the issues involved.

Those who need no translation, understand the terms upwelling, the ecological, environmental and the ocean resource implications eye the news for its potential in breaking through into a new process of upwelling, one which occurs at deeper depths.

From an environmental, ecological, biomass, natural resources and other aspects upwellings are the real gold mine flux of the oceans.Their richness is estimated yearly by international fishing companies and scientific communities -its value exceed billions of dollars per year.

It is in the regions where upwellings take place that unique environments form and metamorphosis. It is in these areas were also unique ecological relationship surge between the thousands of species which depend on their existence on these abiotic upwelling factors. Global fishing markets which in turn feed global human populations thrive on the aspects of upwellings.

While the definition of upwelling is well established, subsurface upwelling is not even in the dictionary yet. Questions begin to rise, do upwelling type dynamics occur at lower depths? Is wind the only agent capable of inducing upwellings creating plankton blooms? Do similar subsurface upwellings as the one discovered in Mexico take place in other regions of the world? Have they been identified? Have they been studied? The Mexican CICESE group calls for the international community to verify the finding.

Leader of the research Gomez Valdes explained that through observation researchers of the CICESE detected the now called and newly discovered phenomenon “subsurface upwellings”.

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ocean Service explains that the process of upwelling occurs when “deep, cold waters rise towards the surface”. The mixing of the layers of cold and hot waters through complex cycling basically creates a microorganism bloom -plankton and such. The bloom of plankton -which migrates daily up and down the vertical column of water in search of the sun acts as the building blocks for the biological energy in which thousands of species prey a rich trophic ocean web is formed, perhaps among the richest environment on Earth. From larger microorganic predatory species to fish, tuna, marine seals, sharks, manta rays, whale sharks and even airborne species such as marine birds which skydive in location for the hunt as well as several other populations some which migrate hundreds of miles just to feed on the upwelling locations belong to this web.

“Water that rises to the surface as a result of upwelling is typically colder and is rich in nutrients. These nutrients “fertilize” surface waters, meaning that these surface waters often have high biological productivity. Therefore, good fishing grounds typically are found where upwelling is common.” NOAA explains.

Locations known for homing subsurface upwellings include Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico and other countries internationally recognized as fishing market king locations.

Mexico researchers assure that while rich marine ecological webs are linked directly to upwelling locations it was believed -until now that upwelling conditions only took place in superficial waters.

“It has now been demonstrated that this takes place in the subsurface of the north ocean of Baja California 150 meters below surface waters,” the research concluded.

Gomez Valdes -also member of the Mexican Academy of Science revealed that the purpose of the investigation was to gain insight on the operation of this type of upwelling phenomenon in this particular time of the year where moderate wind conditions exist -due to the importance of winds linked to upwellings.

“We observed that when upwellings rise in the coastal areas of Baja California they generated two vertical circulations,” CICESE adds that the first circulation is known and takes place superficially and the other is the recently discovered and takes place below surface waters.

“The origin is yet motive of investigation, the novelty was to find two oceanic currents, one flowing south-north and the other north-south, manifesting a subsurface circulation,” researchers detailed. The team concluded that the waters are filled with nutrient including nitrate and phosphates. Nutrients, phytoplankton, sun or sources of energy, trigger the activation of the trophic chains of the oceans. CICESE called for the international community to corroborate the finding.

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