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Schematic showing what happens when EUC encounters Jarvis Island.

Schematic showing what happens when EUC encounters Jarvis Island.
Schematic showing what happens when EUC encounters Jarvis Island.
Schematic showing what happens when EUC encounters Jarvis Island.
Schematic showing what happens when EUC encounters Jarvis Island.
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265349
Taylor, Eric S.
Schematic showing what happens when EUC encounters Jarvis Island.
Illustration
01/12/2016
Coral_EUC-A.jpg
Image Of the Day caption:
Jarvis Island is an uninhabited island on the equator in the mid-Pacific Ocean. As trade winds push warm surface waters west across the Pacific, the deep Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) transports cool water east. When the EUC hits Jarvis, some of its nutrient-rich waters upwell to the surface, fueling unusually high producitivey that sustains a vibrant coral reef ecosystem. WHOI scientist Anne Cohen investigates how the EUC protects coral reefs around equatorial Pacific islands as the ocean warms and becomes more acidic. Cohen and MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Alice Alpert examined coral skeletons for clues to past and future behavior of the EUC.
Caption from Oceanus magazine, Vol. 51, No. 2, pg. 49:
Where the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) encounters Jarvis Island, it creates small patches of cool, nutrient-rich water at the surface, which sustain healthy coral reef ecosystems. Coral skeletons record changes in their surrounding water, and therefore could contain records of changes in the EUC.
Illustration by Eric S. Taylor, WHOI Creative
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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