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The origin of the Mediterranean Outflow is investigated by deploying six millions virtual Lagrangian parcels at the Strait of Gibraltar, and tracing them backward in time using velocity estimates from an eddy‐permitting reanalysis. The Lagrangian parcels are followed until they intercept one of three sections. The hypothesis is that each section is associated with distinct water masses: the Gulf of Lions, related to Western Mediterranean Deep Water and Western Intermediate Water, carries 86% of the Outflow's transport; the Northern Tyrrhenian, related to Tyrrhenian Deep and Intermediate Waters, carries 1% of the transport; the Strait of Sicily, related to Levantine Intermediate Waters, carries 13% of the transport. The median transit times from the sections to the Strait of Gibraltar range from 5 years (Gulf of Lions) to 8 years (Strait of Sicily). Plain Language Summary Parcel trajectories are used to trace water masses from the Western Mediterranean Sea to the Mediterranean Sea outflow at the Strait of Gibraltar. The velocity advecting the parcels is an estimate combining observations with an ocean circulation model that conserves mass, momentum, temperature and salinity. It is found that 86% of the parcels in the Mediterranean Sea outflow originate from the Gulf of Lions, typically taking 5 years for the journey, while 13% originates from the Strait of Sicily, typically taking 8 years to complete the trip. Key Points Eighty‐six percent of Mediterranean outflow originates from the Gulf of Lions, and 13% originates from the Strait of Sicily These two components of the outflow have distinct T‐S distributions at the origin, but the distinction is lost when Gibraltar is reached Median transit times to the Strait of Gibraltar are 5 years from the Gulf of Lions and 8 years from the Strait of Sicily

The diabatic transformations of the middepth meridional overturning circulation (MOC) as it exits and reenters the South Atlantic to close the AMOC are studied using a state estimate assimilating data into a dynamically consistent ocean model. Virtual Lagrangian parcels in the lower branch of the MOC are followed in their global tour as they return to the upper branch of the MOC. Three return pathways are identified. The first pathway enters the abyssal Indo-Pacific as Circumpolar Deep Water, directly from the northern Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), and before sampling the Antarctic margin. The second pathway sinks to abyssal densities exclusively in the Southern Ocean, then upwells while circulating within the ACC and eventually enters the Indo-Pacific or Atlantic at mid- to upper depths. The third pathway never reaches densities in the abyssal range. Parcels sinking in the Antarctic Bottom Water range upwell to mid- to upper depths south of 55°S. Parcels in all three pathways experience additional diabatic transformations after upwelling in the Southern Ocean, with more diabatic changes north of about 30°S than elsewhere. Diabatic changes are predominantly in the mixed layer of the tropical and subpolar gyres, enabled by Ekman suction. A simple model of the wind-driven flow illustrates that parcels always reach the surface in the tropical and subpolar gyres, regardless of their initial condition, because of coupling among gyres, the Ekman transport, and its return.

Phytoplankton community composition plays a key role in oceanic productivity and in the biological carbon pump. A few in situ surveys documented the structuring role of fine-scale physical structures (1-100 km, day-weeks), such as fronts, on phytoplankton communities. These studies were primarily conducted in highly productive and dynamic regions rather than in oligotrophic and moderate energy conditions commonly found in the global ocean, partly due to challenges in tracking and sampling weaker fronts at high-resolution. Guided by novel SWOT (Surface Water Ocean Topography) altimetry, we used an adaptive and multidisciplinary strategy to conduct high-resolution sampling of a fine-scale front in the oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea. An unprecedented 24-hour continuous sampling within the front was crucial to unveiling a distinct frontal community, where the relative contribution of non-dominant phytoplankton groups increased relative to adjacent water masses. Our results statistically demonstrate that fine-scale features can enhance phytoplankton heterogeneity and community diversity in oligotrophic, moderately energetic regions. Non-dominant phytoplankton contribute more within the front than outside in the oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea, whereas dominant types show the opposite pattern, based on an adapted sampling strategy.

The origins of the upper limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and the partition among different routes has been quantified with models at eddy-permitting and one eddy-resolving model or with low-resolution models assimilating observations. Here, a step toward bridging this gap is taken by using the Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE) at the eddy-permitting 1/6° horizontal resolution to compute Lagrangian diagnostics from virtual particle trajectories advected between 6.7°S and two meridional sections: one at Drake Passage (cold route) and the other from South Africa to Antarctica (warm route). Our results agree with the prevailing concept attributing the largest transport contribution to the warm route with 12.3 Sv (88%) (1 Sv ≡ 10 6 m 3 s −1 ) compared with 1.7 Sv (12%) for the cold route. These results are compared with a similar Lagrangian experiment performed with the lower-resolution state estimate from Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean. Eulerian and Lagrangian means highlight an overall increase in the transport of the major South Atlantic currents with finer resolution, resulting in a relatively larger contribution from the cold route. In particular, the Malvinas Current to Antarctic Circumpolar Current (MC/ACC) ratio plays a more important role on the routes partition than the increased Agulhas Leakage. The relative influence of the mean flow versus the eddy flow on the routes partition is investigated by computing the mean and eddy kinetic energies and the Lagrangian-based eddy diffusivity. Lagrangian diffusivity estimates are largest in the Agulhas and Malvinas regions but advection by the mean flow dominates everywhere.

In contrast to the average low biological productivity across most of the Southern Ocean, the Kerguelen region is one of the few subantarctic regions to host massive phytoplankton blooms, extending hundreds of kilometers offshore. These blooms play a crucial role in the Southern Ocean carbon cycle and support a diverse ecosystem of patrimonial and commercial significance. The Kerguelen blooms are associated with a subsurface iron source that supplies surface waters both on the Plateau and offshore. The mechanisms of iron enrichment have only been partially elucidated. The resuspension of iron-enriched sediments over the Plateau, transported offshore by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, is one mechanism that has been studied in the past years. However, the Kerguelen Islands host a glacier system, and two of the outlet glaciers of Kerguelen's Cook Ice Cap are likely to provide iron-enriched lithogenic material downstream to the coastal waters of the Golfe des Baleiniers. Whether the circulation is able to connect the glacier outlets to the open ocean, and how much of the offshore bloom extension can be reached by glaciogenic iron is not known. Using in situ and satellite data, including observations from the recent SWOT satellite mission, we reconstruct the horizontal advection of iron and show that glaciogenic iron supply reaches up to one third of the spatial extent of the offshore bloom onset. These findings have significant implications in the context of ongoing ice cap mass loss and glacier retreat observed on Kerguelen and other Southern Ocean islands under climate change.

The physical and biogeochemical processes governing the air-sea CO.sub.2 flux in the Southern Ocean are still widely debated. The Southern Ocean Carbon and Heat Impact on Climate cruise in summer 2022 aimed at studying these processes in the Weddell Sea and in its vicinity. A CARbon Interface OCean Atmosphere (CARIOCA) drifting buoy was deployed in January 2022 in the subpolar Southern Ocean, providing hourly surface ocean observations of fCO.sub.2 (fugacity of CO.sub.2 ), dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature, and chlorophyll a fluorescence for 17 months. An underwater glider was piloted with the buoy for the first 6 weeks of the deployment to provide vertical ocean profiles of hydrography and biogeochemistry. These datasets reveal an anomalously strong ocean carbon sink for over 2 months, occurring in the region of Bouvet Island and associated with large plumes of chlorophyll a (Chl a). Based on Lagrangian backward trajectories reconstructed using various surface currents fields, we identified that the water mass reaching the Bouvet Island region originated from the southwest, from the vicinity of the sea ice edge in spring 2021. A strong phytoplankton bloom developed there in November 2021. We propose that it was promoted by early sea ice retreat in 2021 in the Weddell Sea. These waters, depleted in carbon, then traveled to the position of the CARIOCA buoy. The very low values of ocean fCO.sub.2, measured by the buoy (down to 310 µatm), are consistent with net community production previously observed during blooms occurring near the sea ice edge, partly compensated by air-sea CO.sub.2 flux along the water mass trajectory. Early sea ice retreat might therefore have caused a large CO.sub.2 sink farther north than usual in summer 2022, in the Atlantic sector of the subpolar Southern Ocean. Such events might become more frequent in the future as a result of climate change.

The physical and biogeochemical processes governing the air–sea CO2 flux in the Southern Ocean are still widely debated. The Southern Ocean Carbon and Heat Impact on Climate cruise in summer 2022 aimed at studying these processes in the Weddell Sea and in its vicinity. A CARbon Interface OCean Atmosphere (CARIOCA) drifting buoy was deployed in January 2022 in the subpolar Southern Ocean, providing hourly surface ocean observations of fCO2 (fugacity of CO2), dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature, and chlorophyll a fluorescence for 17 months. An underwater glider was piloted with the buoy for the first 6 weeks of the deployment to provide vertical ocean profiles of hydrography and biogeochemistry. These datasets reveal an anomalously strong ocean carbon sink for over 2 months, occurring in the region of Bouvet Island and associated with large plumes of chlorophyll a (Chl a). Based on Lagrangian backward trajectories reconstructed using various surface currents fields, we identified that the water mass reaching the Bouvet Island region originated from the southwest, from the vicinity of the sea ice edge in spring 2021. A strong phytoplankton bloom developed there in November 2021. We propose that it was promoted by early sea ice retreat in 2021 in the Weddell Sea. These waters, depleted in carbon, then traveled to the position of the CARIOCA buoy. The very low values of ocean fCO2, measured by the buoy (down to 310 µatm), are consistent with net community production previously observed during blooms occurring near the sea ice edge, partly compensated by air–sea CO2 flux along the water mass trajectory. Early sea ice retreat might therefore have caused a large CO2 sink farther north than usual in summer 2022, in the Atlantic sector of the subpolar Southern Ocean. Such events might become more frequent in the future as a result of climate change.

The physical and biogeochemical processes governing the air–sea CO2 flux in the Southern Ocean are still widely debated. The Southern Ocean Carbon and Heat Impact on Climate cruise in summer 2022 aimed at studying these processes in the Weddell Sea and in its vicinity. A CARbon Interface OCean Atmosphere (CARIOCA) drifting buoy was deployed in January 2022 in the subpolar Southern Ocean, providing hourly surface ocean observations of fCO2 (fugacity of CO2), dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature, and chlorophyll a fluorescence for 17 months. An underwater glider was piloted with the buoy for the first 6 weeks of the deployment to provide vertical ocean profiles of hydrography and biogeochemistry. These datasets reveal an anomalously strong ocean carbon sink for over 2 months, occurring in the region of Bouvet Island and associated with large plumes of chlorophyll a (Chl a). Based on Lagrangian backward trajectories reconstructed using various surface currents fields, we identified that the water mass reaching the Bouvet Island region originated from the southwest, from the vicinity of the sea ice edge in spring 2021. A strong phytoplankton bloom developed there in November 2021. We propose that it was promoted by early sea ice retreat in 2021 in the Weddell Sea. These waters, depleted in carbon, then traveled to the position of the CARIOCA buoy. The very low values of ocean fCO2, measured by the buoy (down to 310 µatm), are consistent with net community production previously observed during blooms occurring near the sea ice edge, partly compensated by air–sea CO2 flux along the water mass trajectory. Early sea ice retreat might therefore have caused a large CO2 sink farther north than usual in summer 2022, in the Atlantic sector of the subpolar Southern Ocean. Such events might become more frequent in the future as a result of climate change.

The temporal evolution of a surface chlorophyll a bloom sampled in the western tropical South Pacific during the 2015 Oligotrophy to UlTra-oligotrophy PACific Experiment (OUTPACE) cruise is examined. This region is usually characterized by largely oligotrophic conditions, i.e. low concentrations of inorganic nutrients at the surface and deep chlorophyll a maxima. Therefore, the presence of a surface bloom represents a significant perturbation from the mean ecological state. Combining in situ and remote sensing datasets, we characterize both the bloom's biogeochemical properties and the physical circulation responsible for structuring it. Biogeochemical observations of the bloom document the bloom itself, a subsequent decrease of surface chlorophyll a, significantly reduced surface phosphate concentrations relative to subtropical gyre water farther east, and a physical decoupling of chlorophyll a from a deep nitracline. All these characteristics are consistent with nitrogen fixation occurring within the bloom. The physical data suggest surface mesoscale circulation is the primary mechanism driving the bloom's advection, whereas balanced motions expected at submesoscales provide little contribution to observed flow. Together, the data provide a narrative where subtropical gyre water can produce significant chlorophyll a concentrations at the surface that is stirred, deformed, and transported great distances by the mesoscale circulation. In this case, for the time period considered, the transport is in an easterly direction, contrary to both the large-scale and mean mesoscale flow. As a result, future studies concerning surface production in the region need to take into account the role complex mesoscale structures play in redistributing subtropical gyre water.

The patterns of the large-scale, meso- and submesoscale surface circulation on biogeochemical and biological distributions are examined in the western tropical South Pacific (WTSP) in the context of the OUTPACE cruise (February–April 2015). Multi-disciplinary original in situ observations were achieved along a zonal transect through the WTSP and their analysis was coupled with satellite data. The use of Lagrangian diagnostics allows for the identification of water mass pathways, mesoscale structures, and submesoscale features such as fronts. In particular, we confirmed the existence of a global wind-driven southward circulation of surface waters in the entire WTSP, using a new high-resolution altimetry-derived product, validated by in situ drifters, that includes cyclogeostrophy and Ekman components with geostrophy. The mesoscale activity is shown to be responsible for counter-intuitive water mass trajectories in two subregions: (i) the Coral Sea, with surface exchanges between the North Vanuatu Jet and the North Caledonian Jet, and (ii) around 170∘ W, with an eastward pathway, whereas a westward general direction dominates. Fronts and small-scale features, detected with finite-size Lyapunov exponents (FSLEs), are correlated with 25 % of surface tracer gradients, which reveals the significance of such structures in the generation of submesoscale surface gradients. Additionally, two high-frequency sampling transects of biogeochemical parameters and microorganism abundances demonstrate the influence of fronts in controlling the spatial distribution of bacteria and phytoplankton, and as a consequence the microbial community structure. All circulation scales play an important role that has to be taken into account not only when analysing the data from OUTPACE but also, more generally, for understanding the global distribution of biogeochemical components.