Exchange processes over a Middle Atlantic bight shelfbreak canyon

A synoptic oceanographic study was conducted in August 1978 at the Middle Atlantic shelfbreak along the shelf-slope front and over the Wilmington Canyon. Four masses (surface, cold pool, shelf, and slope waters) were identified from nutrients and hydrographic variables. Also identified were two pycnocline mixing regimes; one between cold pool and slope waters across the inverted thermocline at the bottom of the cold bool protruding off the shelf, and the other directly across the summer thermocline between slope and shelf waters seaward of the cold pool. These two distinct mixing regimes appear to provide some of the common means for water exchange across the shelf-slope front. The associated mixing may be promoted by the circulation and mixing anomalies induced over canyon topographies. Physical data suggested a cyclonic flow pattern over the Wilmington Canyon, with warm slope water moving up its axis and cold pool water moving off its southwest flank. The above water masses were best identified chemically on the basis of oxygen saturation due to the high apparent photosynthesis at the shelf-slope front. This high primary productivity at the front seems linked to the cold pool and its nutrient supplies.