Submesoscale Spirals Fuel Island-Wake Chlorophyll Blooms

Yingzhi Xu1, Hongyang Lin1, Zhiyu Liu1
1State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University

Submesoscale vortices induced by flow-island interactions play a key role in generating regional enhanced biological productivity. In particular, high-resolution satellite images reveal elevated surface chlorophyll concentrations aligned with spiral-shaped filaments along the eddy peripheries. Here we conduct high-resolution, non-hydrostatic idealized simulations that can well resolve flow-island interactions by reproducing the shed submesoscale coherent vortices and the associated spiral bands. Diagnosed analysis suggests that the spiral structures are manifestations of vortex Rossby waves (VRWs) and correspond well with intense vertical velocities and vigorous submesoscale instabilities, particularly centrifugal instability. This coupling further amplifies vertical mixing and accelerates tracer homogenization. Together, VRW-driven spiral dynamics and submesoscale processes forge an efficient and previously underappreciated pathway that links island-flow interactions to enhanced biological productivity, a phenomenon also known as Island Mass Effect.