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Summer phytoplankton blooms and red tides along tidal fronts in the approaches to the English Channel

Abstract

Tidal mixing on the continental shelf in the South-western Approaches to the English Channel produces a situation in the summer where within a few miles the warmer surface water becomes completely mixed with the underlying colder water. These frontal boundaries may be followed for 100 nautical miles. By combining physical and biological oceanographic disciplines it has become clear that these boundaries are the sites of phytoplankton blooms which, in favourable conditions, may develop into red tides.

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Pingree, R., Pugh, P., Holligan, P. et al. Summer phytoplankton blooms and red tides along tidal fronts in the approaches to the English Channel. Nature 258, 672–677 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/258672a0

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