ATLAS DEL MAR PATAGÓNICO
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Currents, winds, tides, differences in salinity or temperature, create vertical mixing of the waters, thus favouring the ascent to the surface of nutrientrich waters.

Oceanographic regimes of the Patagonian Sea, oceanic areas with distinctive and relatively stable characteristics: Río de la Plata, Magellan, El Rincón, Shelf, Subtropical, Sub-Antarctic-Subtropical, Sub-Antarctic, Slope, and Polar.

Data contributed by A. Piola (SHN-UBA-CONICET, Argentina). Synthesis of the Conservation Status of the Patagonian Sea and Areas of Influence (2008).


© Eugenia Zavattieri
© Eugenia Zavattieri Zoning by regimes

Oceanographic Regimes

Based on the properties of surface waters (temperature and salinity), vertical stratification, ocean fronts and marine circulation, it is possible to identify oceanographic regimes:

Río de la Plata, Magellan and El Rincón regimes, associated with discharges of fresh or low salinity waters.

Shelf, waters of sub-Antarctic origin diluted by continental discharge.

Subtropical, warm and highly saline waters from the Brazil Current.

Sub-Antarctic-Subtropical, transition zone by the collision between the Brazil and the Malvinas Current.

Sub-Antarctic, cold waters, low in salinity and with a high nutrient concentration. It includes the Slope Front, narrow transition between the sub-Antarctic waters of the continental shelf and the western edge of the waters from the Malvinas Current.

Polar, cold waters (< 4 ºC), with low salinity and high nutrient concentration.

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