Summary
The upwelling of iron-rich Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW) is thought to be critical for primary production in the Southern Ocean, since iron has been shown to be a limiting factor in what is otherwise a high nutrient region. The position and strength of UCDW upwelling is related to large-scale meridional hydrodynamics and this then affects the regional ecosystem response. Decadal scale changes in the meridional circulation may be linked to changes in the westerly winds, which drive the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, where UCDW upwells. Physical parameters are obtained from the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) dataset, a reanalysis of ocean climate variability, which comes from a state forecast produced by a general circulation model, based on Parallel Ocean Program (POP) numerics. Data, such as upwelling velocity, position of upwelling, temperature and mixed layer depth will be presented and their connection to trends in the upwelling of UCDW will be discussed.