Multi-Scale Ocean Dynamical Processes and Their Climatic, Ecological and Sedimentological Effects in the Eastern Indian Ocean

In the East Indian Ocean, there is a triangle region enclosed by the Ninety-east Ridge (NER), West Australian Ridge (WAR), and the Indonesian Archipelago. The warmer and fresher Pacific and South China Sea (SCS) waters are transported to the EIO by the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF). The circumpolar deep waters intrude into the EIO and then spill over the deep saddles on the NER, providing colder, oxygen-richer deep waters to the Central Indian Ocean. In addition, the EIO region exhibits multi-scale ocean dynamical processes, e.g., the monsoon driven ocean circulation, upwelling, and energetic eddies. The unique bottom topography along the NER also tends to induce complicated abyssal dynamical processes. These basin-scale water exchanges and multi-scale dynamics play significant roles in the EIO in terms of properties and movements for the entire water column, which in turn influence the climate, marine ecology, and biology, as well as sediment transport that reflects rapid changes from the point of view of paleoceanography and paleoclimatology. As the EIO exists as one of the world’s most economically important fishing area and is recognized as critical in the regional and global climate system (e.g., Indian Ocean Dipole, Ningaloo Niño, marine heatwave hotspot), it is therefore highlighted to promote systematically in-depth and multidisciplinary investigations to extend our knowledge of ocean dynamics and their climatic and ecological effects in the EIO.

The focus of this Research Topic is on studies that use observations or numerical models, particularly the combination of both, to explore the ocean dynamics and their impacts on climate, marine ecosystem, and sediment, with particular focus on the inter-basin exchange of water mass and energy flux across the Indonesian Archipelago and NER, and cross-scale interactions among mixing, eddy, and circulation in the EIO.

We invite article submissions on the following topics:

• Multi-scale ocean dynamical processes (e.g., mixing, mesoscale eddy, internal wave, oceanic front, upwelling, ocean circulation, and water mass) in the EIO and along the NER.
• Inter-basin water exchange across the Indonesian Archipelago and NER.
• Abyssal and near-bottom ocean dynamics along the NER.
• Climatic, ecological, and sedimentological effects of the multi-scale ocean dynamical processes in the EIO.