Current Benguela

Fig. 1. Major oceanographic features 1. Canary Current, 2. Gulf Stream, 3. North Atlantic Current, 4. Sargasso Sea, 5. North Atlantic Gyre, 6. Labrador Current, 7. Loop Current, 8. North Pacific Gyre, 9. South Equatorial Current, 10. Benguela Current, 11. Humboldt Current, 12. Antilles Current, 13. Florida Current, 14. Brazil Current, 15. Kuroshio, 16. Antarctic West Wind Drift.

Over the past decade, plastic debris has become a common feature of beaches and coastal waters adjoining populated areas of Europe (36-38), the Mediterranean (39-41), North and Central America (42-44) and New Zealand (45). Plastics are also present in the open ocean both near the major shipping lanes and in the most remote regions of the world (the Arctic (46), the Benguela Current (47), the Cape Basin area of the South Atlantic (48), the Humboldt Current in the South Pacific (49), and the Antarctic (50, 51). 

Azam F (1998) Microbial control of oceanic carbon flux the plot thickens. Science 280 694-696 Azam F, Long RA (2001) Oceanography - sea snow microcosms. Nature 414 495-498 Barlow RG (1982) Phytoplankton ecology in the Southern Benguela Current. 3. Dynamics of a bloom. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 63 239-248... 

Shannon, L. V., and O Toole, M. J. (1999). Synthesis and Assessment of Information on the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem. UNDP, Windhoek, Namibia. 

Kirst G., Schneider R. R., MuUer P. J., von Storch I., and Wefer G. (1999) Late quaternary temperature variabiUty in the Benguela current system derived from Alkenones. Quat. Res. 52, 92-103. 

Summerhayes C. P., Kroon D., Rosell-Mele A., Jordan R. W., Schrader H.-J., Hearn R., Villanueva J., Grimalt J. O., and Eglinton G. (1995) Variability in the benguela current upwelling system over the past 70,000 years. Prog. Oceanogr. 35, 207-251. 

Nielsen (1951), working from the Danish research vessel Galathea on its voyage in the eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean from Lisbon to Capetown, estimated annual rates of production of 18 g. per square meter in the vicinity of the Canary Islands, 90 to 180 g. per square meter in parts of the tropical Atlantic, and around 1500 g. per square meter in the Benguela current. 

Robinson R.S., Meyers P.A., Murray R.W. (2002) Geochemical evidence of variations in delivery and deposition of sediment in Pleistocene light-dark cycles under the Benguela Current Upwelling System. Mar. Geol. 180,249-70. 

Baumann, K. H. Freitag, T. 2004. Pleistocene fluctuations in the northern Benguela Current system as revealed by coccolith assemblages. Marine Micropaleontology, 52, 195-215. 

The basic pattern of Walter s (1979) ideal continent — single dry seasons north and south of the Equator, and either a double wet season or continuously wet conditions close to it — is subject to some variation, because continents are neither symmetrical nor level. Adjacent continents, cold currents close to the shore, and mountain ranges can all modify the basic pattern. In East Africa, the presence of the dry Arabian landmass to the north-east means that winds from that direction are dry. The Horn of Africa is therefore much drier than would be expected from its proximity to the sea. (This is clearly not the whole story, because the corresponding area in South America, north-eastern Brazil, also has a drier climate than might otherwise be expected.) In south-western Africa, the cold waters of the Benguela current immediately offshore mean that the onshore winds are not saturated with water, so rainfall is very low and, again, somewhat unpredictable. This is paralleled in South America in northern coastal Chile and Peru, where the cold Humboldt current offshore leads to extreme aridity onshore and thus the Atacama desert, one of the driest places in the world. In both these areas, much of the available moisture comes from mists. The Senegal current produces a similar but less maiked effect in north-western Africa. 

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