Along the downwelling coast off Western Australia, late-autumn/early-winter chlorophyll a blooms are observed on the continental shelf south of Shark Bay (26°S), in contrast with summer blooms in the north. The late-autumn/early-winter blooms are in phase with seasonal strengthening of the Leeuwin Current and its eddy field. Anticyclonic eddies entrain the high phytoplankton biomass waters from the shelf and transport offshore into the oligotrophic, subtropical marine environment, as revealed by coalescing the finite-size Lyapunov exponent (FSLE) of the surface geostrophic flow field and the satellite chlorophyll a images.

Along the downwelling coast off Western Australia, late-autumn/early-winter chlorophyll a blooms are observed on the continental shelf south of Shark Bay (26°S), in contrast with summer blooms in the north. The late-autumn/early-winter blooms are in phase with seasonal strengthening of the Leeuwin Current and its eddy field. Anticyclonic eddies entrain the high phytoplankton biomass waters from the shelf and transport offshore into the oligotrophic, subtropical marine environment, as revealed by coalescing the finite-size Lyapunov exponent (FSLE) of the surface geostrophic flow field and the satellite chlorophyll a images.

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