A recent study by the University of Georgia found that ocean fronts—separate regions of warm and cool water as well as salt and fresh water—act to increase production in the ocean.
Brock Woodson, an assistant professor in the UGA College of Engineering, said that most studies in the past assumed that anything that happens at a smaller scale doesn’t affect the whole food chain system. But his research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, showed how fronts can be incorporated into current climate and fisheries models to account for small-scale interactions in fishery production and cycling of elements such as carbon and nitrogen in the ocean. Learn more about Woodson’s research.