Fast to slow impacts of turbulent mixing*

Turbulent mixing plays an important role in shaping ocean circulation and tracer distributions. It regulates the strength of the lower limb of the global Meridional Overturning Circulation by generating a net upwelling of abyssal and deep watermasses, even if this process is modulated by non-trivial spatial patterns of local up/downwelling. It also contributes to the dispersion of tracers, affecting global and local biogeochemical ocean properties and ocean biology, for example by re-supplying nutrients to the oligotrophic mixed layer (with a relatively fast timescale), redistributing tracers across-isopycnals in the ocean interior, and generating mixing hotspots over rough topography. This talk will review the many ways and timescales turbulent mixing contributes to regulating ocean circulation and biogeochemistry from the surface to abyssal waters.