Variability of coastal and ocean water temperature in the upper 700 m along the western Iberian Peninsula from 1975 to 2006

Temperature is observed to have different trends at coastal and ocean locations along the western Iberian Peninsula from 1975 to 2006, which corresponds to the last warming period in the area under study. The analysis was carried out by means of the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA). Reanalysis data are available at monthly scale with a horizontal resolution of 0.5° × 0.5° and a vertical resolution of 40 levels, which allows obtaining information beneath the sea surface. Only the first 21 vertical levels (from 5.0 m to 729.35 m) were considered here, since the most important changes in heat content observed for the world ocean during the last decades, correspond to the upper 700 m. Warming was observed to be considerably higher at ocean locations than at coastal ones. Ocean warming ranged from values on the order of 0.3 °C dec(-1) near surface to less than 0.1 °C dec(-1) at 500 m, while coastal warming showed values close to 0.2 °C dec(-1) near surface, decreasing rapidly below 0.1 °C dec(-1) for depths on the order of 50 m. The heat content anomaly for the upper 700 m, showed a sharp increase from coast (0.46 Wm(-2)) to ocean (1.59 Wm(-2)). The difference between coastal and ocean values was related to the presence of coastal upwelling, which partially inhibits the warming from surface of near shore water.publishe

Benthic Faunal Baselines in the Gulf of Mexico: A Precursor to Evaluate Future Impacts

This chapter provides a comparison between recently developed, post-oil spill baseline measurements throughout the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and previous, pre-oil spill baselines for benthic foraminifera, meiofauna, and macrofauna for areas impacted by the Deepwater Horizon (2010) and Ixtoc 1 (1979–1980) oil spills. This comparison will provide two primary outcomes: (1) assessment of any lasting changes in benthic faunal assemblages caused by the Deepwater Horizon and Ixtoc 1 oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and (2) augmentation of pre-oil spill baselines or establishment of “new normal” post-oil spill baseline measurements that can be utilized to quantitatively assess impact, response, and recovery of benthic fauna in the event of a future oil spill

Synthesis of pacific ocean climate and ecosystem dynamics

The goal of the Pacific Ocean Boundary Ecosystem and Climate Study (POBEX) was to diagnose the large-scale climate controls on regional transport dynamics and lower trophic marine ecosystem variability in Pacific Ocean boundary systems. An international team of collaborators shared observational and eddyresolving modeling data sets collected in the Northeast Pacific, including the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and the California Current System (CCS), the Humboldt or Peru-Chile Current System (PCCS), and the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE) region. POBEX investigators found that a dominant fraction of decadal variability in basin and regional-scale salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll, and zooplankton taxa is explained by a newly discovered pattern of ocean-climate variability dubbed the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). NPGO dynamics are driven by atmospheric variability in the North Pacific and capture the decadal expression of Central Pacific El Niños in the extratropics, much as the PDO captures the low-frequency expression of eastern Pacific El Niños. By combining hindcasts of eddy-resolving ocean models over the period 1950-2008 with model passive tracers and long-term observations (e.g., CalCOFI, Line-P, Newport Hydrographic Line, Odate Collection), POBEX showed that the PDO and the NPGO combine to control low-frequency upwelling and alongshore transport dynamics in the North Pacific sector, while the eastern Pacific El Niño dominates in the South Pacific. Although different climate modes have different regional expressions, changes in vertical transport (e.g., upwelling) were found to explain the dominant nutrient and phytoplankton variability in the CCS, GOA, and PCCS, while changes in alongshore transport forced much of the observed long-term change in zooplankton species composition in the KOE as well as in the northern and southern CCS. In contrast, cross-shelf transport dynamics were linked to mesoscale eddy activity, driven by regional-scale dynamics that are largely decoupled from variations associated with the large-scale climate modes. Preliminary findings suggest that mesoscale eddies play a key role in offshore transport of zooplankton and impact the life cycles of higher trophic levels (e.g., fish) in the CCS, PCCS, and GOA. Looking forward, POBEX results may guide the development of new modeling and observational strategies to establish mechanistic links among climate forcing, mesoscale circulation, and marine population dynamics. © 2013 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved

Synthesis of pacific ocean climate and ecosystem dynamics

The goal of the Pacific Ocean Boundary Ecosystem and Climate Study (POBEX) was to diagnose the large-scale climate controls on regional transport dynamics and lower trophic marine ecosystem variability in Pacific Ocean boundary systems. An international team of collaborators shared observational and eddyresolving modeling data sets collected in the Northeast Pacific, including the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and the California Current System (CCS), the Humboldt or Peru-Chile Current System (PCCS), and the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE) region. POBEX investigators found that a dominant fraction of decadal variability in basin and regional-scale salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll, and zooplankton taxa is explained by a newly discovered pattern of ocean-climate variability dubbed the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). NPGO dynamics are driven by atmospheric variability in the North Pacific and capture the decadal expression of Central Pacific El Niños in the extratropics, much as the PDO captures the low-frequency expression of eastern Pacific El Niños. By combining hindcasts of eddy-resolving ocean models over the period 1950-2008 with model passive tracers and long-term observations (e.g., CalCOFI, Line-P, Newport Hydrographic Line, Odate Collection), POBEX showed that the PDO and the NPGO combine to control low-frequency upwelling and alongshore transport dynamics in the North Pacific sector, while the eastern Pacific El Niño dominates in the South Pacific. Although different climate modes have different regional expressions, changes in vertical transport (e.g., upwelling) were found to explain the dominant nutrient and phytoplankton variability in the CCS, GOA, and PCCS, while changes in alongshore transport forced much of the observed long-term change in zooplankton species composition in the KOE as well as in the northern and southern CCS. In contrast, cross-shelf transport dynamics were linked to mesoscale eddy activity, driven by regional-scale dynamics that are largely decoupled from variations associated with the large-scale climate modes. Preliminary findings suggest that mesoscale eddies play a key role in offshore transport of zooplankton and impact the life cycles of higher trophic levels (e.g., fish) in the CCS, PCCS, and GOA. Looking forward, POBEX results may guide the development of new modeling and observational strategies to establish mechanistic links among climate forcing, mesoscale circulation, and marine population dynamics. © 2013 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved