Is there a connection between high transport of water through the Rockall Trough and ecological changes in the North Sea?

Holliday, NP and Reid, PC 2001 Is there a connection between high transport of water through the Rockall Trough and ecological changes in the North Sea?. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 58 (1). 270-512. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmsc.2000.1008

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Abstract/Summary

Changes in the ecosystem of the North Sea may occur as pronounced inter-annual and step-wise shifts as well as gradual trends. Marked inter-annual shifts have occurred at least twice in the last two decades, the late 1980s and the late 1990s, that appear to reflect an increased inflow of oceanic water and species. Numerical modelling has demonstrated a link between altered rates of inflow of oceanic water into the northern North Sea and a regime shift after 1988. In 1989 and 1997 oceanic species not normally found in the North Sea were observed there, suggesting pulses of oceanic water had entered the basin and triggered the subsequent ecosystem change. The oceanic water has origins mainly west of Britain in the Rockall Trough, where the long-term mean volume transport is around 3.7Sv northwards (1Sv=10 super(6)m super(3)s super(1)), but in early 1989 and early 1998 was observed to be more than twice the mean value, reaching over 7Sv. These periods of high transport coinciding with the inferred pulses of oceanic water into the North Sea suggest a connection through the continental shelf edge current. Copyright 2001 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	This is a post-print. The published version can viewed from the publisher's web site.
Additional Keywords:	Ecosystems Community composition Population structure Ecological succession Environmental factors Plankton Biological drift Coastal currents Ocean circulation Atlantic, Rockall Trough
Subjects:
Divisions:	Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science > Other (SAHFOS) (expired)
Depositing User:	EPrints Services
Date made live:	20 Sep 2006
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2020 09:55
URI:	https://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/1708

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