Synchronous response of marine plankton ecosystems to climate in the Northeast Atlantic and the North Sea

Goberville, E, Beaugrand, G and Edwards, M 2013 Synchronous response of marine plankton ecosystems to climate in the Northeast Atlantic and the North Sea. Climate Research, In Pre.

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Abstract/Summary

Over the last few decades, global warming has accelerated both the rate and magnitude of changes observed in many functional units of the Earth System. In this context, plankton are sentinel organisms because they are sensitive to subtle levels of changes in temperature and might help in identifying the current effects of climate change on pelagic ecosystems. In this paper, we performed a comparative approach in two regions of the North Atlantic (i.e. the Northeast Atlantic and the North Sea) to explore the relationships between changes in marine plankton, the regional physico-chemical environment and large-scale hydro-climatic forcing using four key indices: the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), the East Atlantic (EA) pattern and Northern Hemisphere Temperature (NHT) anomalies. Our analyses suggest that long-term changes in the states of the two ecosystems were synchronous and correlated to the same large-scale hydro-climatic variables: NHT anomalies, the AMO and to a lesser extent the EA pattern. No significant correlation was found between long-term ecosystem modifications and the state of the NAO. Our results suggest that the effect of climate on these ecosystems has mainly occurred in both regions through the modulation of the thermal regime.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Additional Keywords:	Climate change; North Atlantic; Long-term changes; Large-scale hydro-climatic indices; Phytoplankton; Zooplankton
Depositing User:	Miss Gemma Brice
Date made live:	26 Mar 2014 14:09
Last Modified:	06 Mar 2017 17:57
URI:	https://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/5744

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