Coherent Sign Switching in Multiyear Trends of Microbial Plankton

Since the 1990s, phytoplankton biomass on the continental shelf of Nova Scotia and in the Labrador Sea has undergone sustained changes in the spring and fall, which are accompanied by changes in bacterioplankton that are dampened in amplitude but coherent in the direction of change. A reversal of tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Li, William K. W., Harrison, W. Glen, Head, Erica J. H.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2006
Subjects:
Labrador Sea
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1122748
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1122748
Description
Summary:Since the 1990s, phytoplankton biomass on the continental shelf of Nova Scotia and in the Labrador Sea has undergone sustained changes in the spring and fall, which are accompanied by changes in bacterioplankton that are dampened in amplitude but coherent in the direction of change. A reversal of trend in biomass change, so-called sign switching, occurs both in time and in space. Thus, whenever (spring or fall) and wherever (Scotian Shelf or Labrador Sea) phytoplankton increase or decrease, so also does bacterioplankton. This tandem sign switch indicates coupling of the trophic levels at a multiyear time scale and contributes to an ecological fingerprint of systemwide forcing.

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