| Summary: | Memoria de tesis doctoral presentada por Jesús Peña Izquierdo para optar al grado de Doctor por la Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya (UPC), realizada bajo la dirección del Dr. Joan Baptista Company Claret, la Dra. Eva Zoe Ramírez Llodra y el Dr. Josep Lluís Pelegrí Llopart del Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC).-- 130 pages, 1 appendix [EN] Regions isolated from the wind-driven circulation are found in the eastern margins of the world’s tropical oceans. The weak and stagnant circulation of these so-called ‘shadow zones’, in combination with the intense respiration of organic matter provided by the overlying highly productive waters, promotes the existence of large oceanic volumes with very low dissolved oxygen. These volumes are known as oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). The last decades of observations have revealed that OMZs are in general expanding, and thus potentially threatening the surrounding rich marine ecosystems. However, it is not clear whether this change is based on natural variability or it has an anthropogenic origin. Furthermore, under a global warming scenario, the future evolution of the OMZs is uncertain due to the complex interaction between the physical and biochemical processes that interplay in the OMZs dynamics. [.] This thesis investigation was conducted between 2009 and 2014 under the guidance of Dr. José Luís Pelegrí Llopart, who is an investigator from the Institut de Ciències del Mar - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, supported through an FPI predoctoral grant (BES-2009-021691) in the frame of the research project entitled “Ocean Climate Memory: mechanisms and paths of surface water formation in the Equatorial Atlantic” (MOC2-Ecuatorial, ref. CTM2008-06438-C02-01/MAR) Peer Reviewed
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