Large-scale climate forcing linked to phytoplankton biomass variability in the Northwest Atlantic ...

• Main Authors: Saba, Vincent S., Hyde, Kimberly J.W., Friedland, Kevin D., Hare, Jonathan A., Link, Jason S., Fogarty, Michael J.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2013 - Theme session M 2024
• Subjects: Technologies and data; Ecosystem observation, processes and dynamics; Nes; Nes’; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.24753780.v1; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Large-scale_climate_forcing_linked_to_phytoplankton_biomass_variability_in_the_Northwest_Atlantic/24753780/1

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author. Phytoplankton are the base of the marine food web and a recent study of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) worldwide suggested that high fisheries yield is associated with high surface chlorophyll-a (chl-a), a proxy for phytoplankton biomass. Here we analyzed satellite-derived chl-a from two different sensors (SeaWiFS & MODIS) at two different time-periods (1997-2010 & 2002-2012) covering the region of the United States Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (U.S. NES LME) and off-shelf waters. We conducted an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of 1-km chl-a data that was post-processed using a regional algorithm to improve chl-a estimates in case-2 waters close to coastlines. We identified areas within the U.S. NES LME that had the strongest interannual variability of chl-a and analyzed relationships to large-scale climate forcing and local forcing (i.e. SST, nutrients, surface winds). The local mechanistic underpinnings that ...