North Atlantic climate control on plankton variability in the Balearic Sea, western Mediterranean

We assessed interrelations between climatic, meteorological and hydrological factors in the Balearic Sea, and identified drivers of the abundance variability of planktonic copepods over the period 1994–2003. Temporal variability in the total abundance of copepods appears to be indicative of the sout...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2007-02, Vol.34 (4), p.n/a
Main Authors: Fernández de Puelles, M. Luz, Molinero, Juan Carlos
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
atmospheric forcing
Balearic Sea
Copepoda
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Marine
North Atlantic climate
zooplankton
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Summary:We assessed interrelations between climatic, meteorological and hydrological factors in the Balearic Sea, and identified drivers of the abundance variability of planktonic copepods over the period 1994–2003. Temporal variability in the total abundance of copepods appears to be indicative of the southern spreading of the Northern Current, and therefore of meridional transport of water masses in the Balearic Sea. The results show that the large‐scale atmospheric variability in the North Atlantic Ocean acts as a main driver of regional meteorological variations and hydrographic patterns in the Balearic Sea area. The clearly most novel insight from this study is that the effects of the North Atlantic climate on hydrographic variability and the abundance of copepods in the studied area are noticeable at monthly scales. Thus, the North Atlantic climate influence on the structure and biogeochemical fluxes in the Western Mediterranean pelagic ecosystems deserve more attention that they have been received so far.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1029/2006GL028354