Patterns and trends in Chlorophyll-a concentration and phytoplankton
phenology in the biogeographical regions of Southwestern Atlantic
Abstract
The Southwestern Atlantic Ocean (SAO), is considered as one of the most
productive areas of the world, with high abundance of ecologically and
economical important fish species. Yet, the biological responses of this
complex region to climate variability are still uncertain. Here, using
24 years of satellite derived Chl-a datasets, we classified the SAO into
coherent regions based on homogeneous temporal variability of Chl-a
concentration, as revealed by the SOM (Self-Organizing Maps) analysis.
These coherent biogeographical regions were the basis of our regional
trend analysis in phytoplankton biomass, regional phenological indices,
and environmental forcing variations. A generalized positive trend in
phytoplankton concentration is observed, especially in the highly
productive areas of the northern shelf-break, where phytoplankton
biomass is increasing at an outstanding rate up to 0.42 ± 0.04 mg m-3
per decade associated with the sea surface temperature (SST) warming
(0.11 ± 0.02 °C decade-1) and the mixed layer depth shoaling (-3.36 ±
0.13 m decade-1). In addition to the generalized increase in
chlorophyll, the most sticking changes in phytoplankton dynamics
observed in the SAO are related to the secondary bloom that occurs in
most of the regions (15 ± 3 and 24 ± 6 days decade-1) which might be
explained by the significant warming trend of SST, which would sustain
the water stratification for a longer period, thus delaying the
secondary bloom initialization. Consistent with previous studies, our
results provided further evidences of the impact of climate change in
these highly productive waters.