Changes in the Gulf Stream preceded rapid warming of the Northwest Atlantic Shelf

Neto, Afonso Gonçalves; Langan, Joseph A.; Palter, Jaime B.

doi:10.1038/s43247-021-00143-5

Cited by 87 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Heat flux from the atmosphere can lead to the development of marine heatwaves in the surface waters (Chen et al, 2015;Schlegel et al, 2021), and Gulf Stream warm core rings can intrude onto the shelf in the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Georges Bank regions (Gawarkiewicz et al, 2018). However, the recent, decade-long warming event observed in the Gulf of Maine/ western Scotian Shelf slope water can be attributed primarily to the subsurface advection of slope water comprising a relatively large component of Gulf Stream water and a relatively small component of Labrador Current water (Figure 1b; Jutras et al, 2020;Neto et al 2021;Seidov et al, 2021). These warmer and more saline slope water intrusions enter the deep basins and troughs of the Gulf of Maine and the western Scotian Shelf through various deep-water channels, Number of whale icons → Mean SPUE category 0 → 0.0 ≤ SPUE < 0.5 per 100 km 1 → 0.5 ≤ SPUE < 2.5 per 100 km 2 → 2.5 ≤ SPUE < 5.0 per 100 km 3 → 5.0 ≤ SPUE < 7.5 per 100 km 4 → 7.5 ≤ SPUE < 10.0 per 100 km 5 → 10.0 ≤ SPUE < 12.5 per 100 km 6 → 12.5 ≤ SPUE < 15.0 per 100 km FIGURE 3.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocean Regime Shift is Driving Collapse of the North Atlantic Right Whale Population

Meyer‐Gutbrod¹,

Greene²,

Davies³

et al. 2021

Oceanog

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Ocean warming linked to anthropogenic climate change is impacting the ecology of marine species around the world. In 2010, the Gulf of Maine and Scotian Shelf regions of the Northwest Atlantic underwent an unprecedented regime shift. Forced by climate-driven changes in the Gulf Stream, warm slope waters entered the region and created a less favorable foraging environment for the endangered North Atlantic right whale population. By mid-decade, right whales had shifted their late spring/summer foraging grounds from the Gulf of Maine and the western Scotian Shelf to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The population also began exhibiting unusually high mortality in 2017. Here, we report that climate-driven changes in ocean circulation have altered the foraging environment and habitat use of right whales, reducing the population’s calving rate and exposing it to greater mortality risks from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement. The case of the North Atlantic right whale provides a cautionary tale for the management of protected species in a changing ocean.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocean Regime Shift is Driving Collapse of the North Atlantic Right Whale Population

Meyer‐Gutbrod¹,

Greene²,

Davies³

et al. 2021

Oceanog

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“…Variability in the productivity data presented here (Figure 5) may support a persistent yet highly variable cool Virginia Current from the north, an extension of the Labrador Current. The position of the gyre and Gulf Stream have been shown to affect the Labrador Current and its extensions to the south [128]. In addition, the PRISM4 paleogeographic reconstruction [21] suggests closure of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, effectively shutting off the Atlantic connection to the Arctic through the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay.…”

Section: Paleoclimate Interpretations From Yorktown Formation Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Yorktown Formation: Improved Stratigraphy, Chronology, and Paleoclimate Interpretations from the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain

et al. 2021

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The Yorktown Formation records paleoclimate conditions along the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain during the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (3.264 to 3.025 Ma), a climate interval of the Pliocene in some ways analogous to near future climate projections. To gain insight into potential near future changes, we investigated Yorktown Formation outcrops and cores in southeastern Virginia, refining the stratigraphic framework. We analyzed 485 samples for alkenone-based sea surface temperature (SST) and productivity estimates from the Holland and Dory cores, an outcrop at Morgarts Beach, Virginia, and the lectostratotype of the Yorktown Formation at Rushmere, Virginia, and analyzed planktonic foraminferal assemblage data from the type section. Using the structure of the SST record, we improved the chronology of the Yorktown Formation by establishing the maximum age ranges of the Rushmere (3.3–3.2 Ma) and Morgarts Beach (3.2–3.15 Ma) Members. SST values for these members average ~26 °C, corroborating existing sclerochronological data. Increasing planktonic foraminifer abundance, productivity, and species diversity parallel increasing SST over the MIS M2/M1 transition. These records constitute the greatest temporal concentration of paleoecological estimates within the Yorktown Formation, aiding our understanding of western North Atlantic temperature patterns, seasonality and ocean circulation during this interval. We provide a chronologic framework for future studies analyzing ecological responses to profound climate change.

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“…This is consistent with the 4-6 month timescale found by Peña-Molino and Joyce (2008) for sea-surface temperature anomalies to propagate from 60 to 75 • W in the Slope Sea, and with an examination of the model in section 5, which shows that LSLW anomalies would take 9-12 months to travel from the Newfoundland Shelf to the Gulf Stream separation region. Furthermore, Gonçalves Neto et al (2021) found that the propagation of surface velocity anomalies from the TGB to 67 • W takes about 10 months.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Labrador Slope Water Connects the Subarctic with the Gulf Stream

New

Smeed

Czaja

et al. 2021

Preprint

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<p>Labrador Slope Water (LSLW) is found in the Slope Sea on the US-Canadian eastern shelf-slope as a relatively fresh and cool water mass, lying between the upper layer water masses and those carried by the Deep Western Boundary Current. It originates from the Labrador Current and has previously only been reported in the Eastern Slope Sea (east of 66&#176;W). We here use the EN4 gridded database and the Line W hydrographic observations to show for the first time that the LSLW also penetrates into the Western Slope Sea, bringing it into close contact with the Gulf Stream. We also show that the LSLW spreads across the entire Slope Sea north of the Gulf Stream, and is both fresher and thicker when the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is high at the RAPID array at 26&#176;N. The fresher, thicker LSLW is likely to contribute an additional 1.5 Sv of Gulf Stream transport. The spreading of the LSLW is also investigated in a high-resolution ocean general circulation model (NEMO), and is found to occur both as a western boundary current and through the extrusion of filaments following interaction with Gulf Stream meanders and eddies. The mechanism results in downward vertical motion as the filaments are entrained into the Gulf Stream. We conclude that the LSLW (rather than the deeper Labrador Sea Water) provides the intermediate depth water masses which maintain the density contrast here which partly drives the Gulf Stream, and that the transport of the LSLW from the Labrador shelf-slope offers a potential new mechanism for decadal variability in the Atlantic climate system, through connecting high latitude changes in the Subarctic with subsequent variability in the Gulf Stream and AMOC.</p>

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Changes in the Gulf Stream preceded rapid warming of the Northwest Atlantic Shelf

Cited by 87 publications

References 51 publications

Ocean Regime Shift is Driving Collapse of the North Atlantic Right Whale Population

Ocean Regime Shift is Driving Collapse of the North Atlantic Right Whale Population

The Yorktown Formation: Improved Stratigraphy, Chronology, and Paleoclimate Interpretations from the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain

Labrador Slope Water Connects the Subarctic with the Gulf Stream

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