The Coral Sea

Ceccarelli, Daniela; McKinnon, A. David; Andréfouët, Serge; Allain, Valérie; Young, Jock; Gledhill, Daniel C.; Flynn, Adrian; Bax, Nicholas J.; Beaman, Robin J.; Borsa, Philippe; Brinkman, Richard; Bustamante, Rodrigo H.; Campbell, Robert A.; Cappo, Michael; Cravatte, Sophie; D’agata, Stéphanie; Dichmont, Catherine M.; Dunstan, Piers K.; Dupouy, Cécile; Edgar, Graham J.; Farman, Richard; Furnas, Miles; Garrigue, Claire; Hutton, Trevor; Kulbicki, Michel; Letourneur, Yves; Lindsay, Dhugal J.; Menkès, Christophe E.; Mouillot, David; Parravicini, Valeriano; Payri, Claude; Pelletier, Bernard; Forges, Bertrand Richer de; Ridgway, K. R.; Rodier, Martine; Samadi, Sarah; Schoeman, David S.; Skewes, Tim; Swearer, Stephen E.; Vigliola, Laurent; Wantiez, Laurent; Williams, Alan; Williams, Ashley B.; Richardson, Anthony J.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-408096-6.00004-3

Cited by 57 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 181 publications

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“…We also observed hotspots of chlorophyll, that are observed in chlorophyll climatology over more than 5 years (data not shown), and are related to geographic features, such as the high chlorophyll concentration at the beginning of the transect between Melville and Minjilang Islands (sample site UW1, 11.07°S, 131.8°E), and a peak in the western edge of the Torres Strait (sample site UW38, 10.52°S, 142.18°E) which is located close to Thursday Island. South of CTD14 toward the end of the transect in the Coral Sea, stations along the Queensland plateau (Ceccarelli et al, 2013) near the Great Barrier Reef had higher chlorophyll than the northernmost Coral Sea stations.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unicellular Cyanobacteria Are Important Components of Phytoplankton Communities in Australia’s Northern Oceanic Ecoregions

et al. 2019

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The tropical marine environments of northern Australia encompasses a diverse range of geomorphological and oceanographic conditions and high levels of productivity and nitrogen fixation. However, efforts to characterize phytoplankton assemblages in these waters have been restricted to studies using microscopic and pigment analyses, leading to the current consensus that this region is dominated by large diatoms, dinoflagellates, and the marine cyanobacterium Trichodesmium. During an oceanographic transect from the Arafura Sea through the Torres Strait to the Coral Sea, we characterized prokaryotic and eukaryotic phytoplankton communities in surface waters using a combination of flow cytometry and Illumina based 16S and 18S ribosomal RNA amplicon sequencing. Similar to observations in other marine regions around Australian, phytoplankton assemblages throughout this entire region were rich in unicellular picocyanobacterial primary producers while picoeukaryotic phytoplankton formed a consistent, though smaller proportion of the photosynthetic biomass. Major taxonomic groups displayed distinct biogeographic patterns linked to oceanographic and nutrient conditions. Unicellular picocyanobacteria dominated in both flow cytometric abundance and carbon biomass, with members of the Synechococcus genus dominating in the shallower Arafura Sea and Torres Strait where chlorophyll a was relatively higher (averaging 0.4 ± 0.2 mg m-3), and Prochlorococcus dominating in the oligotrophic Coral Sea where chlorophyll a averaged 0.13 ± 0.07 mg m-3. Consistent with previous microscopic and pigment-based observations, we found from sequence analysis that a variety of diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) exhibited high relative abundance in the Arafura Sea and Torres Strait, while dinoflagellates (Dinophyceae) and prymnesiophytes (Prymnesiophyceae) were more abundant in the Coral Sea. Ordination analysis identified temperature, nutrient concentrations and water depth as key drivers of the region’s assemblage composition. This is the first molecular and flow cytometric survey of the abundance and diversity of both prokaryotic and picoeukaryotic phytoplankton in this region, and points to the need to include the picocyanobacterial populations as an essential oceanic variable for sustained monitoring in order to better understand the health of these important coastal waters as global oceans change.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unicellular Cyanobacteria Are Important Components of Phytoplankton Communities in Australia’s Northern Oceanic Ecoregions

et al. 2019

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“…1). It constitutes one of the largest atolls in the world (Ceccarelli et al 2013), covering about 16 000 km 2 . The shallow plateaus (0−80 m depth) are surrounded by reefs, small islets and sand cays that form relatively sheltered lagoons, though most of the area remains largely open to the Coral Sea.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for humpback whales in a historical whaling hotspot of the Coral Sea, South Pacific

Garrigue

Derville

Bonneville

et al. 2020

Endang. Species. Res.

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Humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae were severely depleted by commercial whaling. Understanding key factors in their recovery is a crucial step for their conservation worldwide. In Oceania, the Chesterfield-Bellona archipelago was a primary whaling site in the 19th century, yet has been left almost unaffected by anthropogenic activities since. We present the results of the first multidisciplinary dedicated surveys in the archipelago assessing humpback whale populations 2 centuries post-whaling. We encountered 57 groups during 24 survey days (2016-2017), among which 35 whales were identified using photographs of natural markings (photo-ID), 38 using genotyping and 22 using both. Humpback whales were sparsely distributed (0.041 whales km-1): most sightings concentrated in shallow inner-reef waters and neighbouring offshore shallow banks. The recently created marine protected area covers most of the areas of high predicted habitat suitability and high residence time from satellite-tracked whales. Surprisingly for a breeding area, sex ratios skewed towards females (1:2.4), and 45% of females were with calf. Connectivity was established with the New Caledonia breeding area to the east (mtDNA FST = 0.001, p > 0.05, 12 photo-ID and 10 genotype matches) and with the Australian Great Barrier Reef breeding area to the west (mtDNA FST = 0.006, p > 0.05). Movement of satellite-tracked whales and photo-ID matches also suggest connections with the east Australian migratory corridor. This study confirms that humpback whales still inhabit the Chesterfield-Bellona archipelago 2 centuries post whaling, and that this pristine area potentially plays a role in facilitating migratory interchange among breeding grounds of the western South Pacific.

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“…The SPCZ extends southeastward during austral summer, becoming a major rainfall source for many South Pacific Islands, but is confined to the Salomon Sea during austral winter. This yields warm and rainy conditions during austral summer over NC, while austral winter is colder and drier (Ceccarelli et al 2013;Payri et al 2019). Superimposed to that seasonal cycle, large-scale climate fluctuations modulate the NC climate (Lefèvre et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scale rainfall over New Caledonia under climate change

Dutheil

Menkès²,

Lengaigne

et al. 2020

Clim Dyn

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Global climate models projections indicate no clear future rainfall changes over the Southwestern Pacific islands in response to anthropogenic forcing. Yet, these models have low (~ 100–200 km) spatial resolution and suffer from large systematic biases, such as the trademark “double ITCZ”. Here, 4 km-resolution simulations were used with a nested regional atmospheric model, which resolves the New Caledonian mountainous topography. The resulting present-day rainfall amount, spatial structure, seasonal cycle, and extremes compare much better with observations than at 20 km resolution. We applied projected changes from global climate models under the RCP8.5 scenario at the boundaries, following an approach that corrects both their present-day and projected sea surface temperature biases. Unlike climate models, our refined projections reveal an 18% decrease in annual mean rainfall over New Caledonia by 2080–2100, especially on the leeward side of the island (up to 30%) and during the hot season (that accounts for ~ 80% of the rainfall decrease). This drying is robust without bias correction, and much stronger than at ~ 20 km resolution. It is mainly driven by circulation changes. A weather regime classification further demonstrates that ~ 80% of the hot season drying relates to a strong anti-cyclonic and air subsidence anomalies centred on the north of NC, which reduces moisture convergence over the archipelago. The frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events is also reduced by ~ 20% by 2080–2100. This drastic projected drying would have dramatic impacts on water resources and terrestrial ecosystems, pleading for carefully-planned adaptation policies for New Caledonia.

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The Coral Sea

Cited by 57 publications

References 181 publications

Unicellular Cyanobacteria Are Important Components of Phytoplankton Communities in Australia’s Northern Oceanic Ecoregions

Unicellular Cyanobacteria Are Important Components of Phytoplankton Communities in Australia’s Northern Oceanic Ecoregions

Searching for humpback whales in a historical whaling hotspot of the Coral Sea, South Pacific

Fine-scale rainfall over New Caledonia under climate change

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