Warming of the Eurasian Landmass Is Making the Arabian Sea More Productive

Goés, Joaquim I.; Thoppil, Prasad G.; Gomes, Helga do Rosário; Fasullo, John T.

doi:10.1126/science.1106610

Cited by 224 publications

(154 citation statements)

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“…4a,b), a feature consistent with a weakening of winter convective mixing. Another possibility is that the Arabian Sea's permanent oxygen minimum zone is expanding horizontally and vertically because of increased organic matter delivery to deeper depths, a notion supported by our recent findings 28 that the Arabian Sea is becoming more productive due to warming of the Eurasian continent and the systematic decrease in spring snow persistence over large parts of southwest Asia and the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau region. Loss of snow persistence in recent years has enhanced the land-sea pressure gradient, which in turn has strengthened southwest monsoonal winds resulting in intensified wind-driven coastal upwelling favoring enhanced phytoplankton blooms during summer.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 49%

Massive outbreaks of Noctiluca scintillans blooms in the Arabian Sea due to spread of hypoxia

et al. 2014

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In the last decade, the northern Arabian Sea has witnessed a radical shift in the composition of winter phytoplankton blooms, which previously comprised mainly of diatoms, the unicellular, siliceous photosynthetic organisms favoured by nutrient-enriched waters from convective mixing. These trophically important diatom blooms have been replaced by widespread blooms of a large, green dinoflagellate, Noctiluca scintillans, which combines carbon fixation from its chlorophyll-containing endosymbiont with ingestion of prey. Here, we report that these massive outbreaks of N. scintillans during winter are being facilitated by an unprecedented influx of oxygen deficient waters into the euphotic zone and by the extraordinary ability of its endosymbiont Pedinomonas noctilucae to fix carbon more efficiently than other phytoplankton under hypoxic conditions. We contend that N. scintillans blooms could disrupt the traditional diatom-sustained food chain to the detriment of regional fisheries and long-term health of an ecosystem supporting a coastal population of nearly 120 million people.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 49%

Massive outbreaks of Noctiluca scintillans blooms in the Arabian Sea due to spread of hypoxia

et al. 2014

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“…On year-to-year basis, there was increasing trend in chlorophyll-a during the NEM at all western Arabian Sea (Group-1) locations. A similar observation was reported by Goes et al (2005).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Inter-annual Variability of Chlorophyll-a in the Arabian Sea and its Gulfs

Sarma

Azri²,

Smith³

2012

ijms

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The analysis of chlorophyll-a for a 7 year period from the ocean color images of SeaWiFS in the Arabian Sea and its marginal seas showed considerable inter-annual and geographical variability. The variability in chlorophyll-a was essentially centered on the Southwest and the Northeast monsoon seasons. The mean seasonal chlorophyll-a of the Northeast Monsoon in the western Arabian Sea showed an increasing trend from 1998 to 2004. The period of elevated chlorophyll-a levels in the Gulf of Mannar is apparently extended due to advection of chlorophyll-a rich water from the Bay of Bengal along the east coast of India. The mean distribution of chlorophyll-a from the SeaWiFS images shows a coastally trapped chlorophyll-a rich front from the east coast of India that enriches the Gulf of Mannar and continues northward along the west coast of India. As this front moves northward along the coast, the southern coastal waters turn oligotrophic. The chlorophyll-a concentration in the region is also influenced by the large-scale climatic events such as El Nino/La Nina during 1998-1999.The chlorophyll-a data from selected locations were subjected to spectral analysis to extract periodic signals. The annual signal was found to be dominant in the areas affected by only one of the two monsoons such as the Gulf of Mannar. The semiannual signal was predominant in areas affected by both the monsoons such as western and northern Arabian Sea. We built an empirical model incorporating the annual and semiannual modes of chlorophyll-a from the ocean color data. The ratio of the standard deviations of SeaWiFS-observed to the modeled chlorophyll-a, taken as a measure of model suitability, varied between 0.71 and 0.86. Thus the chlorophyll-a variability in this region can reasonably be predicted using the empirical model developed in this study.

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“…In the south, the advection of warm Indian Ocean waters into the South Atlantic via the so-called Agulhas leakage increased near the ends of glacial episodes and during interglacials (Peeters et al, 2004;Biastoch et al, 2009), with the possible result that species from the Indian Ocean could disperse around South Africa to the eastern and western Atlantic (Vermeij & Rosenberg, 1993;Floeter et al, 2008). Although upwelling in north-western Africa in the Canary Current system increases in intensity with higher sea-surface temperatures because of stronger longshore winds (McGregor et al, 2007), an effect also seen in the Arabian Sea (Goes et al, 2005), the upwelling there remains cold and thus does not support strictly tropical species. During the Early Pliocene, a regime of warm upwelling probably existed in the south-western Mediterranean, as indicated by the presence of the limpet Patella pellucida, which is associated with large seaweeds characteristic of nutrient-rich waters .…”

Section: Controls On Patterns Of Invasionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The tropical history and future of the Mediterranean biota and the West African enigma

Vermeij

2011

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, many tropical taxa from the Indo‐West Pacific (IWP) realm have entered the Mediterranean Sea, which is experiencing rising temperatures. My aims are: (1) to compare biogeographically this tropical transformation of the Mediterranean biota with the tropical faunas of the Mediterranean and adjacent southern European and West African seas during the Late Oligocene to Pliocene interval; (2) to infer the relative contributions of the tropical eastern Atlantic and IWP to the tropical component of the marine biota in southern Europe; and (3) to understand why West Africa is not now a major source of warm‐water species. Location Southern Europe, including the Mediterranean Sea, and the coast of tropical West Africa. Methods I surveyed the literature on fossil and living shell‐bearing molluscs to infer the sources and fates of tropical subgenus‐level taxa living in southern Europe and West Africa during the Late Oligocene to Pliocene interval. Results Ninety‐four taxa disappeared from the tropical eastern Atlantic (including the Mediterranean) but persisted elsewhere in the tropics, mainly in the IWP (81 taxa, 86%) and to a lesser extent in tropical America (36 taxa, 38%). Nine taxa inferred to have arrived in the tropical eastern Atlantic from the west after the Pliocene did not enter the Mediterranean. The modern West African fauna is today isolated from that of other parts of the marine tropics. Main conclusions Taxa now entering the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal are re‐establishing a link with the IWP that last existed 16 million years ago. This IWP element, which evolved under oligotrophic conditions and under a regime of intense anti‐predatory selection, will continue to expand in the increasingly warm and increasingly oligotrophic Mediterranean. The IWP source fauna contrasts with the tropical West African biota, which evolved under productive conditions and in a regime of less anti‐predatory specialization. Until now, the post‐Pliocene West African source area has been isolated from the Mediterranean by cold upwelling. If further warming should reduce this barrier, as occurred during the productive and warm Early Pliocene, the Mediterranean could become a meeting place for two tropical faunas of contrasting source conditions.

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Warming of the Eurasian Landmass Is Making the Arabian Sea More Productive

Cited by 224 publications

References 30 publications

Massive outbreaks of Noctiluca scintillans blooms in the Arabian Sea due to spread of hypoxia

Massive outbreaks of Noctiluca scintillans blooms in the Arabian Sea due to spread of hypoxia

Inter-annual Variability of Chlorophyll-a in the Arabian Sea and its Gulfs

The tropical history and future of the Mediterranean biota and the West African enigma

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