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Unravelling Eastern Pacific and Central Pacific ENSO Contributions in South Pacific Chlorophyll-a Variability through Remote Sensing
Citation
Couto, AB and Holbrook, NJ and Maharaj, MA, Unravelling Eastern Pacific and Central Pacific ENSO Contributions in South Pacific Chlorophyll-a Variability through Remote Sensing, Remote Sensing, 5, (8) pp. 4067-4087. ISSN 2072-4292 (2013) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Abstract
El Niño—Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is regarded as the main driver of
phytoplankton inter-annual variability. Remotely sensed surface chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), has
made it possible to examine phytoplankton variability at a resolution and scale that allows
for the investigation of climate signals such as ENSO. We provide empirical evidence of
an immediate and lagged influence of ENSO on SeaWiFS and MODIS-Aqua derived
global Chl-a concentrations. We use 13 years of Chl-a remotely sensed observations along
with sea surface temperature (SST) observations across the Tropical and South Pacific to
isolate and examine the spatial development of Chl-a anomalies during ENSO: its
canonical or eastern Pacific (EP) mode, and El Niño Modoki or central Pacific (CP) mode,
using the extended empirical orthogonal function (EEOF) technique. We describe how an
EP ENSO phase transition affects Chl-a, and identify an interannual CP mode of variability
induced spatial pattern. We argue that when ENSO is analysed as a propagating signal by
the EEOF, CP ENSO is found to be more influential on Chl-a interannual to decadal
variability than the canonical EP ENSO. Our results cannot confirm the independence of
the two ENSO modes but clearly demonstrate that both ENSO flavors manifest a distinct biological response.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Chl-a; phytoplankton; ENSO; primary productivity; SeaWiFS; MODIS; satellite oceanography |
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Oceanography |
| Research Field: | Physical oceanography |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards |
| Objective Group: | Understanding climate change |
| Objective Field: | Effects of climate change on the South Pacific (excl. Australia and New Zealand) (excl. social impacts) |
| UTAS Author: | Couto, AB (Mr Andre Belo Do Couto) |
| UTAS Author: | Holbrook, NJ (Professor Neil Holbrook) |
| ID Code: | 88877 |
| Year Published: | 2013 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 7 |
| Deposited By: | IMAS Research and Education Centre |
| Deposited On: | 2014-02-19 |
| Last Modified: | 2014-08-07 |
| Downloads: | 353 View Download Statistics |
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