Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T23:33:27.928Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and sea surface temperature in the Bay of Biscay and adjacent regions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2011

Carlos Garcia-Soto  and
Robin D. Pingree
Carlos Garcia-Soto*
Affiliation:
Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO), Centro Oceanográfico de Santander, Promontorio de S. Martín s/n, 39004 Santander, Spain
Robin D. Pingree
Affiliation:
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (MBA), The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB, UK
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: C. Garcia-Soto, Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO), Centro Oceanográfico de Santander, Promontorio de S. Martín s/n, 39004 Santander, Spain email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The sea surface temperature (SST) variability of the Bay of Biscay and adjacent regions (1854–2010) has been examined in relation to the evolution of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), a major climate mode. The AMO index explains ~25% of the interannual variability of the annual SST during the last 150 years, while different indices of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) explain ≤1% of the long-term record. NAO is a high frequency climate mode while AMO can modulate low frequency changes. Sixty per cent of the AMO variability is contained in periods longer than a decade. The basin-scale influence of NAO on SST over specific years (1995 to 1998) is presented and the SST anomalies explained. The period analysed represents an abrupt change in NAO and the North Atlantic circulation state as shown with altimetry and SST data. Additional atmospheric climate data over a shorter ~60 year period (1950–2008) show the influence on the Bay of Biscay SST of the East Atlantic (EA) pattern and the Scandinavia (SCA) pattern. These atmospheric teleconnections explain respectively ~25% and ~20% of the SST variability. The winter SST in the shelf-break/slope or poleward current region is analysed in relation to AMO. The poleward current shows a trend towards increasing SSTs during the last three decades as a result of the combined positive phase of AMO and global warming. The seasonality of this winter warm flow in the Iberian region is related to the autumn/winter seasonality of south-westerly (SW) winds. The SW winds are strengthened along the European shelf-break by the development of low pressure conditions in the region to the north of the Azores and therefore a negative NAO. AMO overall modulates multidecadal changes (~60% of the AMO variance). The long-term time-series of SST and SST anomalies in the Bay of Biscay show AMO-like cycles with maxima near 1870 and 1950 and minima near 1900 and 1980 indicating a period of 60–80 years during the last century and a half. Similar AMO-like variability is found in the Russell cycle of the Western English Channel (1924–1972). AMO relates at least to four mesozooplankton components of the Russell cycle: the abundance of the chaetognaths Parasagitta elegans and Parasagitta setosa (AMO −), the amount of the species Calanus helgolandicus (AMO −), the amount of the larvae of decapod crustaceans (AMO −) and the number of pilchard eggs (Sardine pilchardus; AMO +). In addition to AMO, the decadal to multidecadal (D2M) variability in the number of sunspots is analysed for the last 300 years. Several periodicities and a multi-secular linear increase are presented. There are secular minima near 1710, 1810, 1910 and 2010. The long term variability (>11 years) of the solar sunspot activity explains ~50% of the variance of the SST of the Bay of Biscay with periods longer than 11 years. AMO is finally compared with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the leading principal component of North Pacific SST anomalies.

Keywords

SSTAMONAOBay of BiscayWestern English ChannelRussell cycleEuropean Poleward Current
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 92 , Issue 2 , March 2012 , pp. 213 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Borja, A., Egaña, J., Valencia, V., Franco, J. and Castro, R. (2000) 1947–1997, estudio y validación de una serie de datos diarios de temperatura de agua del mar en San Sebastián, procedente de su Aquarium. Ozeanografika 3, 139–152.Google Scholar
deCastro, M., de Gómez-Gesteira, M., Alvarez, I. and Gesteira, J.L.G. (2009) Present warming within the context of cooling–warming cycles observed since 1854 in the Bay of Biscay. Continental Shelf Research 29, 1053–1059.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cayan, D.R. (1992) Latent and sensible heat flux anomalies over the Northern Oceans: the connection to monthly atmospheric circulation. Journal of Climate 5, 354–369.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delworth, T.H. and Mann, M.E. (2000) Observed and simulated multidecadal variability in the Northern Hemisphere. Climate Dynamics 16, 661–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dijkstra, H.A., te Raa, L., Schmeits, M. and Gerrits, J. (2006) On the physics of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. Ocean Dynamics 56, 36–50. doi: 10.1007/s10236-005-0043-0.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enfield, D.B. and Cid-Serrano, L. (2010) Secular and multidecadal warmings in the North Atlantic and their relationships with major hurricane activity. International Journal of Climatology 30, 174–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enfield, D.B., Mestas-Nunez, A.M. and Trimble, P.J. (2001) The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and its relationship to rainfall and river flows in the continental US. Geophysical Research Letters 28, 2077–2080.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandes, J.A., Irigoien, X., Goikoetxea, N., Lozano, J.A., Inza, I., Pérez, A. and Bode, A. (2010) Fish recruitment prediction, using robust supervised classification methods. Ecological Modelling 221, 338–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frouin, R., Fiúza, A.F.G., Ambar, I. and Boyd, T.J. (1990) Observations of a poleward surface current off the coasts of Portugal and Spain during winter. Journal of Geophysical Research 95, 679–691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia-Soto, C. (2004) ‘Prestige’ oil spill and Navidad flow. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 84, 297–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia-Soto, C. (2005) Cambio Climático en el Golfo de Vizcaya. In Cort, J.L. (ed.) El cimarrón del Atlántico norte y Mediterráneo. Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones del Instituto Español de Oceanografía, pp. 69–70.Google Scholar
Garcia-Soto, C., Fernández, E., Pingree, R.D. and Harbour, D.H. (1995) Evolution and structure of a coastal coccolithophore bloom in the Western English Channel. Journal of Plankton Research 17, 2011–2036.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia-Soto, C. and Pingree, R.D. (2009) Spring and summer blooms of phytoplankton (SeaWiFS/MODIS) along a ferry line in the Bay of Biscay and western English Channel. Continental Shelf Research 29, 1111–1122. doi: 10.1016/j.csr.2008.12.012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia-Soto, C., Pingree, R.D. and Valdés, L. (2002) Navidad development in the southern Bay of Biscay: climate change and swoddy structure from remote sensing and in situ measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research 107, np. doi: 10.1029/2001JC001012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia-Soto, C., Sinha, B. and Pingree, R.D. (1996) Mapping a bloom of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi from Airborne Thematic Mapper data. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 76, 839–849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, S.T., Graumlich, L.J., Betancourt, J.L. and Pederson, G.T. (2004) A tree-ring based reconstruction of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation since 1567 AD. Geophysical Research Letters 31, L12205. doi: 10.1029/2004GL019932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goikoetxea, N., Borja, A., Fontán, A., González, M. and Valencia, V. (2009) Trends and anomalies in sea surface temperature observed over the last 60 years, within the south-eastern Bay of Biscay. Continental Shelf Research 29, 1060–1069.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, R. and Barton, E.D. (1990) A poleward flow along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Journal of Geophysical Research 95, 11415–11441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurrell, J.W. (1995) Decadal trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation and relationship to regional temperature and precipitation. Science 269, 676–679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPCC (2001a) Solar forcing of climate. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Working Group I: The Scientific Basis. http://www.ipccc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/244.htmGoogle Scholar
IPCC (2001b) Response to solar forcing. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Scientific Basis. http://www.ipccc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/449.htmGoogle Scholar
IPCC (2007) Summary for policymakers. In Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K.B., Tignor, M. and Miller, H.L. (eds) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Scientific Basis. Contribution of the Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, pp. 2–18.Google Scholar
Kerr, R.A. (2000) A North Atlantic climate pacemaker for the centuries. Science 288, 1984–1986. doi: 10.1126/science.288.5473.1984.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lean, J. and Rind, D. (1998) Climate forcing by changing solar radiation. Journal of Climate 11, 3069–3094.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Cann, B. and Serpette, A. (2009) Intense warm and saline upper ocean inflow in the southen Bay of Biscay in autumn–winter 2006–2007. Continental Shelf Research 29, 1014–1025.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantua, N.J., Hare, S.R., Zhang, Y., Wallace, J.M. and Francis, R.C. (1997) A Pacific interdecadal climate oscillation with impacts on salmon production. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 78, 1069–1079.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milliman, J.D., Farnsworth, K.L., Jones, P.D., Xu, K.H. and Smith, L.C. (2008) Climatic and anthropogenic factors affecting river discharge to the global ocean, 1951–2000. Global and Planetary Change 62, 87–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Planque, B., Beillois, P., Ségou, A.M., Lazure, P., Pettigas, P. and Puillat, I. (2003) Large-scale hydroclimatic variability in the Bay of Biscay: the 1990s in the context of interdecadal changes. ICES Marine Science Symposia 219, 61–70.Google Scholar
Pérez, F.F., Pollard, R.T., Read, J.F., Valencia, V., Cabanas, J.M. and Rios, A.F. (2000) Climatological coupling of the thermohaline decadal changes in Central Water of the Eastern North Atlantic. Scientia Marina 64, 347–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D. (1994) Winter warming in the southern Bay of Biscay and Lagrangian eddy kinematics from a deep-drogued Argos buoy. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 74, 107–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D. (2002) Ocean structure and climate (Eastern North Atlantic): in situ measurement and remote sensing (altimeter). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 82, 681–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D. (2005) North Atlantic and North Sea Climate Change, curl up, shut down, NAO and Ocean Colour. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 85, 1301–1315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D., Holligan, P.M. and Head, R.N. (1977) Survival of dinoflagellate blooms in the western English Channel. Nature 265, 266–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D. and Le Cann, B. (1989) Celtic and Armorican slope and shelf residual currents. Progress in Oceanography 23, 303–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D. and Le Cann, B. (1990) Structure, strength and seasonality of the slope currents in the Bay of Biscay region. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 70, 124–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D. and Le Cann, B. (1992) Three anticyclonic Slope Water Oceanic Eddies (SWODDIES) in the southern Bay of Biscay in 1990. Deep-Sea Research Part I 39, 1147–1175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D., Pugh, P.R., Holligan, P.M. and Forster, G.R. (1975) Summer phytoplankton blooms and red tides along tidal fronts in the approaches to the English Channel. Nature 258, 672–677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, G.C. (1987) Influence of solar variability on global sea surface temperatures. Nature 329, 142–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, G.C. (1991) Solar total irradiance variations and the global sea surface temperature record. Journal of Geophysical Research 96, 2835–2844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, F.S. (1973) A summary of the observations of the occurrence of planktonic stages of fish off Plymouth 1924–1972. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 53, 347–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, F.S., Southward, A.J., Boalch, G.T. and Butler, E.I. (1971) Changes in biological conditions in the English Channel off Plymouth during the last half century. Nature 234, 468–470. doi: 10.1038/234468a0.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, T.M. and Reynolds, R.W. (2003) Extended reconstruction of global sea surface temperatures based on COADS data (1854–1997). Journal of Climate 16, 1495–1510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, T.M., Reynolds, R.W., Peterson, T.C. and Lawrimore, J. (2008) Improvements to NOAA's historical merged land–ocean surface temperature analysis (1880–2006). Journal of Climate 21, 2283–2296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A.J. (1974) Changes in the plankton community of the Western English Channel. Nature 249, 180–181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Southward, A.J. (1980) The Western English Channel—an inconstant ecosystem? Nature 285, 361–366. doi: 10.1038/285361a0.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A.J., Langmead, O., Hardman-Mountford, N.J., Aiken, J., Boalch, G.T., Dando, P.R., Genner, M.J., Joint, I., Kendall, M.A., Halliday, N.C., Harris, R.P., Leaper, R., Mieszkowska, N., Pingree, R.D., Richardson, A.J., Sims, D.W., Smith, T., Walne, A.W. and Hawkins, S.J. (2005) Long-term oceanographic and ecological research in the Western English Channel. In Southward, A.J., Tyler, P.A., Young, C.M. and Fuiman, L.A. (eds) Advances in Marine Biology, Volume 47. San Diego CA: Elsevier Academic Press, pp. 1–105.Google Scholar
Timmerman, A., Latif, M., Voss, R. and Grotzner, A. (1998) Northern hemispheric interdecadal variability: a coupled air sea model. Journal of Climate 11, 1906–1931.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xue, Y., Smith, T.M. and Reynolds, R.W. (2003) Interdecadal changes of 30-yr SST normals during 1871–2000. Journal of Climate 16, 601–1612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Y., Wallace, J.M. and Battisti, D.S. (1997) ENSO-like interdecadal variability: 1900–93. Journal of Climate 10, 1004–1020.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar