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Unravelling Eastern Pacific and Central Pacific ENSO Contributions in South Pacific Chlorophyll-a Variability through Remote Sensing

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 22:13 authored by Couto, AB, Neil HolbrookNeil Holbrook, Maharaj, MA
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.

History

Publication title

Remote Sensing

Volume

5

Issue

8

Pagination

4067-4087

ISSN

2072-4292

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

MDPA AG

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Effects of climate change on the South Pacific (excl. Australia and New Zealand) (excl. social impacts)

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