Sea Surface Temperature Influence on Terrestrial Gross Primary Production along the Southern California Current
Date
2015-04-29
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Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLOS)
Abstract
Some land and ocean processes are related through connections (and synoptic-scale teleconnections)
to the atmosphere. Synoptic-scale atmospheric (El Niño/Southern Oscillation
[ENSO], Pacific Decadal Oscillation [PDO], and North Atlantic Oscillation [NAO]) decadal
cycles are known to influence the global terrestrial carbon cycle. Potentially, smaller scale
land-ocean connections influenced by coastal upwelling (changes in sea surface temperature)
may be important for local-to-regional water-limited ecosystems where plants may
benefit from air moisture transported from the ocean to terrestrial ecosystems. Here we use
satellite-derived observations to test potential connections between changes in sea surface
temperature (SST) in regions with strong coastal upwelling and terrestrial gross primary production
(GPP) across the Baja California Peninsula. This region is characterized by an arid/
semiarid climate along the southern California Current. We found that SST was correlated
with the fraction of photosynthetic active radiation (fPAR; as a proxy for GPP) with lags
ranging from 0 to 5 months. In contrast ENSO was not as strongly related with fPAR as SST
in these coastal ecosystems. Our results show the importance of local-scale changes in
SST during upwelling events, to explain the variability in GPP in coastal, water-limited ecosystems.
The response of GPP to SST was spatially-dependent: colder SST in the northern
areas increased GPP (likely by influencing fog formation), while warmer SST at the southern
areas was associated to higher GPP (as SST is in phase with precipitation patterns). Interannual
trends in fPAR are also spatially variable along the Baja California Peninsula with
increasing secular trends in subtropical regions, decreasing trends in the most arid region,
and no trend in the semi-arid regions. These findings suggest that studies and ecosystem
process based models should consider the lateral influence of local-scale ocean processes
that could influence coastal ecosystem productivity.
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Citation
Reimer JJ, Vargas R, Rivas D, Gaxiola- Castro G, Hernandez-Ayon JM, Lara-Lara R (2015) Sea Surface Temperature Influence on Terrestrial Gross Primary Production along the Southern California Current. PLoS ONE 10(4): e0125177. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125177