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Climate Variability Drives Plankton Community Composition Changes: the 2010-2011 El Nino to La Nina Transition Around AustraliaThe strong La Nina of 2010-2011 provided an opportunity to investigate the ecological impacts of El Nino-Southern Oscillation on coastal plankton communities using the nine national reference stations around Australia. Based on remote sensing and across the entire Australian region 2011 (La Nina) was only modestly different from 2010 (El Nino) with the average temperature declining 0.2 percent surface chlorophyll a up 3 percent and modelled primary production down 14 percent. Other changes included a poleward shift in Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus. Along the east coast, there was a reduction in salinity, increase in nutrients, Chlorophytes and Prasinophytes (taxa with chlorophyll b, neoxanthin and prasinoxanthin). The southwest region had a rise in the proportion of 19-hexoyloxyfucoxanthin; possibly coccolithophorids in eddies of the Leeuwin Current and along the sub-tropical front. Pennate diatoms increased, Ceratium spp. decreased and Scrippsiella spp. increased in 2011. Zooplankton biomass declined significantly in 2011. There was a reduction in the abundance of Calocalanus pavo and Temora turbinata and increases in Clausocalanus farrani, Oncaea scottodicarloi and Macrosetella gracilis in 2011. The changes in the plankton community during the strong La Nina of 2011 suggest that this climatic oscillation exacerbates the tropicalization of Australia.
Document ID
20150023392
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Thompson, Peter A.
(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Hobart, Australia)
Bonham, Pru
(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Hobart, Australia)
Thomson, Paul
(Western Australia Univ. Crawley, Australia)
Rochester, Wayne
(Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO) Dutton Park, Queensland, Australia)
Doblin, Martina A.
(University of Technology Sydney, Australia)
Waite, Anya M.
(Western Australia Univ. Crawley, Australia)
Richardson, Anthony
(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Dutton Park, Queensland, Australia)
Rousseaux, Cecile S.
(Universities Space Research Association Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
December 18, 2015
Publication Date
September 1, 2015
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Plankton Research
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Volume: 37
Issue: 5
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Oceanography
Life Sciences (General)
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN28223
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG11HP16A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
phytoplankton
nutrients
zooplankton

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