A reassessment of the integrated impact of tropical cyclones on surface chlorophyll in the western subtropical North Atlantic

作者：Foltz Gregory R^*; Balaguru Karthik; Leung L Ruby

来源：Geophysical Research Letters, 2015, 42(4): 1158-1164.

DOI：10.1002/2015GL063222

The impact of tropical cyclones on surface chlorophyll concentration is assessed in the western subtropical North Atlantic Ocean during 1998-2011. Previous studies in this area focused on individual cyclones and gave mixed results regarding the importance of tropical cyclone-induced mixing for changes in surface chlorophyll. Using a more integrated and comprehensive approach that includes quantification of cyclone-induced changes in mixed layer depth, here it is shown that accumulated cyclone energy explains 22% of the interannual variability in seasonally averaged (June-November) chlorophyll concentration in the western subtropical North Atlantic, after removing the influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The variance explained by tropical cyclones is thus about 70% of that explained by the NAO, which has well-known impacts in this region. It is therefore likely that tropical cyclones contribute significantly to interannual variations of primary productivity in the western subtropical North Atlantic during the hurricane season.

• 出版日期2015-2-28