A one hundred and seventeen year coastal water temperature record from Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Nixon, Scott W.; Granger, Stephen; Buckley, Betty A.; Lamont, Melissa; Rowell, Brenda

doi:10.1007/bf02803532

Cited by 147 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In the absence of advective fluxes, this implies a depth-averaged temperature increase of approximately 18C yr 21 in 100 m of water (maximum water depth of the continental shelf) and larger increases in shallower water. This is 100 times larger than the observed temperature increase of 18-28C over the last 100 yr (Stearns 1965;Maul et al 2001;Nixon et al 2004;Shearman and Lentz 2010). This discrepancy implies that the mean surface heat flux into the MAB shelf water is removed by some advective process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…Mean surface heat fluxes Q from two meteorological reanalysis products are used, the monthly National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis spanning 1948-2000 Moore and Renfrew 2002) and the Objectively Analyzed Air-Sea Fluxes (OAFlux) spanning 1984-2004(Yu and Weller 2007. Freshwater flux estimates (P 2 E) are from the NCEP reanalysis.…”

Section: Surface Heat and Freshwater Fluxesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Mean Along-Isobath Heat and Salt Balances over the Middle Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf

Lentz

2010

Journal of Physical Oceanography

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The mean heat and salt balances over the Middle Atlantic Bight continental shelf are investigated by testing the hypothesis that surface fluxes of heat or freshwater are balanced by along-isobath fluxes resulting from the mean, depth-averaged, along-isobath flow acting on the mean, depth-averaged, along-isobath temperature or salinity gradient. This hypothesized balance is equivalent in a Lagrangian frame to a column of water, for example, warming because of surface heating as it is advected southward along isobath by the mean flow.Mean depth-averaged temperatures increase from north to south along isobath at a rate of 28C (1000 km) 21at midshelf, which is consistent with the hypothesized balance and mean surface heat flux estimates from the 50-yr NCEP Reanalysis. However, mean surface heat flux estimates from the higher-resolution 20-yr Objectively Analyzed Air-Sea Fluxes (OAFlux) reanalysis are too small to balance the along-isobath heat flux divergence implying a cross-shelf heat flux convergence. It is unclear which surface heat flux estimate, NCEP or OAFlux, is more accurate. The cross-shelf heat flux convergence resulting from the mean cross-shelf circulation is too small to balance the along-isobath heat flux divergence. Mean depth-averaged salinities increase from north to south along isobath at a rate of 1 (psu) (1000 km) 21at midshelf. Mean precipitation and evaporation rates nearly balance so that the net freshwater flux is too small by more than an order of magnitude to account for the observed along-isobath increase in salinity. The cross-shelf salt flux divergence resulting from the mean cross-shelf circulation has the wrong sign to balance the divergence in the along-isobath salt flux. These results imply there must be an onshore ''eddy'' salt flux resulting from the time-dependent current and salinity variability. The along-isobath temperature and salinity gradients compensate for each other so that the mean, depthaveraged, along-isobath density gradient is approximately zero. This suggests that there may be a feedback between the along-isobath density gradient and the onshore salt and heat fluxes that maintains the density gradient near zero.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Surface Heat and Freshwater Fluxesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mean Along-Isobath Heat and Salt Balances over the Middle Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf

Lentz

2010

Journal of Physical Oceanography

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“…Lightships were gradually retired because advances in technology made navigation more reliable and the observational duties were taken up by autonomous moored buoys and shore stations operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In addition to lightship and buoy observations, several long-running sea surface temperature (SST) observations have been made at tide stations (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 1955) and independent institutions, such as the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Nixon et al 2004). The merger of these historical and recent observations presents a unique opportunity to evaluate the long-term temperature variability over the continental shelf along the entire U.S. East Coast.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Sea Surface Temperature Variability along the U.S. East Coast

Shearman

Lentz

2010

Journal of Physical Oceanography

121

115

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Sea surface temperature variations along the entire U.S. East Coast from 1875 to 2007 are characterized using a collection of historical observations from lighthouses and lightships combined with recent buoy and shore-based measurements. Long-term coastal temperature trends are warming in the Gulf of Maine [1.08 6 0.38C (100 yr . Over the last century, temperatures along the northeastern U.S. coast have warmed at a rate 1.8-2.5 times the regional atmospheric temperature trend but are comparable to warming rates for the Arctic and Labrador, the source of coastal ocean waters north of Cape Hatteras (368N). South of Cape Hatteras, coastal ocean temperature trends match the regional atmospheric temperature trend. The observations and a simple model show that along-shelf transport, associated with the mean coastal current system running from Labrador to Cape Hatteras, is the mechanism controlling long-term temperature changes for this region and not the local air-sea exchange of heat.

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“…Significant longterm increases in winter water temperatures have been reported for East Coast USA estuaries (Nixon et al 2004, Allen et al 2008) but were not observed for the Lavaca-Colorado Estuary. The overall average rate of increase in water temperature from 1976 to 2007 along the entire Texas coast has been 0.0428°C yr -1 , which translates into an increase of 1°C in 23 yr (Montagna et al 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Long-term trends in the response of benthic macrofauna to climate variability in the Lavaca-Colorado Estuary, Texas

Pollack¹,

Palmer²,

Montagna³

2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Long-term trends in the response of benthic macrofauna to hydrological conditions were examined in the Lavaca-Colorado Estuary, Texas. Four stations representing a range of salinities in the Lavaca-Colorado Estuary were sampled quarterly for benthic macrofauna and hydrography from April 1988 to October 2008. The relationship between climate variability and local salinity patterns and benthic populations was investigated using the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and North Pacific Index (NPI). Mean salinity declined during the 20 yr study period. Observed changes in salinity were related to river discharge and the ONI because there were more El Niño events in the first half of the study period relative to the second half. Benthic macrofaunal abundance was significantly correlated with salinity, the ONI and the NAO, indicating that global climate variability and the resulting effects on local salinity patterns are important factors shaping benthic macrofaunal communities. There was no significant linear trend in temperature over time, and negative correlations between individual taxa and temperature were likely due to seasonality. While drivers other than physical hydrological factors can obviously affect benthic macrofaunal communities, strong connections between global climate signals, precipitation, and local salinity patterns provided the most plausible mechanistic connection between climatic variability and benthic macrofaunal response in the estuary. An increasingly unstable climate may lead to potentially strong effects in estuarine ecosystems because stability is known to affect diversity and productivity. The vulnerability of estuarine ecosystems to the effects of climate variability will be exacerbated as human population growth and water resource development continues to increase the demand for and stress on coastal and marine resources.

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A one hundred and seventeen year coastal water temperature record from Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Cited by 147 publications

References 21 publications

The Mean Along-Isobath Heat and Salt Balances over the Middle Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf

The Mean Along-Isobath Heat and Salt Balances over the Middle Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf

Long-Term Sea Surface Temperature Variability along the U.S. East Coast

Long-term trends in the response of benthic macrofauna to climate variability in the Lavaca-Colorado Estuary, Texas

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