Characterization of the northern Red Sea's oceanic features with remote sensing data and outputs from a global circulation model

Eladawy, Ahmed; Nadaoka, Kazuo; Negm, Abdelazim; Abdel-Fattah, Sommer; Hanafy, Mahmoud; Shaltout, Mohamed

doi:10.1016/j.oceano.2017.01.002

Cited by 52 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…density gradients; Sofianos & Johns, 2007). In fact, the complex dynamical processes that generate the surface eastward flows in response to the northward pressure gradient lead to down-welling along the eastern boundary and up-welling along the western boundary (Eladawy et al, 2017;Sofianos & Johns, 2003). Also, wind stress induces a gyre circulation pattern in the north, and a strong southward flow along the northwest coast of the Red Sea (Sofianos & Johns, 2003;Zhai, Bower, Smethie, & Pratt, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal refugia against coral bleaching throughout the northern Red Sea

Osman

Smith

Ziegler

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

186

242

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Tropical reefs have been impacted by thermal anomalies caused by global warming that induced coral bleaching and mortality events globally. However, there have only been very few recordings of bleaching within the Red Sea despite covering a latitudinal range of 15° and consequently it has been considered a region that is less sensitive to thermal anomalies. We therefore examined historical patterns of sea surface temperature (SST) and associated anomalies (1982-2012) and compared warming trends with a unique compilation of corresponding coral bleaching records from throughout the region. These data indicated that the northern Red Sea has not experienced mass bleaching despite intensive Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) of >15°C-weeks. Severe bleaching was restricted to the central and southern Red Sea where DHWs have been more frequent, but far less intense (DHWs <4°C-weeks). A similar pattern was observed during the 2015-2016 El Niño event during which time corals in the northern Red Sea did not bleach despite high thermal stress (i.e. DHWs >8°C-weeks), and bleaching was restricted to the central and southern Red Sea despite the lower thermal stress (DHWs < 8°C-weeks). Heat stress assays carried out in the northern (Hurghada) and central (Thuwal) Red Sea on four key reef-building species confirmed different regional thermal susceptibility, and that central Red Sea corals are more sensitive to thermal anomalies as compared to those from the north. Together, our data demonstrate that corals in the northern Red Sea have a much higher heat tolerance than their prevailing temperature regime would suggest. In contrast, corals from the central Red Sea are close to their thermal limits, which closely match the maximum annual water temperatures. The northern Red Sea harbours reef-building corals that live well below their bleaching thresholds and thus we propose that the region represents a thermal refuge of global importance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal refugia against coral bleaching throughout the northern Red Sea

Osman

Smith

Ziegler

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

186

242

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“…Sr/Ca in aragonitic coral skeletons is a temperature proxy. Sea surface temperature in the northern Red Sea is mainly controlled by variations in air temperature and sea level pressure (SLP; Eladawy et al, ), reflecting changes in atmospheric circulation. Subtracting the temperature component from coral δ 18 O provides a reconstruction of seawater δ 18 O that, in general, closely reflects salinity (Cahyarini et al, ; Felis et al, ; Gagan et al, ; Hendy et al, ; Nurhati et al, ; Ren et al, ; Zinke et al, ), which in the arid northern Red Sea is controlled primarily by surface evaporation (Eshel et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mild and Arid Climate in the Eastern Sahara‐Arabian Desert During the Late Little Ice Age

Felis

Ionita

Rîmbu

et al. 2018

Geophysical Research Letters

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The climate of the Sahara and Arabian Deserts during the Little Ice Age is not well known, due to a lack of annually resolved natural and documentary archives. We present an annual reconstruction of temperature and aridity derived from Sr/Ca and oxygen isotopes in a coral of the desert‐surrounded northern Red Sea. Our data indicate that the eastern Sahara and Arabian Deserts did not experience pronounced cooling during the late Little Ice Age (~1750–1850) but suggest an even more arid mean climate than in the following ~150 years. The mild temperatures are broadly in line with predominantly negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation during the Little Ice Age. The more arid climate is best explained by meridional advection of dry continental air from Eurasia. We find evidence for an abrupt termination of the more arid climate after 1850, coincident with a reorganization of the atmospheric circulation over Europe.

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“…The outputs from a realistic numerical model are used to perform synthetic observational experiments that help to calibrate the mapping algorithm. The model chosen is the GLORYS.S2V4 (Ferry et al, 2010) global reanalysis. It is performed with NEMOv3.1 ocean model with a horizontal resolution of 0.25 • and 75 vertical z levels.…”

Section: Model Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal evolution of temperatures in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden based on in situ observations (1958–2017)

et al. 2020

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Abstract. The Red Sea holds one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world, although fragile and vulnerable to ocean warming. Several studies have analysed the spatio-temporal evolution of temperature in the Red Sea using satellite data, thus focusing only on the surface layer and covering the last ∼30 years. To better understand the long-term variability and trends of temperature in the whole water column, we produce a 3-D gridded temperature product (TEMPERSEA) for the period 1958–2017, based on a large number of in situ observations, covering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. After a specific quality control, a mapping algorithm based on optimal interpolation have been applied to homogenize the data. Also, an estimate of the uncertainties of the product has been generated. The calibration of the algorithm and the uncertainty computation has been done through sensitivity experiments based on synthetic data from a realistic numerical simulation. TEMPERSEA has been compared to satellite observations of sea surface temperature for the period 1981–2017, showing good agreement especially in those periods when a reasonable number of observations were available. Also, very good agreement has been found between air temperatures and reconstructed sea temperatures in the upper 100 m for the whole period 1958–2017, enhancing confidence in the quality of the product. The product has been used to characterize the spatio-temporal variability of the temperature field in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at different timescales (seasonal, interannual and multidecadal). Clear differences have been found between the two regions suggesting that the Red Sea variability is mainly driven by air–sea interactions, while in the Gulf of Aden the lateral advection of water plays a relevant role. Regarding long-term evolution, our results show only positive trends above 40 m depth, with maximum trends of 0.045 + 0.016 ∘C decade−1 at 15 m, and the largest negative trends at 125 m (-0.072+0.011 ∘C decade−1). Multidecadal variations have a strong impact on the trend computation and restricting them to the last 30–40 years of data can bias high the trend estimates.

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Characterization of the northern Red Sea's oceanic features with remote sensing data and outputs from a global circulation model

Cited by 52 publications

References 69 publications

Thermal refugia against coral bleaching throughout the northern Red Sea

Thermal refugia against coral bleaching throughout the northern Red Sea

Mild and Arid Climate in the Eastern Sahara‐Arabian Desert During the Late Little Ice Age

Temporal evolution of temperatures in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden based on in situ observations (1958–2017)

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