Unsung heroes in the spotlight: a look at Marine Ecological Time Series, and what they are telling us about the ocean
Dr Laura Lorenzoni, University of South Florida (USF)
Tuesday 5 December, 15:00 GMT/UTC
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Understanding marine biogeochemical and ecological changes at a global scale is in the forefront of the scientific agenda worldwide. The IOC-UNESCO International Group for Marine Ecological Time Series (IGMETS) analyzed over 340 open ocean and coastal datasets from ship-based time series, ranging in duration from five years to greater than 50 years. Their locations are displayed in a world map (Discover Ocean Time Series, http://igmets.net/discover) and in the IGMETS information database (http://igmets.net/metabase). These cross‐ time‐ series analyses yielded important insights on climate trends occurring both on a global and regional scale (http://igmets.net/explorer). The report promises to be useful for years to come, having set a baseline of global and regional observations at an unprecedented scale.
Ship‐ based biogeochemical time series provide the high‐quality biological, physical and chemical measurements that are needed to detect climate change‐driven trends in the ocean, assess associated impacts on marine food webs, and to ultimately improve our understanding of changes in marine biodiversity and ecosystems. They are an integral part of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). While the spatial ‘footprint’ of a single time series may be limited, coupling observations from multiple time series with synoptic satellite data can improve our understanding of critical processes such as ocean productivity, ecosystem variability, and carbon fluxes on a larger spatial scale. At a global level, a generalized warming trend is observed over the past thirty years, consistent with what has been published by the IPCC (2013) report as well as other research. There are regional differences in temperature trends, depending on the time window considered, which are driven by regional and temporal expressions of large‐ scale climatic forcing and atmospheric teleconnections. This warming is accompanied by shifts in the biology and biogeochemical cycling (i.e. oxygen, nutrient, carbon), which impact marine food webs and ecosystem services. Each ocean basin is explored in the Report, and analyses are made on the trends observed. The IGMETS effort highlights the value of biogeochemical time series as essential tools for assessing, and predicting, global and regional climate change and its impacts on ecosystem services.
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