Differences in warming trends between coastal upwelling areas and the adjacent ocean

Resumo

The SST variability observed during the last century both at coastal and ocean locations will be analyzed in terms of upwelling and the thermohaline circulation intensity. Then, the differences in the variability of temperature and heat content between coastal and ocean locations will be analyzed for the upper 700 m from 1975 to 2006 providing information about the vertical structure of temperature changes. As far as we know a similar analysis has never been done before in this area, where only SST patterns had been considered. Changes in the water masses more relevant along the Atlantic continental shelf of the Iberian Peninsula (ENACW and MW) will be also analyzed from seventies on. For this purpose, trends in salinity and temperature corresponding to the ENACW and MW isopycnal will be analyzed to determine the rate of change of ENACW and MW. This analysis will allow knowing the influence of water masses in trends of Atlantic water vertical profiles. The study of ocean warming in this region will continue analyzing the existence of trends in the frequency of extreme hot days over the satellite era (1982-2011). More specifially, the differences between ocean and coastal trends will be analyzed both at seasonal and annual scale. Similar studies will be extended first to the Moroccan sub- region of the Canary Upwelling Ecosystem and then along the Benguela Current System. Both regions characterized by persistent upwelling through the year although with seasonal variations. In the Moroccan sub- region of the Canary Upwelling Ecosystem, regional differences in the SST warming rates between coast and ocean locations at the same latitude will be analyzed in terms of local forcing factors like wind and air temperature and remote forcing factors like atmospheric circulation patterns from 1982 to 2010. Finally, the differences in coastal and ocean SST trends will be studied along the Benguela Current System analyzing the key role played by the persistent coastal upwelling. New research, which will constitute a continuation of the analysis carried out in this manuscript, should be addressed to analyze the differences observed in temperature and salinity trends at coastal and ocean locations in other upwelling regions like the California Current System, Peru, the Somalia coast or the western coast of Australia taking into account remote (atmospheric modes, ocean circulations) and local (wind, upwelling) forcing factors.