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Variations of the Eco-Hydro-Climatic Environment Response to the 2015/2016 Super El Niño Event in the Mindanao Dome Upwelling System

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Abstract

A super El Niño event occurred in the equatorial Pacific during 2015–2016, accompanied by considerable regional eco-hydro-climatic variations within the Mindanao Dome (MD) upwelling system in the tropical western Pacific. Using timeseries of various oceanic data from 2013 to 2017, the variability of eco-hydro-climatic conditions response to the 2015/2016 super El Niño in the upper 300 m of the MD region are analyzed in this paper. Results showed that during the 2015/2016 super El Niño event, the upwelling in the MD region was greatly enhanced compared to those before and after this El Niño event. Upwelling Rossby waves and the massive loss of surface water in the western Pacific were suggested to be the main reasons for this enhanced upwelling. Decreased precipitation caused by changes in large-scale air-sea interaction led to the increased surface salinities. Changes in the structures of the thermohaline and nutrient distribution in deep waters contributed to the increased surface chlorophyll a, suggesting a positive effect of El Niño on surface carbon storage in the MD region. Based on the above analysis, the synopsis mechanism illustrating the eco-hydro-climatic changing processes over the MD upwelling system responding to the El Niño event was proposed. It highlights the prospect for the role played by El Niño in local eco-hydro-climatic effects, which has further profound implications for understanding the influence of the global climate changes on the ocean carbon cycle.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nos. XDB42010203, XDA19060401), the Science & Technology Basic Resources Investigation Program of China (No. 2017FY100802), the Open fund for Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. MGE2019KG03), and Post-Doctoral Program in Qingdao in 2019 (No. Y9KY161). The authors gratefully acknowledge the IPRC/APDRC and AVISO+ for providing the Argo-based data and satellite-based products.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Wei Gao, Zhenyan Wang & Haijun Huang

  2. Laboratory for Marine Mineral Resources, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Zhenyan Wang

  3. Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Zhenyan Wang & Haijun Huang

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Zhenyan Wang & Haijun Huang

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  1. Wei Gao
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  2. Zhenyan Wang
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Correspondence to Zhenyan Wang.

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Gao, W., Wang, Z. & Huang, H. Variations of the Eco-Hydro-Climatic Environment Response to the 2015/2016 Super El Niño Event in the Mindanao Dome Upwelling System. J. Ocean Univ. China 21, 69–80 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-022-4695-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-022-4695-x

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