Open AccessResearch Spotlight: Coastal cooling and marine productivity increasing off Peru
Author(s) -
Tretkoff Ernie
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2011eo210009
Subject(s) - upwelling , productivity , oceanography , environmental science , climate change , global warming , sea surface temperature , geology , sediment , paleontology , economics , macroeconomics
The upwelling system off Peru is of environmental and economic importance due to its high fish productivity. It has been suggested that global warming may be leading to increasing temperature differences between the coast and the ocean, causing increases in alongshore wind stress and coastal upwelling in this zone. Upwelling brings nutrients from deep waters toward the surface, increasing biological productivity. To confirm reported trends of increasing coastal cooling and rising biological productivity, Gutiérrez et al. analyzed sediment records spanning the past 150 years as well as instrumental records from the main upwelling zone off Peru. They found that sea surface temperatures have been declining since the 1950s in the main upwelling zone. The cooling trend is likely linked to increased upwelling in spring, during which there is enhanced biological productivity. ( Geophysical Research Letters , doi:10.1029/2010GL046324, 2011)