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Effects of Meteorological Factors on Toxic Red Tide Events in Sabah, Malaysia
Author(s) -
Usup Gires,
Lung Yu Kim
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
marine ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.668
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1439-0485
pISSN - 0173-9565
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0485.1991.tb00262.x
Subject(s) - red tide , upwelling , environmental science , climatology , oceanography , monsoon , dinoflagellate , geology
. Red tides of the toxic dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense var. compressum have occurred almost annually since 1976 in the coastal waters of the west coast of Sabah, Malaysia. Field obSérvations have indicated that the timings of these outbreaks could be linked to meteorological forcings. All the red tides have occurred during either the northeast or southwest monsoon periods. Matching of red tide outbreaks with total monthly rainfall, monthly‐averaged index of wind‐induced surface water mixing, and monthly‐averaged upwelling index for the period from 1975 to 1989 failed to show any definite pattern. However, more red tide events occurred in months with high mixing index values. The absence of definable patterns could be due to the use of monthly, rather than daily, values in the calculations.