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Science 13 March 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5920, pp. 1470 - 1473
DOI: 10.1126/science.1164533
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Reports

Recent Changes in Phytoplankton Communities Associated with Rapid Regional Climate Change Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula

Martin Montes-Hugo,1 Scott C. Doney,2 Hugh W. Ducklow,3 William Fraser,4 Douglas Martinson,5 Sharon E. Stammerjohn,6 Oscar Schofield1

The climate of the western shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is undergoing a transition from a cold-dry polar-type climate to a warm-humid sub-Antarctic–type climate. Using three decades of satellite and field data, we document that ocean biological productivity, inferred from chlorophyll a concentration (Chl a), has significantly changed along the WAP shelf. Summertime surface Chl a (summer integrated Chl a ~63% of annually integrated Chl a) declined by 12% along the WAP over the past 30 years, with the largest decreases equatorward of 63°S and with substantial increases in Chl a occurring farther south. The latitudinal variation in Chl a trends reflects shifting patterns of ice cover, cloud formation, and windiness affecting water-column mixing. Regional changes in phytoplankton coincide with observed changes in krill (Euphausia superba) and penguin populations.

1 Coastal Ocean Observation Lab, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
2 Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
3 The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
4 Polar Oceans Research Group, Post Office Box 368, Sheridan, MT 59749, USA.
5 Lamont-Doherty Earth Institute, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
6 Ocean Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: montes{at}marine.rutgers.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Z. V. Finkel, J. Beardall, K. J. Flynn, A. Quigg, T. A. V. Rees, and J. A. Raven (2009)
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Parameterizing plankton functional type models: insights from a dynamical systems perspective.
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