Nearshore, seasonally persistent fronts in sea surface temperature on Red Sea tropical reefs
نویسندگان
چکیده
Temperature variability was studied on tropical reefs off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea using remote sensing from Aqua and Terra satellites. Cross-shore gradients in sea surface temperature (SST) were observed, including cold fronts (colder inshore) during winter and warm fronts (warmer inshore) during summer. Fronts persisted over synoptic and seasonal time-scales and had a periodic annual cycle over a 10-year time-series. Measurements of cross-shore SST variability were conducted at the scale of tens of kilometres, which encompassed temperature over shallow tropical reef complexes and the continental slope. Two tropical reefs that had similar reef geomorphology and offshore continental slope topography had identical cold fronts, although they were separated by 100 km along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. Satellite SST gradients across contours of topography of tropical reefs can be used as an index to flag areas potentially exposed to temperature stress.
منابع مشابه
Effect of sea surface temperature (SST) changes on coral ecosystems in Kish Island
Background and Theoretical Foundations: Coral reefs are one of the world's most attractive ecosystems. They have been covering large parts of the world in the tropic areas. Coral reefs in the Iranian waters of the Persian Gulf are largely limited to the Islands. Many factors, including natural and anthropogenic activities cause stress to the reef communities affecting reef development. Coral bl...
متن کاملDecadal increase in seagrass biomass and temperature at the CARICOMP site in Bocas del Toro, Panama.
The Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity Program (CARICOMP) was launched in 1993 to study regional long-term interactions between land and sea, taking standardized measurements of productivity and biomass of mangroves, coral reefs and seagrasses. Since 1999 continuous measurements of seagrass (Thalassia testudinum) parameters as well as environmental data have been recorded in Caribbean Panama...
متن کاملAssessment of fish biodiversity in artificial reefs of the Persian Gulf ( Hormozgan province ,Salakh and Bostaneh ports)
Artificial reefs are used for increasing of aquatic biodiversity and stock rehabilitation in the word. Fish Biodiversity was evaluated in artificial reefs that is located in Bandar –E-Salakh ((Qeshm island, concrete pipe (St1)), Bandar-E-Bostaneh ((Bandar-E- Lengeh) concrete pipe, St2) and St3 (Bandar-E-Bostaneh concrete pipe, pyramidal and Reef ball) in 20 meters. For this purpose, these sele...
متن کاملAbsence of genetic differentiation in the coral Pocillopora verrucosa along environmental gradients of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea
*Correspondence: Christian R. Voolstra, Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Building 2, Room 2226, 23955-6900 Thuwal, Saudi Arabia e-mail: christian.voolstra@ kaust.edu.sa The Red Sea is the world’s northernmost tropical sea. The 2000 km long, but narrow basin creates distinct environmental conditions along its latitudinal spread. The Red Sea displays a ...
متن کاملRemote Sensing the Phytoplankton Seasonal Succession of the Red Sea
The Red Sea holds one of the most diverse marine ecosystems, primarily due to coral reefs. However, knowledge on large-scale phytoplankton dynamics is limited. Analysis of a 10-year high resolution Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) dataset, along with remotely-sensed sea surface temperature and wind, provided a detailed description of the spatiotemporal seasonal succession of phytoplankton biomass in the R...
متن کامل