This chapter reviews the progress made in the past decade in understanding tropical Atlantic climate variability. In addition to an equatorially anti-symmetric seasonal cycle forced directly by the seasonal march of the sun, Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) displays a pronounced annual cycle on the equator that results from continental monsoon forcing and air-sea interaction. This cycle i...

The blue shark (Prionace glauca) is a large pelagic carcharhinid that is widely distributed in the world’s oceans. Throughout its range, it is considered the most abundant species of large shark (McKenzie and Tibbo, 1964; Casey, 1982). In the Atlantic, the blue shark is distributed from Newfoundland to Argentina in the west and Norway to South Africa, including the Mediterranean, in the east (C...

Approximately synchronous with the onset of Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1), δC decreased throughout most of the upper (~1000–2500m) Atlantic, and at some deeper North Atlantic sites. This early deglacial δC decrease has been alternatively attributed to a reduced fraction of high-δC North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) or to a decrease in the NADW δC source value. Here we present new benthic δO and δC rec...

We present the global phylogeography of the black sea urchin Arbacia lixula, an amphi-Atlantic echinoid with potential to strongly impact shallow rocky ecosystems. Sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase gene of 604 specimens from 24 localities were obtained, covering most of the distribution area of the species, including the Mediterranean and both shores of the Atlantic. Genetic d...

Thirteen parasite taxa were identified in the Mediterranean swordfish by morphological and genetic/molecular methods. The comparison of the identified parasite taxa and parasitic infection values observed in the Mediterranean swordfish showed statistically significant differences with respect to those reported for its Atlantic populations. A stepwise Linear Discriminant Analysis of the individu...

—Sightings and captures of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar that have escaped from aquaculture facilities have become common in coastal British Columbia, Canada. A lack of empirical data has prevented the forecast of what effects may result from the presence of this species in the Pacific Northwest. A first step towards this objective is to evaluate the spawning potential of escaped Atlantic salmon....

Modes of tropical climate variability, such as the El Niño– Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Indian Ocean Basinwide Mode (IOBM), the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), and the Atlantic Equatorial Mode (AEM) (sometimes referred to as the Atlantic Zonal Mode, or Atlantic Niño) interact most readily via the atmosphere. Sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the tropics drive changes in the Walker Ci...

This study analyzes a three-member ensemble of experiments, in which 0.1 Sv of freshwater was applied to the North Atlantic for 100 years in order to address the potential for large freshwater inputs in the North Atlantic to drive abrupt climate change. The model used is the GFDL R30 coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model. We focus in particular on the effects of this forcing on the...

The Atlantic Ocean is a long sinuous ocean which originated during the Mesozoic following the breakup of the supercontinent of Pangea. For most of its length, the eastern and western boundaries are clearly defined by land masses, except where it is separated from the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico by troughs and trenches. The northern and southern limits are more difficult to define. To the n...

Recent global coupled model experiments suggest that the atmospheric bridge across Central America is a key conduit for Atlantic climate change to affect the tropical Pacific. A high-resolution regional ocean– atmosphere model (ROAM) of the eastern tropical Pacific is used to investigate key processes of this conduit by examining the response to a sea surface temperature (SST) cooling over the ...