The coral reef sea star Linckia laevigata is common on shallow water coral reefs of the Indo-West Pacific. Its large geographic distribution and comprehensive data from previous studies makes it suitable to examine genetic differentiation and connectivity over large geographical scales. Based on partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene this study investigates the g...

The development of the Indian Ocean basin (IOB) mode and its change under global warming are investigated using a pair of integrations with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Climate Model version 2.1 (CM2.1). In the simulation under constant climate forcing, the El Niño–induced warming over the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) and its capacitor effect on summer northwest Pacific climate are ...

Biological hot spots in the ocean are likely created by physical processes and have distinct oceanographic signatures. Marine predators, including large pelagic fish, marine mammals, seabirds, and fishing vessels, recognize that prey organisms congregate at ocean fronts, eddies, and other physical features. Here we use remote sensing observations from multiple satellite platforms to characteriz...

Trophic structure of the pelagic ecosystems of the western and central pacific ocean

In this study we investigated the influence of sea surface temperature (SST) and Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) on the organization, strength, and distribution of Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs) over the Indo-Pacific region for understanding El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The study is based on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission’s (TRMM) precipitation features dataset during bore...

Eastern tropical Pacific Ocean waters lie at the eastern end of a basin-wide equatorial current system, between two large subtropical gyres and at the terminus of two eastern boundary currents. Descriptions and interpretations of surface, pycnocline, intermediate and deep waters in the region are reviewed. Spatial and temporal patterns are discussed using (1) maps of surface temperature, salini...

Adercotryma glomeratum is one of the most geographically and bathymetrically widespread species of Recent deep-sea benthic foraminifera, but the evolutionary history of this distinct agglutinated species is poorly known. In addition to one or two Recent species probably closely related to A. glomeratum, the Eocene-Oligocene species Adercotryma agterbergi has been described, but we suggest that ...

A four-dimensional variational method has been developed that assimilates XBT and TAO sub-surface temperature data into the Hamburg Ocean Primitive Equation model. The method decreases the misfit between model and observed ocean temperatures by adjusting the surface forcing. The main goal of the assimilation scheme is to improve ocean analyses in the tropical Pacific. As a first study, only win...

The pronghorn spiny lobster Panulirus penicillatus is a highly valuable species which is widely distributed in Indo-West Pacific and Eastern Pacific regions. Mitochondrial DNA control region sequences (566-571 bp) were determined to investigate the population genetic structure of this species in the Indian Ocean. In total, 236 adult individuals of Panulirus penicillatus were collected from five...

Hybridization among sea turtle species has been widely reported in the Atlantic Ocean, but their detection in the Pacific Ocean is limited to just two individual hybrid turtles, in the northern hemisphere. Herein, we report, for the first time in the southeast Pacific, the presence of a sea turtle hybrid between the green turtle Chelonia mydas and the hawksbill turtle Eretmochelys imbricata. Th...