Abstract

In the Ocean, the seasonal cycle is the mode that couples climate forcing to ecosystem response in production, diversity and carbon export. A better characterisation of the ecosystem’s seasonal cycle therefore addresses an important gap in our ability to estimate the sensitivity of the biological pump to climate change. In this study, the regional characteristics of the seasonal cycle of phytoplankton biomass in the Southern Ocean are examined in terms of the timing of the bloom initiation, its amplitude, regional scale variability and the importance of the climatological seasonal cycle in explaining the overall variance. The seasonal cycle was consequently defined into four broad zonal regions; the subtropical zone (STZ), the transition zone (TZ), the Antarctic circumpolar zone (ACZ) and the marginal ice zone (MIZ). Defining the Southern Ocean according to the characteristics of its seasonal cycle provides a more dynamic understanding of ocean productivity based on underlying physical drivers rather than climatological biomass. The response of the biology to the underlying physics of the different seasonal zones resulted in an additional classification of four regions based on the extent of inter-annual seasonal phase locking and the magnitude of the integrated seasonal biomass. This regionalisation contributes towards an improved understanding of the regional differences in the sensitivity of the Southern Oceans ecosystem to climate forcing, potentially allowing more robust predictions of the effects of long term climate trends.

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A schematic summarising the response of phytoplankton biomass to the underlying physics of the different seasonal regimes. Regions in blue represent regions of low ( 0.4) (Region A, light blue) or low seasonal cycle reproducibility (R2  0.25 mgm−3) with either high seasonal cycle reproducibility (Region C, dark green) or low seasonal cycle reproducibility (Region D, light green). Mean (1998–2007) frontal positions are shown for the STF (red), the SAF (black), the PF (orange) and the SACCF (blue).

A schematic summarising the response of phytoplankton biomass to the underlying physics of the different seasonal regimes. Regions in blue represent regions of low (< 0.25 mgm−3) chlorophyll concentration with either high seasonal cycle reproducibility (R2 > 0.4) (Region A, light blue) or low seasonal cycle reproducibility (R2 < 0.4) (Region B, dark blue). Regions in green represent regions of high chlorophyll concentration ( > 0.25 mgm−3) with either high seasonal cycle reproducibility (Region C, dark green) or low seasonal cycle reproducibility (Region D, light green). Mean (1998–2007) frontal positions are shown for the STF (red), the SAF (black), the PF (orange) and the SACCF (blue).