Contrasting correlation patterns between environmental factors and chlorophyll levels in the global ocean

Abstract

In this study we analyze large-scale satellite-derived data using generalized additive models to characterize the global correlation patterns between environmental forcing and marine phytoplankton biomass. We found systematic differences in the relationships between key environmental drivers (temperature, light, and wind) and ocean chlorophyll in the subtropical/tropical and temperate oceans. For the subtropical/tropical and equatorial oceans, the chlorophyll generally declined with increasing temperature and light, while in temperate oceans, chlorophyll was best explained by bell-shaped or positive functions of temperature and light. The relationship between chlorophyll and wind speed is generally positive in low-latitude oceans and bell shaped in temperate oceans. Our analyses also demonstrated strong and geographically consistent positive autoregressive effects of chlorophyll from 1 month to the next and negative autoregressive effects for measurements 2 months apart. These findings imply possibly different regional phytoplankton responses to environmental forcing, suggesting that future environmental change could affect the tropical and temperate upper ocean chlorophyll levels differently.