The 2011 marine heat wave in Cockburn Sound, southwest Australia

[摘要] Over 2000 km of Western Australian coastline experienced a significant marineheat wave in February and March 2011. Seawater temperature anomalies of+2–4 °C were recorded at a number of locations, andsatellite-derived SSTs (sea surface temperatures) were the highest on record. Here, we present seawatertemperatures from southwestern Australia and describe, in detail, the marineclimatology of Cockburn Sound, a large, multiple-use coastal embayment. Wecompared temperature and dissolved oxygen levels in 2011 with data fromroutine monitoring conducted from 2002–2010. A significant warming event,2–4 °C in magnitude, persisted for > 8 weeks, and seawatertemperatures at 10 to 20 m depth were significantly higher than thoserecorded in the previous 9 yr. Dissolved oxygen levels were depressed atmost monitoring sites, being ~ 2 mg l⁻¹ lower than usual inearly March 2011. Ecological responses to short-term extreme events arepoorly understood, but evidence from elsewhere along the Western Australiancoastline suggests that the heat wave was associated with high rates of coralbleaching; fish, invertebrate and macroalgae mortalities; and algal blooms.However, there is a paucity of historical information onecologically-sensitive habitats and taxa in Cockburn Sound, so that formalexaminations of biological responses to the heat wave were not possible. The2011 heat wave provided insights into conditions that may become moreprevalent in Cockburn Sound, and elsewhere, if the intensity and frequency ofshort-term extreme events increases as predicted.

[学科分类] 海洋学与技术