The Effects of El Niño on the Physical and Biological Oceanography of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is a vast and remote marine protected area (MPA) in the Republic of Kiribati. It is home to thriving coral reef and pelagic ecosystems and can serve as a baseline for monitoring global ocean change. It is located in the Central Equatorial Pacific, a region highly affected by El Niño events. This study quantifies the biological and physical oceanographic impacts within PIPA boundaries of the major 2015-2016 El Niño event. The strength and frequency of El Niño events that impact the region are projected to increase as climate change intensifies and background temperatures continue to rise. This study compares and analyzes in situ data collected along a cruise track from Hawaii to American Samoa, remotely sensed data from the Aqua MODIS satellite, and the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI). It was found that the 2015-2016 El Niño event caused a significant increase in sea surface temperature (SST), a decrease in both surface and subsurface chlorophyll-a concentrations, increased stratification and therefore less vertical mixing, decreased surface nutrients, and a shoaling of the nutricline and mixed layer. From 2002-2018, MEI was significantly positively correlated with SST anomaly and significantly negatively correlated with chlorophyll-a anomaly. The findings of this study suggest that as El Niño events increase in frequency and strength due to climate change, we can expect a decrease in net primary production and an increase in persistent and high SST anomalies in PIPA. These changes could have cascading effects on the marine food web and cause mass coral bleaching events, respectively, and have negative implications for the humans who rely on marine resources in the area and around the globe.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 10, 2019 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Cwikiel, Sadie |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Arrigo, Kevin |
| Advisor | Thomas, Leif |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford University |
|---|---|
| Subject | School of Earth Energy and Environmental Sciences |
| Subject | Phoenix Islands Protected Area |
| Subject | oceanography |
| Subject | El Niño |
| Subject | climate change |
| Subject | marine protected areas |
| Genre | Thesis |
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Collection
Undergraduate Honors Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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- scwikiel@stanford.edu
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