story by Helen Hill for MITgcm
Researchers at the University of Hawaii Manoa and the Coral Reef Research Foundation, Palau use ECCO state estimates in their study of how western tropical Pacific temperature conditions impact coral bleaching.
Bo Qiu and Shuiming Chen (U. Hawaii) and Patrick Colin (Palau) have been investigating how upper-ocean circulation impacts coral reef health in the western tropical Pacific Ocean, A paper describing their work appears in Geophysical Research Letters.
Bo Qiu is a professor of Oceanography at SOEST (the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology) at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. His scientific interests include large-scale ocean circulation variability, mid-latitude air-sea interaction, geophysical fluid dynamics, and satellite oceanography.
Reef ecosystems rely on a relationship between the coral polyps and symbiotic algae that live within the coral,” Qiu explains. “A rise in the ambient temperature causes the algae to be expelled. Unless the thermal stress is removed the coral will die within weeks.
The researchers report that around the 500+ island archipelago of Palau in the western tropical Pacific, moderate to severe coral bleaching occurred in 1998, 2010, 2016, 2017, and 2020. Combining in-situ water temperature data with analysis of the output from a data-assimilated ocean state estimate based on the latest (version 4, release 4) version of the ECCO state estimate, the team presents evidence that coral bleaching severity in the western tropical Pacific does not depend simply on the intensities of the conventional tropical El-Niño and La Niña events.
”We find evidence that regional intrinsic ocean variability and upper ocean thermal structures pre-conditioned by the region’s interannually-varying circulation also play critical roles in controlling the thermal stress levels for coral reefs around Palau,” says Qiu. The study is supported by NASA’s Physical Oceanography Program.
ECCO version 4 release 4 (v4r4) covers the period 1992-2017, and represents ECCO’s latest ocean state estimate. An updated edition to that is described by Forget et al. (2015, Geosci. Model Dev.). Version 4 is the first multi-decadal ECCO estimate that is truly global, including the Arctic Ocean. ECCO synthesizes ocean observations with MITgcm model fields to provide global high-resolution coupled ocean/sea-ice/biochemical state estimates to the research community. The Release 4 edition, which you can read about it in more detail here, includes improvements in time-period (1992-2017), model (e.g., sea-ice), observations (e.g., GRACE, Aquarius), and constraints (e.g., correlated errors).
To find out more about this work contact Bo
Story image: Bleached coral – By Acropora at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30432059.
This Month’s Featured Publication
- Bo Qiu, Patrick L. Colin, Shuiming Chen (2021), Time-Varying Upper Ocean Circulation and Control of Coral Bleaching in the Western Tropical Pacific, Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2021GL093632
Related Publication
- G. Forget, J.-M. Campin, P. Heimbach, C. N. Hill, R. M Ponte, and C. Wunsch (2015), ECCO version 4: an integrated framework for non-linear inverse modeling and global ocean state estimation, Geosci. Model Dev., doi: 10.5194/gmdd-8-3653-2015
Other New Publications for June & July, 2021
Tushar Athawale et al (2021), Statistical Rendering for Visualization of Red Sea Eddy Simulation Data, arXiv: 2106.12138 [cs.GR] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2106.12138.pdf
Yue Bai, Yan Wang, and Andrew L. Stewart (2021), Does Topographic Form Stress Impede Prograde Ocean Currents? Journal of Physical Oceanography, doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-20-0189.1
Frederick Bingham and Susannah Brodnitz (2021), Sea Surface Salinity Short Term Variability in the Tropics, Ocean Science, doi: 10.5194/os-2021-51
Antonello Bruschi et al (2021), Indexes for the assessment of bacterial pollution in bathing waters from point sources: The northern Adriatic Sea CADEAU service, Journal of Environmental Management, doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112878
Qi’an Chen et al (2021), Model Simulation of M2 Internal Tide at the Mariana Double Ridges, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, doi: 10.3390/jmse9060592
Kaylie Cohanim, Ken X. Zhao, and Andrew L. Stewart (2021), Dynamics of Eddies Generated by Sea Ice Leads, Journal of Physical Oceanography, doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-20-0169.1
Aditya Kumar Dubey et al (2021), Present and future projections of heatwave hazard-risk over India: A regional earth system model assessment, Environmental Research, doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111573
Xuewu Fu et al (2021), Mass-Independent Fractionation of Even and Odd Mercury Isotopes during Atmospheric Mercury Redox Reactions, Environmental Science and Technology, doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c02568
Rachel Furner, Peter Haynes, Dave Munday, Brooks Paige, Daniel C. Jones, and Emily Shuckburgh (2021), Sensitivity analysis of a data-driven model of ocean temperature, Geoscientific Model Development Discussions, doi: 10.5194/gmd-2021-132
Alireza Ghane, Leon Boegman (2021), Turnover in a small Canadian shield lake, Limnology and Oceanography, doi: 10.1002/lno.11884
E. González, K. Purkiani,V. Buck, F. Stäbler and J. Greinert (2021), Spatiotemporal visualisation of a deep sea sediment plume dispersion experiment, Workshop on Visualisation in Environmental Sciences (EnvirVis) (2021) S. Dutta and K. Feige and K. Rink and D. Zeckzer (Editors) doi: 0.2312/envirvis.20211082
Ian Grooms (2021), A comparison of nonlinear extensions to the ensemble Kalman filter Gaussian Anamorphosis and Two-Step Ensemble Filters, arXiv: 2107.07475 [stat.CO] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.07475.pdf
Sultan Hameed, Christopher L. P. Wolfe, and Lequan Chi (2021), Icelandic Low and Azores High Migrations Impact Florida Current Transport in Winter, Journal of Physical Oceanography, doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-20-0108.1
Mehmet Ilicak et al. (2021), Modeling of the Turkish Strait System Using a High Resolution Unstructured Grid Ocean Circulation Model, J. Mar. Sci. Eng., doi: 10.3390/jmse9070769
Tong Jia, Jianjun Liang, Qiang Li, Jin Sha, Xiao-Ming Li (2021), Generation of Shoreward Nonlinear Internal Waves South of the Hainan Island: Synthetic Aperture Radar Observations and Numerical Simulations, JGR Oceans, doi: 10.1029/2021JC017334
Yavor Kostov et al (2021), Distinct sources of interannual subtropical and subpolar Atlantic overturning variability, Nature Geoscience, doi: 10.1038/s41561-021-00759-4
Elspeth K.H. Lee et al (2021), Simulating gas giant exoplanet atmospheres with Exo-FMS: Comparing semi-grey, picket fence and correlated-k radiative-transfer schemes, arXiv: 2106.11664 [astro-ph.EP] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2106.11664.pdf
Eun Ae Lee, Sung Yong Kim (2021), A diagnosis of surface currents and sea surface heights in a coastal region, Continental Shelf Research, doi: 10.1016/j.csr.2021.104486
Lu, Y., Wang, X. & Dong, J. (2021), Melt Pond Scheme Parameter Estimation Using an Adjoint Model, Adv. Atmos. Sci., doi: 10.1007/s00376-021-0305-x
Erin M. May et al (2021), Spitzer phase curve observations and circulation models of the inflated ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-76b, arXiv: 2107.03349 [astro.ph.EP] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.03349.pdf
Michel Michaelovitch de Mahiques et al (2021), New insights of the influence of ocean circulation on the sedimentary distribution in the Southwestern Atlantic margin (23° S to 55° S) based on Nd and Pb isotopic fingerprinting, Ocean Science, doi: 10.5194/os-2021-4
Vigan Mensah et al (2021), Dense water downslope flow and AABW production in a numerical model: Sensitivity to horizontal and vertical resolution in the region off Cape Darnley polynya, Ocean Modelling, doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2021.101843
Mingfang Miao (2021), On contributions of multiscale dynamic processes to the steric height in the northeastern South China Sea as revealed by moored observations, Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2021GL093829
Eric J. Morgan et al. (2021), An atmospheric constraint on the seasonal air-sea exchange of oxygen and heat in the extratropics, Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans, doi: 10.1029/2021JC017510
Munir Ahmad Nayak and Waqar Ul Hassan (2021), A synthesis of drought prediction research over India, Water Security, doi: 10.1016/j.wasec.2021.100092
Nikolaos Papagiannopoulos (2021), Phytoplankton Biomass and the Hydrodynamic Regime in NEOM, Red Sea, Remote Sensing, doi: 10.3390/rs13112082
Stuart Patching (2021), On Divergence- and Gradient-Preserving Coarse-Graining for Finite Volume Primitive Equation Ocean Models, arXiv: 2107.05577 [physics.ao-ph] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.05577.pdf
Tyler Pelle (2021), Projecting the evolution of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica, over the 21st century using ice-ocean coupled models, Doctoral Dissertation UC Irvine, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1mm588j4
Bo Qiu, Patrick L. Colin, Shuiming Chen (2021), Time-Varying Upper Ocean Circulation and Control of Coral Bleaching in the Western Tropical Pacific, Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2021GL093632
Hennes Rave et al. (2021), Multi-faceted Visual Analysis of Oceanographic Simulation Ensemble Data, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, doi: 10.1109/MCG.2021.3098096
R. D. Ray, J.-P. Boy, B. K. Arbic, G. D. Egbert, S. Y. Erofeeva, L. Petrov, J. F. Shriver (2021), The problematic ψ1 ocean tide, Geophysical Journal International, doi: 10.1093/gji/ggab263
Alexander Roth and Vivien Parmentier (2021), Exploring Hot Jupiter Atmospheres with a Grid of 150 Parameterised Non-Grey GCM Simulations., EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 15, EPSC2021-744, 2021
European Planetary Science Congress 2021, https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2021/EPSC2021-744.html
Gianmaria Sannino et al (2021), Modelling Present and Future Climate in the Mediterranean Sea: A Focus on Sea-Level Change, Climate Dynamics (under review), doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-653703/v1
Aaron Schneider, Ludmila Carone, Leen Decin, and Uffe Jorgensen (2021), Connecting the atmosphere and the interior in extrasolar gas planets, EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 15, EPSC2021-583, 2021, European Planetary Science Congress 2021,
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2021/EPSC2021-583.html
Christopher R. Sherwood et al. (2021), I. Shevchenko, P. Berlof (2021), Modeling the Morphodynamics of Coastal Responses to Extreme Events: What Shape Are We In?
Annual Review of Marine Science, doi: 10.1146/annurev-marine-032221-090215
Snow, T.M. (2021), Evaluating Fjord and Coastal Sea Surface Temperatures and Their Implications for Glacier Variability in Greenland and Antarctica, University of Colorado at Boulder Doctoral Dissertation, ProQuest 28316920 https://www.proquest.com/openview/d8a83430edc53f0420135422c5b2e959/1
Helena M. Solo-Gabriele et al (2021), Towards integrated modeling of the long-term impacts of oil spills, Marine Policy, doi: 10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104554
Frédéric Soulignac et al (2021), Rapid changes in river plume dynamics caused by advected wind-driven coastal upwelling as observed in Lake Geneva, Limnology and Oceanography, doi: 10.1002/lno.11864
Michael A. Spall, Mattia Almansi, Jie Huang, Thomas W.N. Haine, Robert S. Pickart (2021), Lateral redistribution of heat and salt in the Nordic Seas, Progress on Oceanography, doi: 10.1016/j.pocean.2021.102609
Schevchenko, I, and P. Berloff (2021), On a minimum set of equations for parameterisations in comprehensive
ocean circulation models, arXiv: 2107.03473 [physics.ao-ph] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.03473.pdf
Yong-Jin Tak, Hajoon Song and Yang-Ki Cho (2021), Impact of the reemergence of North Pacific subtropical mode water on the multi-year modulation of marine heatwaves in the North Pacific Ocean during winter and early spring, Environmental Research letters, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac0cad
Shang-Min Tsai, Maria Steinrueck, Vivien Parmentier, Nikole Lewis, and Raymond Pierrehumbert (2021), Compositional Variations of the Highly Eccentric Planet HD 80606b, EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 15, EPSC2021-684, 2021
European Planetary Science Congress 2021, https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2021/EPSC2021-684.html
Wagner, Charlotte (2021), Global Modeling of Persistent Organic Pollutants in an Era of Changing Emissions and Climate, Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/37368205
Pinqiang Wang et al (2021), Ocean satellite data assimilation using the implicit equal-weights variational particle smoother, Ocean Modelling, doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2021.101833
Shuya Wang, Anzhou Cao, Qun Li, Xu Chen (2021), Reflection of K1 Internal Tides at the Continental Slope in the Northern South China Sea, JGR Oceans, doi: 10.1029/2021JC017260
Yue Wu et al. (2021), Decadal Variability of the Upper Ocean Salinity in the Southeast Indian Ocean: Role of Local Ocean-Atmosphere Dynamics, Journal of Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0122.1
Kaihe Yamazaki et al (2021), Multidecadal poleward shift of the southern boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current off East Antarctica, Scientific Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abf8755
Xiaoting Yang and Eli Tziperman (2021), Mid-depth Ocean Stratification: Southern Ocean eddies vs interior vertical diffusivity, arXiv: 2105.15153 [physics.ao-ph] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2105.15153.pdf
Varvara E. Zemskova, Brian L. White, and Alberto Scotti (2021), Energetics of a Rotating Wind-Forced Horizontal Convection Model of a Reentrant Channel, Journal of Physical Oceanography, doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-19-0169.1
Changpeng Zhang and Xin Zhao (2021), Theoretical method for calculating the sea ice elastic modulus in an ocean wave model, Applied Ocean Research, doi: 10.1016/j.apor.2021.102800
Zheen Zhang, Xueen Chen and Thomas Pohlmann (2021), The Impact of Fortnightly Stratification Variability on the Generation of Baroclinic Tides in the Luzon Strait, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, doi: 10.3390/jmse9070703
Zhihua Zhang and M. James C. Crabbe (2021), Management of environmental streaming data to optimize Arctic shipping routes, Arabian Journal of Geosciences, doi: 10.1007/s12517-021-07782-0
Do you have news about research using MITgcm? We are looking for contributions to these pages. If you have an interesting MITgcm project (ocean, atmosphere, sea-ice, physics, biology or otherwise) that you want to tell people about, get in touch. To make a post, contact Helen