Revisiting chlorophyll data along the coast in north-central Chile, considering multiscale environmental variability

Abstract

Phytoplankton abundance in the surface mixed layer of the coastal ocean responds to environmental changes at various time scales. Here the "warm", "cold" and "neutral" phases of "three environmental cycles" have been jointly considered to assess chlorophy-a (Chl-a) biomass variability for both the active and relaxed phases of the local, winddriven coastal upwelling: (i) the interannual ENSO cycle (ii) the annual (seasonal) cycle and (iii) the intraseasonal cycle associated with equatorially-sourced, ocean trapped-waves along the coast in northern Chile. The main goal of this study is to quantitatively assess the variability of the depth- integrated Chl-a biomass in the euphotic zone (3/4Chl-a) in terms of an overall "environmental condition" over a 50 km upwelling sensitive coastal strip, revisiting published and unpublished Chl-a ship (Cship = Chl-a + Phaeopigments) data. All possible "environmental conditions" combinations were further ranked into seven "environmental indices" rangin