Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Environmental variability in the Gulf of Guinea large marine ecosystem: physical features, forcing and fisheries

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Hardman-Mountford, Nicholas John (2000) Environmental variability in the Gulf of Guinea large marine ecosystem: physical features, forcing and fisheries. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP_THESIS_HardmanMountford_2000.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (7Mb)
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b1372077~S15

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This thesis examines the forcing and behaviour of oceanographic physical features, relevant to recruitment in fish populations, in the Gulf of Guinea Large Marine Ecosystem, on seasonal and interannual time scales. Remotely sensed sea-surface temperature (SST) data covering the period 1981–1991 was used to identify and describe a number of oceanographic features, including the Senegalese Upwelling influence, the Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire coastal upwelling, river run-off, fronts and the previously unrecorded observation of shelf-break cooling along the coast of Liberia and Sierra Leone during the boreal winter. Interannual variability in SST was observed on an approximate three year scale and an extended warm phase was noted between 1987 and 1991. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to further investigate the variance structure of these SST data and this technique was shown to be able to accurately define boundaries of the Gulf of Guinea system and its constituent subsystems. River discharge data from throughout the Gulf of Guinea was also investigated using PCA, confirming the hydroclimatic regions identified by Mahé and Olivry (1999). The boundaries between these regions correspond closely to those identified between subsystems in the SST data, suggesting a degree of coupling between oceanographic and meteorological variability in the Gulf of Guinea. To further investigate this coupling, local climate data and global/basin scale indices were compared qualitatively and statistically with remotely sensed and in situ SST data and indices of interannual variability in oceanographic features. A new basin scale index was proposed as a measure of zonal atmospheric variability in the subtropical North Atlantic (SNAZI) and this was shown to be the dominant mode of climate variability forcing SST in the Gulf of Guinea. The implications of these results for fisheries recruitment dynamics are discussed.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Subjects: Q Science > QL Zoology
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GC Oceanography
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Marine ecology -- Atlantic Ocean, Ocean temperature -- Atlantic Ocean, Upwelling (Oceanography), Fisheries -- Climatic factors, Guinea, Gulf of -- Climate
Official Date: June 2000
Dates:
DateEvent
June 2000Submitted
Institution: University of Warwick
Theses Department: Department of Biological Sciences
Thesis Type: PhD
Publication Status: Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: McGlade, J. M. (Jacqueline Myriam), 1955- ; Sheppard, Charles (Charles R. C.)
Format of File: pdf
Extent: 312 leaves : ill., charts, maps
Language: eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us