A Warm and A Cold Spot in Cape Cod Waters Amid the Recent New England Shelf Warming

Despite the widely recognized warming of New England Continental Shelf (NES), climate patterns shelf’s economically and ecologically important coastal environments remain less examined. Here we use a satellite sea-surface temperature (SST) analysis gridded on 0.05°C spatial resolution to show, for first time, existence warm cold spot in environs Cape Cod, Massachusetts amid NES past 15 years. The refers an increasing trend shallow waters Nantucket Sound sheltered by islands Martha’s Vineyard Nantucket. summer SST maxima have increased 3.1±1.0°C ( p<0.1 ), about three times faster than elsewhere NES, season has lengthened 20 ± 7 days ). cooling over Shoals, area sandy shelf that extends south southeast from Island also known strong tidal mixing. during June–August reduced -2.5±1.2°C ) shortened -32 11 Away Cod waters, broad is attributable forward shifted annual cycle. shift most significant August–November, which temperatures lingered longer into fall, producing pronounced delaying onset fall 13 6 different phenology trends displayed respective spot, highlight highly dynamically diverse responses under warming. Finally, study showed datasets affects characterization heterogeneity nearshore SSTs. used Optimum Interpolation (OISST) 0.25°C was Although two agree well with measurements moored buoys at four locations, OISST does not shows higher rate shelf.