Understanding the internal ocean variability and its influence on climate is imperative for society. A key aspect concerns the enigmatic Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), a feature defined by a 60- to 90-year variability in North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures. The nature and origin of the AMO is uncertain, and it remains unknown whether it represents a persistent periodic driver in t...

The impact of the environment on interannual variability in fish recruitment has proven difficult to establish empirically, and environment-recruitment correlations have often been found to break down when more data become available. This may suggest that the statistical models have failed to capture the essential explanatory variables, or that environment-recruitment relationships are non-stat...

Article history: Marine ecosystems are und Received 22 November 2006 Received in revised form 14 May 2007 Accepted 24 November 2008 Available online 20 February 2009

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the variability in the Pacific subtropical highs (PSHs) have major impacts on social and ecological systems. Here we present an Atlantic capacitor effect mechanism to suggest that the Atlantic is a key pacemaker of the biennial variability in the Pacific including that in ENSO and the PSHs during recent decades. The 'charging' (that is, ENSO imprintin...

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) is distributed in coastal and inland habitats all over Europe, but spawns in the Sargasso Sea and is thus affected by both continental and oceanic factors. Since the 1980s a steady decline has been observed in the recruitment of glass eels to freshwater and in total eel landings. The eel is considered as critically endangered on the International Union fo...

The variability of North Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane tracks, and its relationship to climate variability, is explored. Tracks from the North Atlantic hurricane database for the period 1950–2007 are objectively separated into four groups using a cluster technique that has been previously applied to tropical cyclones in other ocean basins. The four clusters form zonal and meridional sep...

During the twentieth century sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean exhibited prominent multidecadal variations. The source of such variations has yet to be rigorously established—but the question of their impact on climate can be investigated. Here we report on a set of multimodel experiments to examine the impact of patterns of warming in the North Atlantic, and cooling in the South A...

The relations of decadal to multidecadal (D2M) variability in global sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) with D2M variability in the flow of the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) are examined for the years 19062003. Results indicate that D2M variability of SSTs in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, tropical Pacific, and Indian Oceans is associated with D2M variability of the UCRB. A principal compo...