Modes of tropical climate variability, such as the El Niño– Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Indian Ocean Basinwide Mode (IOBM), the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), and the Atlantic Equatorial Mode (AEM) (sometimes referred to as the Atlantic Zonal Mode, or Atlantic Niño) interact most readily via the atmosphere. Sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the tropics drive changes in the Walker Ci...

Air-water exchange gradients of selected polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners across a large section of the tropical Atlantic suggested net volatilization of PCBs to the atmosphere. Only for the higher chlorinated PCB 153 and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) were gradients near equilibrium detected. The use of passive samplers also enabled the detection of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and i...

The population structure and mitochondrial (mt) DNA diversity of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) are described from 146 individuals sampled on 4 winter calving grounds (Argentina, South Africa, Western Australia, and the New Zealand sub-Antarctic) and 2 summer feeding grounds (South Georgia and south of Western Australia). Based on a consensus region of 275 base pairs of the mtDNA c...

Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABFT) has always displayed spectacular changes in its spatial distribution, but the underlying mechanism of such variations still remains obscure. This study focuses on this challenging issue by scrutinizing the intriguing ‘Brazilian episode’ during which a large quantity of ABFT (a temperate species) was caught during the 1960s in the equatorial Atlantic. To investigate ...

By screening variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) loci, multiple paternity within clutches has been found in wild populations of southern European Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and brown trout (Salmo trutta). For Atlantic salmon, we determined the relative contribution of alternative male phenotypes to the next generation. Individual males that are morphologically juvenile yet sexually matur...

This article investigates through numerical experiments the controversial question of the impact of El Nin̂o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomena on climate according to large-scale and regional-scale interhemispheric thermal contrast. Eight experiments (two considering only inversed Atlantic thermal anomalies and six combining ENSO warm phase with large-scale interhemispheric contrast and Atla...

The sensitivity of North Atlantic Deep Water formation to variations in mean surface temperature is explored with a meridional-vertical plane ocean model coupled to an energy balance atmosphere. It is found that North Atlantic Deep Water formation is favored by a warm climate, while cold climates are more likely to produce Southern Ocean deep water or deep-decoupling oscillations (when the Sout...

Monthly precipitation data from the Global Historical Climatology Network for 42 stations in Morocco and its vicinity are investigated with respect to baroclinicity, storm track and cyclone activity, moisture transports, North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) variations, and different circulation types by means of correlation and composite studies. The results are related to a climate change scenario...

A sediment core from the western tropical Atlantic covering the last 21,000 yr has been analysed for centennial scale reconstruction of sea surface temperature (SST) and ice volume-corrected oxygen isotopic composition of sea water (d18Oivc-sw) using Mg/Ca and dO of the shallow dwelling planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides ruber (white). At a period between 15.5 and 17.5 kyr BP, the Mg/Ca SST...

To the Editor: Alter et al. (1) use estimates of genetic diversity in eastern North Pacific gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus, to infer historic levels of abundance of this species in the North Pacific. However, the expected level of genetic diversity within local populations connected by gene flow to other populations is that of the global population (2). Alter et al. (1) assessed the possibl...