Figure 4: Effects of large-scale climate and local physical forcing on biological processes in the coastal WAP.
From: Winter and spring controls on the summer food web of the coastal West Antarctic Peninsula
Generalized illustration summarizing how individual and combined winter and spring climate, weather and physical oceanographic processes (see months July–February on x axis) cascade from phytoplankton to krill recruitment in a negative Southern Annular Mode (−SAM) in July and spring (left panel) and a positive SAM (+SAM) in July and spring (right panel). Depth of temperature minimum (Tmin) in the remnant Winter Water layer in the region was estimated from Stations B and E November–December averages. All other properties (phytoplankton, krill, krill eggs and sigma-theta) are generalized for qualitative illustration (more versus less), and do not represent quantitative differences between negative and positive SAM. Note: female E. superba spawn over deeper water; this illustration is meant to depict relative egg production.
