Pelagic primary production in the Algero-Provençal Basin by means of multisensor satellite data: focus on interannual variability and its drivers

In this work, we make use of satellite estimates of chlorophyll a , photosynthetically active radiation and sea surface temperatures, to compute regional estimates of primary production integrated throughout the euphotic layer for the Algero-Provençal Basin, by means of a modified version of the vertically generalized production model. The seasonal and interannual variability of the primary production has been analysed over the decade 1997–2007. Empirical orthogonal functions analysis has been applied to decompose the variability of the primary production dataset in orthogonal modes of variability. The seasonal signal is distributed between the two first modes of variability, temporally shifted each other and respectively related to the northern (early spring) and the southern (winter) part of the basin. We found a minimum of the annual production in 2003, when a summer heatwave strongly enhanced the stratification of surface waters, further limiting the injection of nutrients into the surface layers. Maxima in the annual series are found in 1999 and 2005, due to two particularly intense and extended (in space) spring-blooms in the northern part of the basin. These two maxima, clearly identified in space and time by EOF analysis (EOF1 and EOF3), are related to strong mistral-wind interannual events occurring during winters of 1999 and 2005, preceding the blooms by some few months. We found that these production maxima are due both to a more intense production in the usual blooming area (shown by EOF1–PC1) as well as to an exceptional local production in the eastern side of the basin, off the Corsica western coasts (EOF3–PC3). Previous observations of exceptional deep-water formation events in 1999 and 2005, with easterly spots close to the primary production-observed anomalies, and the meridional character of the mistral 1999 and 2005 peaks both support the idea that such eastern PP interannual maxima would be actually due to exceptional production more than to an easterly advection of biomass from the usual bloom area. Finally, the potential link of the observed features with large-scale atmospheric forcing is discussed, and a potential relation of such interannual events with the East Atlantic pattern is drawn.