Response of the Arabian Sea to global warming and associated regional climate shift

• Published in: Marine environmental research Vol. 68; no. 5; pp. 217 - 222
• Main Authors: Kumar, S. Prasanna, Roshin, Raj P., Narvekar, Jayu, Kumar, P.K. Dinesh, Vivekanandan, E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2009; Elsevier; Elsevier science
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Arabian Sea; Biological and medical sciences; Carbon Dioxide - analysis; Climate; Climate change; Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change; Cyclones; Cyclonic Storms - statistics & numerical data; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; Food quantity; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Geography; Global warming; Greenhouse Effect; Indian Ocean; Inertia; Marine; Meteorology; Oceans and Seas; Rain; Rainfall; Regional; Sea surface temperature; Sea water ecosystems; Seawater - chemistry; Synecology; Temperature; Triticum - economics; Triticum - growth & development; Triticum aestivum; Vegetation cover; Wheat production; Winter; Winter temperature; Indian Ocean; Arabian Sea; ISW, Arabian Sea; ISW, India; Climate change; Vegetation cover; Food quantity; Rainfall; Arabian Sea; Cyclones; Sea surface temperature; Winter temperature; Wheat production; Sea surface; Monocotyledones; Climate; Surface temperature; Marine environment; Rain; Gramineae; Angiospermae; Plant cover; Warming; Feeding; Dynamical climatology; Global change; Cereal; Spermatophyta; Wheat; Triticum aestivum; cyclones; rainfall; food quantity; winter temperature; vegetation cover; wheat production; sea surface temperature
• ISSN: 0141-1136; 1879-0291
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2009.06.010

The response of the Arabian Sea to global warming is the disruption in the natural decadal cycle in the sea surface temperature (SST) after 1995, followed by a secular warming. The Arabian Sea is experiencing a regional climate-shift after 1995, which is accompanied by a five fold increase in the occurrence of “most intense cyclones”. Signatures of this climate-shift are also perceptible over the adjacent landmass of India as: (1) progressively warmer winters, and (2) decreased decadal monsoon rainfall. The warmer winters are associated with a 16-fold decrease in the decadal wheat production after 1995, while the decreased decadal rainfall was accompanied by a decline of vegetation cover and increased occurrence of heat spells. We propose that in addition to the oceanic thermal inertia, the upwelling-driven cooling provided a mechanism that offset the CO 2-driven SST increase in the Arabian Sea until 1995.