A Baseline Study of the Oceanography of the Chagos Archipelago
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A Baseline Study of the Oceanography of the Chagos Archipelago Lewis Fasolo Honours Dissertation 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would firstly like to acknowledge my supervisor Anya Waite for her wealth of knowledge that she so openly shared, and our consistent meetings that left me with a strong sense of direction. She went above and beyond, and was never out of reach. I would also like to thank my co-supervisor Jessica Meeuwig for her guidance, support and leadership during the three-week voyage through the Chagos Archipelago. Although her plate was full, she always made time to assist me. I was very impressed with her role as Research voyage leader. My thanks also go out to the crew and fellow scientists on board the Pacific Marlin for all their assistance. I was so fortunate to be a part of this unique voyage with a great group of people all wanting to achieve a common goal. It was an experience I will treasure and never forget. 2 ABSTRACT The Chagos Archipelago is a chain of islands, atolls, seamounts and shallow banks situated in the geographical centre of the tropical Indian Ocean, covering some 640,000km2. The region supports one of the healthiest marine ecosystems in the cleanest waters in the world. Investigating the oceanographic conditions within this no- take marine reserve will contribute to our global understanding of how the oceanic environment drives biodiversity in pristine tropical regions. This paper explores the first ever localised oceanography associated with shallow seamounts in the Chagos region. Over a three-week voyage, CTD casts and water samples to quantify chlorophyll-a values were conducted over high and low resolution transects throughout the archipelago to characterize vertical profiles regionally and across individual seamounts. Through the analysis of various shallow features, including the Great Chagos Bank, the Solomon Islands and Victory bank it became very evident that there was 1) Shoaling, in both fluorescence and temperature, over regions of shallowing near islands and seamounts, and 2) an increase in total integrated chlorophyll over shallow areas. This was confirmed through visual Ocean Data View sectional plots, as wall as thorough statistical regression analysis. We confirm the presence of localized upwelling, which is associated with an increase in phytoplankton concentration, likely, fuelled by increased local primary production in this region. Although our findings were centred around the Archipelago, the study has implications for increased primary production regionally, and a flow on effect to higher trophic levels. 3 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................................. 1 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Table of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Glossary ............................................................................................................................................................. 5 Abbreviations .................................................................................................................................................. 6 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 7 1.1 Aims ......................................................................................................................................................... 8 2. Literature Review ...................................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Climate tides and nutrients ............................................................................................................ 9 2.2 Thermocline Ridge .......................................................................................................................... 10 2.3 Seamounts .......................................................................................................................................... 11 2.4 Water masses .................................................................................................................................... 14 3. Methods ....................................................................................................................................................... 17 3.1 Study Area ........................................................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Chlorophyll-a ................................................................................................................................. 20 3.3 CTD Deployment ........................................................................................................................... 23 3.4 Statistical analysis ........................................................................................................................ 23 3.5 Acoustics .......................................................................................................................................... 24 4. Results…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………25 4.1 Spatial overview of the entire Archipelago……………………………………………………….26 4.2 High resolution Transect: Great Chagos Bank ...................................................................... 29 4.3 High resolution Seamount Transect: Sandes Seamount ................................................... 32 4.4 Shoaling In The Northern Regions of The Archipelago ..................................................... 34 4.5 Cross Section of a Shoaling thermocline ................................................................................. 36 4.6 Spatial patterns of Shoaling and Chlorophyll-a Peaks ....................................................... 39 4.7 Statistical analysis ........................................................................................................................... 40 4.8 Acoustic Comparison ...................................................................................................................... 41 5. DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................................... 42 5.1 Significant Results ........................................................................................................................... 42 5.2 Impacts on Higher Trophic Levels ......................................................................................... 43 5.3 Regional controls of Productivity .......................................................................................... 45 5.4 Relevance ........................................................................................................................................ 45 5.5 Limitations/future studies ....................................................................................................... 46 6. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 47 7. Recommendations ............................................................................................................................... 48 8. References .................................................................................................................................................. 49 4 Table of Figures Figure 1- SCTR: temperature and chlorophyll variability………………………………………….11 Figure 2- Acoustics over Hancock Seamount........................................................................... 12 Figure 3- Chagos Temperature-salinity plot. .............................................................................15 Figure 4- Temperature Profile ......................................................................................................16 Figure 5- Oxygen Profile………………………………………….............…………………………….16 Figure 6- CTD Patterns through the Archipelago....................................................................18 Figure 7- Calibrating Fluorescence .......................................................................................... 22 Figure 8- CTD Deployment. .......................................................................................................... 22 Figure 9- Sectional Plot of entire archipelago ................................................................. 26 Figure 10- High resolution Transect of GCB .......................................................................... 29 Figure 11- Sectional Plot of Sandes Seamount............................................................. 32 Figure 12- Sectional Plot of Northern Archipelago................................................................... 34 Figure 13- Solomon Islands: Shoaling thermocline ................................................................. 36 Figure 14- Integrates Surface Plots ……………......................................................................... 38 Figure 15- Scatter Plot