A global assessment of marine heatwaves and their drivers

Neil J. Holbrook (), Hillary A. Scannell, Alexander Gupta, Jessica A. Benthuysen, Ming Feng, Eric C. J. Oliver, Lisa V. Alexander, Michael T. Burrows, Markus G. Donat, Alistair J. Hobday, Pippa J. Moore, Sarah E. Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Dan A. Smale, Sandra C. Straub and Thomas Wernberg
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Neil J. Holbrook: University of Tasmania
Hillary A. Scannell: University of Washington
Alexander Gupta: The University of New South Wales
Jessica A. Benthuysen: Australian Institute of Marine Science
Ming Feng: Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre
Eric C. J. Oliver: University of Tasmania
Lisa V. Alexander: The University of New South Wales
Michael T. Burrows: Scottish Marine Institute
Markus G. Donat: The University of New South Wales
Alistair J. Hobday: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
Pippa J. Moore: Aberystwyth University
Sarah E. Perkins-Kirkpatrick: The University of New South Wales
Dan A. Smale: The Laboratory, Citadel Hill
Sandra C. Straub: The University of Western Australia
Thomas Wernberg: The University of Western Australia

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Marine heatwaves (MHWs) can cause devastating impacts to marine life. Despite the serious consequences of MHWs, our understanding of their drivers is largely based on isolated case studies rather than any systematic unifying assessment. Here we provide the first global assessment under a consistent framework by combining a confidence assessment of the historical refereed literature from 1950 to February 2016, together with the analysis of MHWs determined from daily satellite sea surface temperatures from 1982–2016, to identify the important local processes, large-scale climate modes and teleconnections that are associated with MHWs regionally. Clear patterns emerge, including coherent relationships between enhanced or suppressed MHW occurrences with the dominant climate modes across most regions of the globe – an important exception being western boundary current regions where reports of MHW events are few and ocean-climate relationships are complex. These results provide a global baseline for future MHW process and prediction studies.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10206-z

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