Chemical and Biological Oceanographic Conditions on the Scotian Shelf and in the Eastern Gulf of Maine during 2022

Chemical and Biological Oceanographic Conditions on the Scotian Shelf and in the Eastern Gulf of Maine during 2022 Chemical and biological oceanographic conditions observed in the Maritimes Region in 2022 are presented. Surface and deep inventories of nitrate and silicate were near or above normal in the eastern part of the region while the surface and deep phosphate inventories remained near or below normal across the region. Inventories of in situ chlorophyll-a have indicated important spatial and temporal variability across the region apart from the Bay of Fundy where below normal levels have been observed since 2014. Abnormally high surface chlorophyll-a concentrations measured by remote sensing were observed during winter 2022. Observations in recent years suggest earlier and longer spring phytoplankton blooms with higher-than-normal amplitude and magnitude. Diatom abundance has remained lower than normal in the Bay of Fundy while reaching near-normal levels on the central Scotian Shelf in the last two years. The overall zooplankton biomass and the abundance of Calanus finmarchicus and Arctic Calanus species remained mainly below normal levels in 2022. Observations from the Continuous Plankton Recorder confirm the main regional trends observed in phyto- and zooplankton abundances. Observations in Bedford Basin in recent years have indicated generally warmer-than-normal conditions, near-normal chlorophyll-a concentrations, and mainly near or higher-than-normal bottom nutrient (nitrate, silicate and phosphate) concentrations 2024-05-29 Fisheries and Oceans Canada DFO.OESDDataRequest-DSEMDemandededonnes.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca Nature and EnvironmentOceans Figure 06: Euphotic depth at the Maritimes high-frequency sampling stations (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Optics_Stations_P5_Timeseries.zip Figure 08: Nitrate inventories at the Maritimes high-frequency sampling stations (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_8.zip Figure 09: Annual anomaly scorecards for surface (0–50 m) and deep (50–150 m) nitrate, silicate, and phosphate inventories (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_9.zip Figure 13 : Chlorophyll a inventory at the Maritimes high-frequency sampling stations (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_13.zip Figure 14 : Phytoplankton abundance and community composition at the Maritimes high-frequency sampling stations (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_14.zip Figure 20 : Zooplankton (> 200 µm) abundance and community composition at the Maritimes high-frequency sampling stations (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_20.zip Figure 21 : Annual anomaly scorecards for zooplankton abundance and biomass (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_21.zip Figure 22 : Copepod abundance and composition at the Maritimes high-frequency sampling stations (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_22.zip Figure 24 : Calanus finmarchicus abundance and developmental stage distribution at the Maritimes high-frequency sampling stations (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_24.zip Figure 25 : Zooplankton biomass at the Maritimes high-frequency sampling stations (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_25.zip Figure 26 : Calanus finmarchicus abundance during the ecosystem trawl surveys (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_26.zip Figure 27 : Mesozooplankton dry biomass during the ecosystem trawl surveys (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_27.zip Figure 28 : Calanus finmarchicus abundance during the seasonal surveys on the core sections (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_28.zip Figure 29 : Mesozooplankton dry biomass during the seasonal surveys on the core sections (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_29.zip Figure 30 : Annual anomaly scorecard for non-copepod groups abundance on the Scotian Shelf sections (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_30.zip Figure 31 : Annual anomaly scorecards for copepod indicator species grouped abundance (English)ZIP https://api-proxy.edh.azure.cloud.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/f5c04517-f71d-4c43-8bc3-2aeb671011f9/attachments/Figure_31.zip Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 3589HTML https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2024/mpo-dfo/Fs97-6-3589-eng.pdf.

Chemical and biological oceanographic conditions observed in the Maritimes Region in 2022 are presented. Surface and deep inventories of nitrate and silicate were near or above normal in the eastern part of the region while the surface and deep phosphate inventories remained near or below normal across the region. Inventories of in situ chlorophyll-a have indicated important spatial and temporal variability across the region apart from the Bay of Fundy where below normal levels have been observed since 2014. Abnormally high surface chlorophyll-a concentrations measured by remote sensing were observed during winter 2022. Observations in recent years suggest earlier and longer spring phytoplankton blooms with higher-than-normal amplitude and magnitude. Diatom abundance has remained lower than normal in the Bay of Fundy while reaching near-normal levels on the central Scotian Shelf in the last two years. The overall zooplankton biomass and the abundance of Calanus finmarchicus and Arctic Calanus species remained mainly below normal levels in 2022. Observations from the Continuous Plankton Recorder confirm the main regional trends observed in phyto- and zooplankton abundances. Observations in Bedford Basin in recent years have indicated generally warmer-than-normal conditions, near-normal chlorophyll-a concentrations, and mainly near or higher-than-normal bottom nutrient (nitrate, silicate and phosphate) concentrations

Data and Resources

Contact Information

Administrative Area: Nova Scotia

Postal Code: B2Y 4A2

Country: Canada

Electronic Mail Address: DFO.OESDDataRequest-DSEMDemandededonnes.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Similar records