Ocean climate and hydrodynamics drive decadal shifts in Northeast Atlantic dinoflagellates

The abundance of large marine dinoflagellates has declined in the North Sea since 1958. Although hypotheses have been proposed to explain this diminution (increasing temperature and wind), the mechanisms behind this pattern have thus far remained elusive. In this article, we study the long-term changes in dinoflagellate biomass and biodiversity in relation to hydro-climatic conditions and circulation within the North-Atlantic. Our results show that the decline in biomass has paralleled an increase in biodiversity caused by a temperature-induced northward movement of subtropical taxa along the European shelf-edge, and facilitated by changes in oceanic circulation (subpolar gyre contraction). However, major changes in North Atlantic hydrodynamics in the 2010s (subpolar gyre expansion and low-salinity anomaly) stopped this movement, which triggered a biodiversity collapse in the North Sea. Further, North Sea dinoflagellate biomass remained low because of warming. Our results, therefore, re..., , , # Ocean climate and hydrodynamics drive decadal shifts in Northeast Atlantic dinoflagellates

published in Global Change Biology.

The content of each '.mat' file is described below:
-Dino_north_sea_data_all.mat
*yrs2 = a vector with the years from 1958 to 2020
*dino_tot_yrs = a vector with the mean annual changes in dinoflagellates biomass in the North Sea
*sp_rich_yrs = a vector with the annual changes in dinoflagellates taxonomic richness in the North Sea

-Dino_north_sea_data_group.mat
*dino_1_yrs = a vector with the mean annual changes in biomass of the Warm-haline assemblage in the North Sea
*dino_2_yrs = a vector with the mean annual changes in biomass of the Psychrophilous assemblage in the North Sea
*dino_3_yrs = a vector with the mean annual changes in biomass of the Temperate assemblage in the North Sea
*dino_4_yrs = a vector with the mean annual changes in biomass of the Temperate-haline assemblage in the North Sea
*dino_5_yrs = a vector with the mean annual changes in bioma...