Bahia Magdalena is a coastal lagoon with an enormous biological and fishing wealth; it is located in the Pacific coast of Baja California (Mexico), a transitional zone between tropical and temperate regions which is strongly affected by the global-scale climate phenomena. The objective of this work was to determine the impact of the unusual and consecutive warming events known as The Blob (TB2013–2015) and the 2015–2016 El Niño on the hydrological characteristics and plankton communities, the lower levels of the trophic web, from January 2015 to December 2017. This coastal lagoon lacks river runoff and primary producers depend on the upwelling’s nutrient supply. The environmental variables analyzed were the upwelling index (PFEL-NOAA), the air and sea temperature, salinity, nutrients, and chlorophyll-a. The species composition, species richness and the Shannon-Weiner diversity index were used to describe some aspects of the phytoplankton community structure and its phenology. The biomass and mortality of zooplankton also were analyzed. The seasonal pattern of hydrology was described with data collected in nine sampling stations. An alternative approach used with both biological and environmental datasets was to select representative sampling stations located in the vicinity of the inlet and in the interior of the lagoon. Chla-fluorescence imagery collected by the MODIS-Aqua satellite was used as an indicator of phytoplankton abundance. Statistical analyses included bi- and multivariate parametric and non-parametric tests. Principal component analysis was used to describe the seasonality of hydrological data and the canonical correlation analysis to relate environmental and biological datasets. The increase of temperature at a global and local scale in 2015 had as consequence an atypical increase in the water temperature in the fall of 2015, coincident with the abrupt diminishing of upwelling strength and input of nutrients advected from the ocean. A recovery of these two variables was recorded in 2016 at the end of the El Niño. The most abundant group of phytoplankton species were diatoms. Algal blooms were composed by species adapted to high temperatures and nutrients depletion in 2015, while in 2016 and 2017 were composed by ruderal-strategist species and they were boosted by the nutrient pulses associated with the spring upwellings. The fall algal bloom, typical of subtropical coastal lagoons, was observed only in 2016 and it was confined to the interior of the lagoon where there are local inputs of nutrients. In 2015 and 2016 there was a succession of diatoms and dinoflagellates related to the rising of temperature while in 2017 this pattern changed because of the strong upwellings. The relationships of water temperature and silicate with a ratio of diatoms’ cell abundance, was analyzed using generalized additive models (GAMs), showing significant correlations but different trends in some years. The species richness of diatom blooms was high; on the other hand, species diversity increased at the end of spring and early summer. The seasonal pattern of zooplankton biomass showed changes along the 3 years, but the most noticeable was an increase during winter and early spring 2015 and the lack of the usual high values of June–July in 2017. The seasonal pattern of the phytoplankton abundance was different in comparison with the 1982–1983 El Niño while the zooplankton was similar among the three strongest El Niño. The changes we observed strongly suggest that the warming caused by those phenomena highly affected the upwelling strength, the length of the temperate and warm seasons and the hydrology. Phenology of phytoplankton and zooplankton changed after the strong perturbation under the El Niño, and possibly The Blob. The recovery of phytoplankton biomass began in 2017, but its taxonomic composition was not adequate to support the zooplankton recovery.

The Gulf of Ulloa, a highly productive area off the western coast of the Baja California Peninsula, is examined for five successive years (2003–2007) by using satellite data and seasonal net primary productivity (NPP) estimates obtained from a vertical generalised production model. The results identify that northwestern winds blow parallel to the coast throughout the year. However, highest NPP occurs from March to June. During this period, an equatorward coastal current transports water from neighbouring upwelling areas to the northern Gulf of Ulloa and in combination with local upwelling, which injects nutrients into the euphotic zone, produce the observed increase in NPP. The opposite situation occurs in late summer when a warm poleward current of tropical characteristics arrives and inhibits the productivity in the whole region and generates the yearly lowest NPP levels. Our findings reveal the importance of lateral advection in the modulation of the primary productivity in this subtropical upwelling region.

10 páginas, 6 figuras, 1 tablaThe coastal lagoon of Bahía-Magdalena, located on the west coast of the Peninsula of Baja-California, is a subtropical ecosystem with an arid climate and very little freshwater input. During the 2005–2011 period the thermohaline properties varied between cold and warm half-yearly periods. They were influenced by the Transitional Water mass transported by the South California Current from February to July and by the Subtropical Surface Water from August to January. The nutrient concentrations increased (viz up to 16 μM of nitrate) from March to June, when the upwelling index was the highest. Similarly, the inter-annual variation of chlorophyll-a showed a six-monthly pattern with the highest average monthly concentrations being found in June (5 mg m−3in situ or 8 mg m−3 based on satellite information) and the lowest in December–January. A spatial zoning was also observed in the lagoon with a shallow inner zone that is warmer and richer in chlorophyll-a than the deeper closed mouth area. In the Bahía-Magdalena lagoon a spatial-temporal division into two zones and two seasons was repeated year after year with only minor differences. During the first semester in the outer zone, years 2006 and 2007 were colder and nutrient rich while 2010 was warmer, according to the upwelling conditions in the Southern California Region. Hence, among the coastal lagoons that present a prevailing marine influence, the coastal system of Bahía-Magdalena corresponds to an unusual type of subtropical coastal lagoon where the nutrient input is mainly due to upwelling phenomena.his article was supported by the SIP Mexican projects of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional from 2005 to 2011 in cooperation with the Spanish project CTM2011-28792-C02 financed by the ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad’. We are very grateful to the Mexican COFAA (IPN) organism and EDI program for their grants and to the Mexican governmental agency CONACYT for financing the sabbatical (ref. 169030) of Dr. Rafael Cervantes-Duarte at the IIM (CSIC) of Spain during 2012.Peer reviewe

32 páginas, 4 tablas, 7 figurasThe Atlantic Galician rias show the effect of natural eutrophication during ENACW upwelling episodes when large amounts of nutrients are injected. However, the Cantabrian Galician rias do not appear to be disturbed by upwelling events and it can be hypothesized that eutrophy is not inherent to the Galician rias. This question was tackled regarding the biogeochemical and phytoplankton characteristic in the Ria of Barqueiro, located on the western boundary of the Cantabrian Sea, from January 2008 to January 2009. Thermohaline, PAR and fluorescence profiles, dissolved oxygen, nutrient salts, DOC, DON and chlorophyll concentrations, phytoplankton abundances and primary production were monthly determined in a monitoring station (43°45.509′N-07°39.493′W); moreover, the daily upwelling index information and fluvial contributions from Sor River were considered. Throughout the year only four annual oceanographic periods were observed: spring, summer stratification, autumn and winter, unlike the Atlantic rias, where a long upwelling period occurs with usually outstanding upwelling processes. Nutrient concentrations (a maximum of 6.2 μM of nitrate, 0.5 μM of nitrite, 2.8 μM of ammonium, 0.4 μM of phosphate and 5.7 μM of silicate), organic matter (98 μM of DOC, 14 μM of DON, 16.4 μM of POC and 2.0 μM of PON), Chl-a (1.1 μg L−1), primary production (280 gC m−2 yr−1) and phytoplankton abundance were clearly lower (about half) when compared to those reported for the other rias during upwelling. Diatoms dominated the phytoplankton assemblages especially during spring and autumn blooms. In summer, although the wind conditions were favorable, upwelling was not observed in the Ria and a mixing of diatoms and dinoflagellates co-dominated the phytoplankton community with a lower contribution of diatoms in comparison to the Atlantic rias. The paradigm of natural eutrophication reported for the Galician rias was not observed in the Ria of Barqueiro, which may be classified as an oligo-mesotrophic ria-type, according to its environmental patternsCICYT\ud ref.\ud CTM2007-62546-C03/\ud MARMINECO\ud ref.\ud CTM2011-28792-C02Peer reviewe