Marine Heat Waves in the Indian Ocean: A Major Climate Impact on Marine Microalgae

Abstract

A clearly defined, lengthy (five days or longer) period of extraordinarily high ocean temperatures is known as Marine Heat Waves (MHWs) (above the e0th percentile). These events significantly impact the structure, abundance, cell size, metabolic functions, physico-chemical interactions between microalgae cells and their surroundings in the Indian Ocean. In the tropical Indian Ocean, the average sea surface temperature (SST) increased by 1.0°C (0.15°C/decade) on average between 1951 and 2015, while the global average SST warmed by roughly 0.7°C (0.11 °C/decade). This resulted from the incidence of Marine microalgal bloom MMBs (including Harmful Algal Bloom) and the number of causal taxa may grow as SST increases. Trichodesmium and Noctiluca contributed 34.4% and 31.8%, respectively, to the overall blooms. Such a heating phenomenon also triggers the dominance of small-sized algal cells, harmful diatoms and pico-plankton. The present paper reviews the Indian as well as global episodes of MHWs such as Western South Atlantic, North-East Pacific, Western Australia, Alaskan Sea etc. and their impact on phytoplankton. The combination of warming and heatwaves triggers blooms of buoyant cyanobacteria and its combined impacts of MHWs and ocean warming/acidification on phytoplankton community structure have not been fully studied in the Indian Ocean.