Seasonal and inter-annual variability in properties of surface water off Santander, Bay of Biscay, 1991–1995

Abstract

The annual cycle of temperature, salinity and nutrients of surface waters (up to 100 m depth) was studied from June 1991 to December 1995 in a cross-shelf section over the continental shelf waters off Santander (southern Bay of Biscay). The time series showed that the temperature followed the expected seasonal warming and cooling pattern, which determines a seasonal process of stratification and mixing of the water column. The stratification period occurs annually between May and October in a layer of about 50 m depth from the neritic station beyond to the shelf-break. In the period between November and April the water column remained mixed. During spring and summer low salinity values were found in the surface due to continental runoff and advection from oceanic waters. In late autumn and winter, the salinity pattern was governed by an influx of salty water associated with the poleward current. As in other temperate latitudes, nitrates showed the highest values in winter throughout the water column and the lowest values at the surface during the stratified period. Wind-induced upwelling events were observed mainly in summer, which are characterised by low temperatures (< 12°C), high salinity and nutrient concentrations. The inter-annual variability of temperature showed a warming trend in the upper layers but this sign was not found at 100 m depth. In salinity a decreasing trend was observed throughout the water column, and this feature corresponds to the relaxing of the high salinity anomaly detected in the North Atlantic at the beginning of the 1990s. Both trends were coherent in the cross-shelf section from the coast to the slope.