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International Journal of Marine Science 2013, Vol.3, No.18, 145-150
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150
decade, 2000~2010, indicates strong influence of a
shift in the SST regime in this region.
5 Conclusion
Shifts in SST occurred at different time scales during
the study period (1961~2009) at both the study
locations. Increased summer heating and reduced
winter cooling rendered the upper ocean warmer after
1984 with an average increase in SST of 0.32
℃
off
Muscat and 0.53
℃
of Masirah. The Sea of Oman and
the western Arabian Sea off Masirah showed
statistically significant increase in mean temperature
with higher increase in the Sea of Oman. The
variability off Mascat is fairly constant while it
declined off Masirah after 1984. The decadal signal at
both the locations indicated a regime shift in the SST.
On inter-annual scale, anomalous increase in SST by
2
℃
was noticed for a short period (days to weeks)
before intense weather systems such as severe
cyclonic storms struck the Oman coast during 2007
and 2010. SSHA variability post-1990s is large and
HABs developed when SSH is anomalously low.
Increase in the frequency of HABs and intense weather
systems noticed during this decade (2000~2010) are
apparently associated with SST increase. Regime shift
in SST forced several changes in water quality,
stratification and biogeochemical character of the seas
around Oman resulting in massive alterations to ocean
productivity (Sarma et al., 2013; Khalid Al-Hashmi,
personal communication). The increase in the frequency
of cyclones, harmful algal blooms and meso-scale
eddies during the present decade indicates positive
response to the SST regime shifts in this region.
Acknowledgments
The altimeter products are produced and freely distributed by
SSALTO/DUACS and distributed by AVISO. We are thankful to The
Research Council (TRC), Oman for supporting this work through a research
Grant No. 50; RC/AGR/FISH/12/01.
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