Book Description

“The Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program (AZMP) was implemented in 1998 with the aim of (1) increasing Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) capacity to understand, describe, and forecast the state of the marine ecosystem and (2) quantifying the changes in the ocean’s physical, chemical, and biological properties and the predator–prey relationships of marine resources. AZMP provides data to support the sound development of ocean activities. A critical element in the observational program of AZMP is an annual assessment of the distribution and variability of nutrients and the plankton they support. In this document, we review the chemical and biological oceanographic (lower trophic levels) conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (GSL) in 2015. Overall, temperature conditions were somewhat warmer than normal, especially in August and September, following a delayed onset after cold winter conditions (above-normal surface mixed cold layer depth and above-normal sea-ice volume due to the coldest February since 1993. Deepwater temperatures have continued to increase as have the bottom areas covered by waters warmer than 6°C because of inward advection of warm water through Cabot Strait; both of these saw record-high values in 2015. This report describes the 2015 production cycles and community composition of phytoplankton and zooplankton in this context"--Introd., p. 1.