Coastal ocean response during the unprecedented marine heatwaves in the western Mediterranean in 2022

Juza, Mélanie; de Alfonso, Marta; Fernández-Mora, Ángels

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-14-2024

Articles | Volume 4-osr8

https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-14-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Report:

8th edition of the Copernicus Ocean State Report (OSR8)

https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-14-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 4-osr8

30 Sep 2024

| OSR8 | Chapter 4.2

| 30 Sep 2024 | OSR8 | Chapter 4.2

Coastal ocean response during the unprecedented marine heatwaves in the western Mediterranean in 2022

Mélanie Juza, Marta de Alfonso, and Ángels Fernández-Mora

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Final revised paper (published on 30 Sep 2024)
Preprint (discussion started on 23 Aug 2023)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on sp-2023-18', Francisco Pastor, 01 Sep 2023

Accept in present form

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-2023-18-RC1
- AC1:
  'Reply on RC1', Mélanie Juza, 09 Nov 2023
  Thank you very much for having revised the manuscript. In the new version, we integrated the following revisions:
  New figure 1: colors of mooring points are aligned with the colors in Figure 4.
  
  We have also considered the comments of reviewers #2 and #3, adding some clarifications and references.
  
  A new version of the manuscript is provided with changes indicated.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-2023-18-AC1
RC2:
'Comment on sp-2023-18', Anonymous Referee #2, 02 Nov 2023

Line 14: at the surface
Line 16: the highest values of cumulative intensity and total days were found at the surface
Line 17: were observed to last up to 58 days
Line 27: I don’t think the references of 2020 and 2021 be can used to explicitly describe the 2022 event. Please make this point clearer.
Line 33: be found more locally than regionally
Line 153: Doesn’t make sense.
Line 188: moorings
Line 190: I agree with the statements in this paragraph but potential bias between the datasets should also be considered.
Line 198: highlighting how the coastal ocean response differs
Line 213. While only one season was concerned in 2013
Line 213: which seasons?
Line 275: You mean the thermal stress presented by T>28? This should be made clear.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-2023-18-RC2
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Mélanie Juza, 09 Nov 2023
  
  Thank you very much for having revised the manuscript and provided comments for improvements. All of them have been considered. Details are provided below. A new version of the manuscript is provided with changes indicated. In addition, Figure 1 has been improved as follow: colors of mooring points are aligned with the colors in Figure 4.
  Line 14: at the surface
  >> Thanks. Corrected.
  Line 16: the highest values of cumulative intensity and total days were found at the surface
  >> Thanks. Corrected.
  Line 17: were observed to last up to 58 days
  >> Thanks. Corrected.
  Line 27: I don’t think the references of 2020 and 2021 be can used to explicitly describe the 2022 event. Please make this point clearer.
  >> Thank you for rising the lack of clarification. These references are those of the applications (implemented in 2020 and 2021) that are operational and provide continuously updated information. To be clearer, I have modified and completed the sentence as follow: “as displayed in operational applications (Juza and Tintoré, 2020, 2021b) and recently reported (Marullo et al, 2023)”
  Line 33: be found more locally than regionally
  >> Thanks. Corrected.
  Line 153: Doesn’t make sense.
  >> Completely right, thanks, corrected: “In 2022, all moorings of the coastal WMed detected MHWs (Figure 3), although MHWs were computed using the reference period 2013-2022.
  Line 188: moorings
  >> Thanks. Corrected.
  Line 190: I agree with the statements in this paragraph but potential bias between the datasets should also be considered.
  >> We have completed the statement considering the suggestion of the reviewer: "Differences between MHWs detected by satellites and moorings may be explained by several factors such as the sensor or platform type, spatial and temporal coverage, specific bias at a particular platform, instrumental corrections, validation and calibration, interpolation methods as well as the effective depth of measurements (Alvera-Azcárate et al., 2011). “
  Alvera-Azcárate, A., Troupin, C., Barth, A., & Beckers, J. M. (2011). Comparison between satellite and in situ sea surface temperature data in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Ocean Dynamics, 61, 767-778, doi:10.1007/s10236-011-0403-x
  Line 198: highlighting how the coastal ocean response differs
  >> Thanks. Corrected.
  Line 213. While only one season was concerned in 2013
  >> Thanks. Corrected.
  Line 213: which seasons?
  >> Completed: “While one season was concerned in 2013 (summer or autumn depending on the mooring), MHW occurrences covered three seasons in 2022 (mainly spring, summer and autumn) (not shown)”
  Line 275: You mean the thermal stress presented by T>28? This should be made clear.
  >> Right, thermal stress generated by extreme warm temperatures and peaks. I would like to provide a more general sentence in conclusion, I suggest the following sentence to be clearer: “The thermal stress estimation from high-temperature peaks on the physical and biological oceans is also minimized with the use of daily data compared to hourly measurements.”
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-2023-18-AC2
RC3:
'Comment on sp-2023-18', Salvatore Marullo, 04 Nov 2023

I agree with the comments posted by Referee #2 in the interactive discussion section and I will not rewrite them here. In my opinion, paper is between “Accept in present form” and “very minor revisions”. As final comment I suggest to the authors to add two more reference: Pisano et al. at the beginning of the introduction and Marullo et a. 2023 in the methodology section where is written “…..recent publications in the Mediterranean Sea (Juza and Tintoré, 2021; Juza et al., 2022,…..).
Pisano, A., Marullo, S., Artale, V., Falcini, F., Yang, C., Leonelli, F. E., ... & Buongiorno Nardelli, B. (2020). New evidence of Mediterranean climate change and variability from sea surface temperature observations. Remote Sensing, 12(1), 132.
Marullo, S., Serva, F., Iacono, R., Napolitano, E., di Sarra, A., Meloni, D., ... & Santoleri, R. (2023). Record-breaking persistence of the 2022/23 marine heatwave in the Mediterranean Sea. Environmental research Letters.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-2023-18-RC3
- AC3:
  'Reply on RC3', Mélanie Juza, 09 Nov 2023
  Thank you very much for having revised the manuscript and suggesting two references that have been added as follow:
  Pisano et al., 2020 have been added at the beginning of the introduction, as suggested by the reviewer
  
  Marullo et al, 2023 have been added in the introduction when stating about the exceptional MHWs in 2022 rather than in the methodology (where we were referring to the baseline period which is different from Marullo et al., 2023)
  
  We also congratulate the authors for their new publication.
  We have also considered all the comments of Reviewer#2. All changes are indicated in the new version of the manuscript.
  Finally, we have also improved Figure 1 as follow: colors of mooring points are aligned with the colors in Figure 4.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-2023-18-AC3

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (10 Dec 2023) by Piero Lionello

Dear Dr Juza:
the reviewers have read your manuscript and have only minor comments, that you have accepted in your replies in the online discussion. However, I strongly suggest that you improve the abstract and conclusion section to better highlight the value of your study.
Specifically, in the conclusions:
- At Line 254 you write “the ocean response strongly differs from the open ocean to near-shore areas, and from one coastal location to another”. This concept is also repeated (avoid repetitions) at line 274 without adding any informative detail
Please expand:
what are the differences between open ocean and near-shore areas emerging from your study?
Is there a pattern in the differences among locations?
- At line 272 you write “The thermal stress on the physical and biological oceans is also minimized with the use of daily data compared to hourly measurements.”
Please add a general estimate of the magnitude of such minimization

In the abstract (line 14) you generically mention that “Differences between satellite products and mooring observations, as well as between daily and hourly in situ measurements, are highlighted”. AS such this statement is not very informative and it would be useful to replace or integrate it with a very short description of these differences as they emerge from your study.

Your manuscript is therefore returned for a minor revision (review by editor).

Please provide
a revised version of your manuscript, that accounts for the comments of reviewer 2, 3 and for my requests,
a copy of your manuscript where all your changes are annotated and
the list of your detailed answers to the reviewers’ comments.

Best regards,
Piero Lionello

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AR by Mélanie Juza on behalf of the Authors (13 Dec 2023) Author's response Author's tracked changes

EF by Polina Shvedko (15 Dec 2023) Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (24 Dec 2023) by Piero Lionello

ED: Publish as is (08 Jan 2024) by Marilaure Grégoire (Chief editor)

AR by Mélanie Juza on behalf of the Authors (12 Jan 2024) Manuscript

Short summary

The western Mediterranean suffered unprecedented marine heatwaves in 2022. We focus on the coastal ocean, which is highly vulnerable to global warming and extreme events. Using satellite and in situ observations, strong spatiotemporal variations in the marine heatwave characteristics have been observed in 2022 and over the last decade. Differences between datasets also invite us to continue with efforts to sustain multi-platform observing systems from open-ocean to coastal ocean waters.