Oceanic primary production trend patterns along coast of Ecuador

Figures & data

Figure 1. Location of sampled sites: Nearshore were at 9.26 km (red dots), and offshore at 27.78 km (black dots) from the coast. The diamonds represent the sites influenced by river discharges. This study was carried out in the following sites: Esmeraldas (ESM; –79.755828, 0.985231), Galera San Francisco Marine Reserve (GSFMR; –80.178535, 0.716439), Cojimies (COJ; –80.125645, 0.365199), Puerto Cabuyal (CAB; –80.486416, –0.299634), Manta (MAN; –80.925100, –0.974820), Machalilla (MAC; –80.897793, –1.554898), Salinas (SAL; –81.058012, –2.224775), Gulf of Guayaquil (GUA; –80.361911, –2.849038) and Puerto Bolivar (PBO; –80.169622, –3.279350)

Table 1. Chl a (mg m⁻³) and SST (^oC) mean, minimum and maximum values recorded for both the nearshore and offshore study sites. Minimum and maximum values are in parenthesis

		Chl a		SST
Site	Habitat type	Nearshore	Offshore	Nearshore	Offshore
Esmeraldas	Estuarine	1.4 (0.3–5.7)	1.0 (0.3–7.3)	26.6 (24.3–29.7)	26.5 (24.5–29.4)
GSFMR	Non-estuarine	0.6 (0.2–8.7)	0.5 (0.1–7.3)	26.3 (24.4–29.2)	26.3 (24.4–29.3)
Cojimies	Estuarine	0.7 (0.2–6.2)	0.4 (0.1–2.5)	26.2 (24.2–28.8)	26.1 (23.9–28.7)
Cabuyal	Non-estuarine	0.7 (0.2–9.4)	0.6 (0.2–5.7)	25.8 (23.5–28.8)	25.7 (23.4–28.4)
Manta	Non-estuarine	0.8 (0.2–7.5)	0.7 (0.2–9.3)	25.1 (22.3–28.2)	25.1 (21.9–28.5)
Machalilla	Non-estuarine	1.0 (0.2–7.3)	0.9 (0.2–8.5)	24.8 (21.5–29.3)	24.7 (21.3–29.6)
Salinas	Non-estuarine	1.1 (0.2–8.9)	1.0 (0.2–5.7)	24.3 (19.9–29.8)	24.1 (19.5–29.9)
Gulf of Guayaquil	Estuarine	3.4 (0.7–7.7)	1.7 (0.5–4.6)	24.6 (19.6–29.2)	24.3 (19.6–29.3)
Puerto Bolivar	Estuarine	5.6 (0.8–20.8)	3.4 (0.7–16.2)	24.2 (19.4–29.0)	24.2 (19.5–29.1)

Figure 2. Raw monthly time series data for Chl a and SST from 2003 to 2017 for the nearshore and offshore study sites

Figure 3. Variation in the concentration of Chl a (mg m⁻³) and SST (°C) for the nine sites studied along the Ecuadorian coast. Sites position on the y axis are ordered based on their latitudinal location along the coast of Ecuador: Top, northern sites; Bottom, southern sites. NS: nearshore; OS, offshore. The light blue boxes represent the sites influenced by river discharge

Table 2. Kruskal–Wallis significance test for the concentration of Chl a at nearshore and offshore study sites. Significant differences are marked in bold

	Esmeraldas	GSFMR	Cojimies	Cabuyal	Manta	Machalilla	Salinas	Gulf of Guayaquil	Puerto Bolivar
Nearshore
Esmeraldas	-	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.148	< 0.001	< 0.001
GSFMR	-	-	0.884	0.995	0.337	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Cojimies	-	-	-	0.999	0.993	0.009	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Cabuyal	-	-	-	-	0.811	0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Manta	-	-	-	-	-	0.141	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Machalilla	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.403	< 0.001	< 0.001
Salinas	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	< 0.001	< 0.001
G. Guayaquil	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.124
Offshore
Esmeraldas	-	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.255	0.999	< 0.001	< 0.001
GSFMR	-	-	1.000	0.594	0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Cojimies	-	-	-	0.321	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Cabuyal	-	-	-	-	0.179	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Manta	-	-	-	-	-	0.081	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Machalilla	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.620	< 0.001	< 0.001
Salinas	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	< 0.001	< 0.001
G. Guayaquil	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.000

Table 3. Kruskal–Wallis significance test for the differences in SST between locations. Significant differences are marked in bold

	Esmeraldas	GSFMR	Cojimies	Cabuyal	Manta	Machalilla	Salinas	Gulf of Guayaquil	Puerto Bolivar
Nearshore
Esmeraldas	-	0.677	0.106	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
GSFMR	-	-	0.986	0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Cojimies	-	-	-	0.027	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Cabuyal	-	-	-	-	0.004	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Manta	-	-	-	-	-	0.616	0.001	0.148	0.001
Machalilla	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.220	0.992	0.266
Salinas	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.733	1.000
G. Guayaquil	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.789
Offshore
Esmeraldas	-	0.798	0.073	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
GSFM	-	-	0.920	0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Cojimies	-	-	-	0.054	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Cabuyal	-	-	-	-	0.006	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
Manta	-	-	-	-	-	0.395	< 0.001	0.011	0.001
Machalilla	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.101	0.878	0.528
Salinas	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.848	0.991
G. Guayaquil	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.999

Figure 4. Decomposed yearly trends in Chl a concentration and SST across the nine study sites

Table 4. Mann-Kendall trend significance test for the concentration of Chl a and SST in both inshore and offshore locations. Significant differences are marked in bold

	Chl a		SST
Sites	Nearshore	Offshore	Nearshore	Offshore
Esmeraldas	0.09	0.76	0.001	0.002
GSFMR	0.30	0.37	0.011	0.005
Cojimies	0.28	0.84	0.004	0.008
Cabuyal	0.52	0.85	0.013	0.017
Manta	0.49	0.61	< 0.001	< 0.001
Machalilla	0.24	0.30	< 0.001	< 0.001
Salinas	0.34	1.00	< 0.001	< 0.001
Gulf of Guayaquil	0.20	0.02	< 0.001	< 0.001
Pto. Bolivar	0.0003	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001

Figure 5. Annual (upper) and monthly (lower) variations in Chl a concentration (mg m⁻³) and SST (°C) at the 9 study sites. Monthly variations are expressed in anomaly scales

Figure 6. LOWESS scatter plots of the relationship between Chl a (mg m⁻³) and SST (°C) for the nearshore study sites