The Barents Sea ecosystem dynamics as a coupled oscillator to long tides

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The Barents Sea ecosystem has been associated with large biomass fluctuations, controlled by temperature and climate variability. This study suggests that we may understand the Barents Sea ecosystem variability as a deterministic coupled oscillation, controlled by the lunar-nodal tide spectrum. The analysis is based on wavelet spectrum transforms of a long data series from the Barents Sea. The analysis has investigated the sea temperature, the biomass of Barents Sea zooplankton, Barents Sea capelin, Northeast Arctic cod and Norwegian spring-spawning herring. The results show that the biomass life cycle period, the recruitment timing, and the biomass fluctuation periods and phase are all related to the 18.6 yr amplitude tide and the 9.3 yr phase tide. The deterministic lunar nodal tides may then serve as a reference for the Barents Sea ecosystem variability.