LAUSR

The Eastern Arabian Sea (EAS) is a region of complex interplay between several spatially and temporally varying oceanographic processes. Using two sets of in-situ data collected from the same stations, separated by a decade, we show that warming and cooling in the EAS was linked to the long-term variability of this region. Though the warming in the southern part of EAS was consistent with the basin-wide rise in SST in the Arabian Sea (AS), the enhanced freshening was a remote response to episodic events mediated by the strengthening of inter-basin exchange between Bay of Bengal (BoB) and AS through East India Coastal Current (EICC) and West India Coastal Current (WICC). The increased stratification in the southern part of EAS led to the decline in the chlorophyll over the decade. In contrast, enhanced chlorophyll in the northern part of the EAS over the decade was linked to the increased wind speed.