Fig 1.
Limits of Colombian Basin with the location of the river discharges (dots).
The black line at 12°N marks the boundary of the southwestern Caribbean containing the Panama-Colombia Gyre. River outflows into the zone are marked by colored dots grouped into four regions: Central American Rivers (blue), Darien Gulf Zone (green), Magdalena River Zone (red) and La Guajira Coastal Zone (yellow).
Table 1.
Annual average of the Rivers draining to the Colombian Basin.
Fig 2.
Evaporation minus precipitation (E-P) over the Colombian Basin by seasons.
Heavy contours indicate positive values, where evaporation exceeds precipitation (concentration conditions) and light contours indicate negative values (dilution conditions).
Fig 3.
Seasonal cycle of river discharge into the Colombian Basin.
The regions as shown in Table 1 and Fig 1. The thin lines represents the seasonal fitting, and the respective percentage of explained variance is included.
Fig 4.
Monthly means of evaporation, precipitation and runoff.
(a, b) and the resulting budget (c, d) over the entire Colombian Basin (a, c) and the area south of 12°N (b, d).
Fig 5.
Mean vertical profiles of temperature (thick black) and salinity (thin blue) based on data from WOA13v2.
The lighter curves indicate range of the data, while horizontal lines indicate water mass limits.
Fig 6.
Seasonal θ-S diagrams in the Colombian Basin for the upper 100 m layer.
Data from WOA13 hydrographic climatologic data, averaged by depths in three areas. (a) North of 12°N, (b) La Guajira (South of 12°N and East 74°W) and (c) Panamá-Colombia (South of 12°N and West 74°W).
Fig 7.
Seasonal variability of sea surface temperature [°C] from WOA13 climatological data.
(a) DJF, (b) MAM, (c) JJA, and (d) SON.
Fig 8.
Seasonal variability of sea surface salinity from WOA13 climatological data.
(a) DJF, (b) MAM, (c) JJA, and (d) SON.
Fig 9.
Anomalies of evaporation and precipitation south of 12°N and water discharge of Magdalena River.
In dotted lines their best-correlated index (CLLJ Index and ONI, respectively). El Niño (dark gray) and La Niña (light gray) periods according to ONI are shaded. Red lines show 5-month moving averages of E and P.
Fig 10.
Parallel Oceanic Circulation Model (POCM-4C) outputs of sea surface salinity (12.5 m).
(a) Wet season of El Niño 1982–83, (b) Dry season of El Niño 1982–83, (c) Wet season of La Niña 1988–89, and (d) Dry season of La Niña 1988–89.
Fig 11.
Parallel Oceanic Circulation Model (POCM-4C) outputs of sea surface salinity (12.5 m).
(a) January climatology, (b) October climatology, and (c) December climatology.