This report is the eighth in a series that describe recent oceanographic observations within the California Current system, from Oregon to Baja California. The emphasis here is placed on the observations conducted concurrently by the CalCOFI (California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations), IMECOCAL (Investigaciones Mexicanas de la COrriente de CALifornia), and...
This report describes the state of the California Current System (CCS)—meteorological, physical, chemical, and biological—from January 2003 to the spring of 2004. The area covered in this report ranges from Oregon coastal waters to southern Baja California. Over the past year, most physical, chemical, and biological parameters were close to...
This report summarizes the recent state of the California Current System (CCS), primarily during the period of April 2004 to January 2005. The report is based on observations made between Oregon and Baja California by various ocean observing programs. The CCS was not forced by any coherent basin-wide processes during...
This report summarizes physical and biological conditions in the California Current System (CCS), from Oregon to Baja California, in 2001 and 2002. The principal sources of the observations described here are the CalCOFI (California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations), IMECOCAL (Investigaciones Mexicanas de la Corriente de California), and U.S. GLOBECLTOP (Global...
Upwelling in eastern boundary current systems is a primary driver of ecosystem productivity. Typically, peak upwelling occurs during spring and summer, but winter upwelling may also be important to ecosystem functions. In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that winter and spring/summer upwelling, operating through indirect trophic interactions, are important...
The state of the California Current System (CCS)
since spring 2011 has evolved in response to dissipation
of La Niña through spring and summer, resurgence of
cooler La Niña conditions in fall and winter, and finally
a transition towards ENSO-neutral conditions in spring
2012. The resurgence of La Niña was...
Stressors associated with human activities interact in complex ways to affect marine ecosystems, yet we lack spatially explicit assessments of cumulative impacts on ecologically and economically key components such as marine predators. Here we develop a metric of cumulative utilization and impact (CUI) on marine predators by combining electronic tracking...
This report reviews the state of the California Current System (CCS) between winter 2012 and spring 2013, and includes observations from Washington State to Baja California. During 2012, large-scale climate modes indicated the CCS remained in a cool, productive phase present since 2007. The upwelling season was delayed north of...
The goal of the Pacific Ocean Boundary Ecosystem and Climate Study
(POBEX) was to diagnose the large-scale climate controls on regional transport
dynamics and lower trophic marine ecosystem variability in Pacific Ocean boundary
systems. An international team of collaborators shared observational and eddy-resolving
modeling data sets collected in the Northeast...
Mortality and injuries caused by ship strikes in U.S. waters are a cause of concern for the endangered population of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) occupying the eastern North Pacific. We sought to determine which areas along the U.S. West Coast are most important to blue whales and whether those areas...