The Northern California Current (NCC) ecosystem exhibits extreme seasonal, interannual and interdecadal shifts in the abiotic environment and shifts in primary and higher production. This variability is also apparent in the spatial structure of the ecosystem with nearshore-shelf waters (<150 m isobath) being highly productive and having a different community...
Most fishes exhibit differences in activity patterns from day to night, with a switch from
high to low activity at dusk and reverse at dawn. Marine reef fishes show similar behavior
among sites, despite dissimilar species assemblages, suggesting that common selection pressures
are leading to convergent behavior. Few studies to...
Recent research conducted throughout the Northern California Current (NCC) on the ecology of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) indicates that variable ocean conditions affect the community composition of zooplankton in the nearshore environment which, in turn, can affect the quality of prey for fish, sea birds and mammals. Interannual variability in...
Early life stages of many marine and diadromous fish species use sandy beach surf zones, which occur along >50% of the world's marine coastlines. This extensive habitat can provide juvenile fishes with an abundant supply of potential prey and the ability to hide from predators in its shallow turbid waters....
The groundfish trawl fishery operating off the coasts of Oregon
and Washington 1985-1987 caught six major assemblages of species
which could be treated as units in developing mixed-species
management plans. Eighty-one percent of the tows observed on
commercial vessels were consistently placed in one of the assemblage
designations using three...
The early marine phase following freshwater emigration has been identified as a critical period in salmonid (Oncorhynchus spp.) life history, characterized by high but variable mortality. Consistent with the “growth-mortality” and “bigger-is-better” hypotheses, at least some of the mortality during the critical period appears to be size-dependent – with smaller...
Early ocean residence is assumed to be a critical period for juvenile Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. However, the specific mechanisms influencing growth and survival in the ocean have not been identified for most populations. Therefore, three hypotheses regarding the relationship between early marine residence and subsequent survival of mid-upper Columbia...
The average size and age of chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus
tshawytscha) caught in commercial fisheries along the Pacific Coast
of North America have decreased substantially in this century. These
declines might be caused in part by changes in size and age at
maturity within the stocks contributing to those fisheries. Upriver...
The functioning of marine habitats needs to be understood in the context of the ecological relationships and associations between organisms and the physical and biogenic environment they inhabit. Thus, it becomes important to explore and define habitat features which contribute to these relationships and which are important in the life...
The eastern margin of the Eastern North Pacific Ocean
was classified into physiographic regions based on a suite
of physical characteristics. Information on cultural and
biological characteristics of this area was meshed with this
classification. The result was a classification of the
Eastern North Pacific into natural-cultural systems whose
boundaries...