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...
A primary focus of the US Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics
(GLOBEC) program was to identify the mechanisms of ecosystem response to large-scale
climate forcing under the assumption that bottom-up forcing controls a large
fraction of marine ecosystem variability. At the beginning of GLOBEC, the prevailing
bottom-up forcing hypothesis was that...
The flow through the Bering Strait, the only Pacific-Arctic oceanic gateway, has dramatic local, regional, and global impacts. Advanced year-round moored technology quantifies challengingly large temporal (subdaily, seasonal, and interannual) and spatial variability in the ~85 km wide, two-channel strait. The typically northward flow, intensified seasonally in the ~10–20 km...
In 2007, the US west coast shellfish industry began to feel the effects of unprecedented levels of larval mortality in commercial hatcheries producing the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. Subsequently, researchers at Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery, working with academic and government scientists, showed a high correlation between aragonite saturation state (Ω[subscript]arag)...
Space-based observations offer unique capabilities for studying spatial and temporal dynamics of the upper ocean inorganic carbon cycle and, in turn, supporting research tied to ocean acidification (OA). Satellite sensors measuring sea surface temperature, color, salinity, wind, waves, currents, and sea level enable a fuller understanding of a range of...
Retreat of glacier ice from Nares Strait and other straits in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago after the end of the last Ice Age initiated an important connection between the Arctic and the North Atlantic Oceans, allowing development of modern ocean circulation in Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea. As low-salinity,...
The objective of this paper is to look at past assessments and available data to examine the match (or mismatch) between university curricula and programs available to graduate students in the ocean sciences and the career possibilities available to those students. We conclude there is a need for fundamental change...
Numerous monitoring efforts are underway to improve understanding of ocean acidification and its impacts on coastal environments, but there is a need to develop a coordinated approach that facilitates spatial and temporal comparisons of drivers and responses on a regional scale. Toward that goal, the California Current Acidification Network (C-CAN)...
The eruption of South Sarigan Seamount in the southern Mariana arc
in May 2010 is a reminder of how little we know about the hazards associated with
submarine explosive eruptions or how to predict these types of eruptions. Monitored
by local seismometers and distant hydrophones, the eruption from ~ 200...
In 2014, the California Current (~28˚–48˚N) saw average, or below average, coastal upwelling and relatively low productivity in most locations, except from 38˚–43˚N during June and July. Chlorophyll-a levels were low throughout spring and summer at most locations, except in a small region around 39˚N. Catches of juvenile rockfish (an...