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State of the California Current 2011–2012: Ecosystems Respond To Local Forcing as La Nina Wavers and Wanes

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Title State of the California Current 2011–2012: Ecosystems Respond To Local Forcing as La Nina Wavers and Wanes
Names Bjorkstedt, Eric P. (creator)
Goericke, Ralf (creator)
McClatchie, Sam (creator)
Weber, Ed (creator)
Watson, William (creator)
Lo, Nancy (creator)
Peterson, William T. (creator)
Brodeur, Richard D. (creator)
Auth, Toby (creator)
Fisher, Jennifer (creator)
Morgan, Cheryl (creator)
Peterson, Jay (creator)
Largier, John (creator)
Bograd, Steven J. (creator)
Durazo, Reginaldo (creator)
Gaxiola-Castro, Gilberto (creator)
Lavaniegos, Bertha (creator)
Chavez, Francisco P. (creator)
Collins, Curtis A. (creator)
Hannah, Bob (creator)
Field, John (creator)
Sakuma, Keith (creator)
Satterthwaite, Will (creator)
O'Farrell, Michael (creator)
Hayes, Sean (creator)
Harding, Jeff (creator)
Sydeman, William J. (creator)
Thompson, Sarah Ann (creator)
Warzybok, Pete (creator)
Bradley, Russell (creator)
Jahncke, Jaime (creator)
Golightly, Richard T. (creator)
Schneider, Stephanie R. (creator)
Suryan, Robert M. (creator)
Gladics, Amanda J. (creator)
Horton, Cheryl A. (creator)
Kim, Sung Yong (creator)
Melin, Sharon R. (creator)
DeLong, Robert L. (creator)
Abell, Jeffrey (creator)
Date Issued 2012-12 (iso8601)
Note This is the publisher’s final pdf. The article is copyrighted by the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) in partnership with the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries Service and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The article can be found at: http://calcofi.org/publications/ccreports.html. To the best of our knowledge, one or more authors of this paper were federal employees when contributing to this work.
Abstract 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 uneven, however,
as indicated by variable responses in broad climate indices
such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the multivariate
ENSO index, and by latitudinal variability in the
timing, strength, and duration of upwelling relative to
climatological means. Across the CCS, various measures
of ecosystem productivity exhibited a general decline
in 2011 relative to 2010, but the magnitude of these
declines varied substantially among taxa. Available observations
indicate regional variability in climate forcing
and ecosystem responses throughout the CCS, continuing
a pattern that has emerged with increasing clarity
over the past several years. In 2011–12, regional variability
was again a consequence of southern regions exhibiting
a relatively mild response to climate forcing, in this
case tending towards climatological means, while northern
regions showed somewhat greater effects of delayed
or weaker-than-normal upwelling. In addition to the
effects of local and basin-scale forcing, long-term observations
off southern California show declines in dissolved
oxygen and increases in nutrient concentrations
in waters below the mixed layer, trends that are consistent
with recent predictions of how global warming will
affect the characteristics of upwelling source waters in
the CCS. Such trends must be accounted for more comprehensively
in ongoing assessment of the state of the
California Current and its responses to environmental
forcing. At the time of writing, tropical conditions are
ENSO neutral and forecast to transition into El Niño
in late 2012. This, combined with unusually high abundances
of diverse gelatinous taxa throughout much of
the CCS during spring 2012, suggests that the ongoing
evolution of the state of the California Current might
take a particularly unusual path in the coming year.
Genre Article
Identifier Bjorkstedt, E., Goericke, R., McClatchie, S., Weber, E., Watson, W., Lo, N., . . . . (2012). STATE OF THE CALIFORNIA CURRENT 2011-2012: ECOSYSTEMS RESPOND TO LOCAL FORCING AS LA NINA WAVERS AND WANES. CALIFORNIA COOPERATIVE OCEANIC FISHERIES INVESTIGATIONS REPORTS, 53, 41-76.

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