


Our team studies seasonal and interannual variability in the plankton ecosystem in coastal waters off northern California.
A project of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center’s Cooperative Fisheries Oceanography Research Team.
Since late 2007, the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) and Cal Poly Humboldt (CPH) have conducted frequent ocean observing cruises to characterize seasonal and interannual variability in the plankton ecosystem in coastal waters off northern California.
On these cruises, we collect data and samples at five stations along the Trinidad Head Line, a transect that extends from the inner continental shelf to the middle of the continental slope due west of the CPH Marine Laboratory in Trinidad, California. At each station, we:
These data are further complemented by:
In combination, these data give insight into how coastal ecosystems respond to seasonal cycles and larger scale climate dynamics, and contribute to a much broader coastwide collaborative effort to understand the dynamics of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem.
Robertson, Roxanne R., and Eric P. Bjorkstedt. 2020. Climate-driven variability in Euphausia pacifica size distributions off northern California. Progress in Oceanography 188:102412.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2020.102412
Thompson, Andrew R., et al. 2019. State of the California Current 2018-2019: A novel anchovy regime and a new marine heat wave? CalCOFI Reports 60:1-65.
https://calcofi.org/publications/calcofireports/v60/Vol60-SOTC2019.pdf
Harvey, Chris, et al. 2019. Ecosystem status report of the California Current for 2019: A summary of ecosystem indicators compiled by the California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Team (CCIEA). NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NWFSC-149. 87 p.
https://doi.org/10.25923/p0ed-ke21
Jones, Timothy, et al. 2018. Massive mortality of a planktivorous seabird in response to a marine heatwave. Geophysical Research Letters 45(7):3193-3202.
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076164
Bjorkstedt, Eric P., and William T. Peterson. 2015. Zooplankton data from high-frequency coastal transects: Enriching the contributions of ocean observing systems to ecosystem-based management in the northern California Current. In: Yonggang Liu, Heather Kerkering, and Robert H. Weisberg (eds.), Coastal ocean observing systems, p. 119-142. Academic Press (Elsevier).
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-802022-7.00008-0