The state of California, 2003 - 2004 : a rare "normal" year

• Main Authors: Goericke, Ralf, Venrick, Elizabeth, Mantyla, Arnold W., Bograd, Steven J., Schwing, Franklin B., Huyer, Adriana, 1945-, Smith, Robert L. (Robert Lloyd), 1935-, Wheeler, Patricia A., Hooff, Rian, Peterson, William T., Gaxiola-Castro, Gilberto, Gomez-Valdes, Jose, Lavaniegos, Bertha E., Hyrenbach, K. David, Sydeman, William J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: Los Altos, Calif. : State of California, Department of Fish and Game, Marine Research Committee
• Subjects: Subarctic
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/wm117q49c

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 their climatological mean. Contributing to such “normal” conditions was the absence of a La Niña that had been expected after the previous year’s El Niño. Noteworthy, however, are the cold and fresh anomalies in the upper 100–200 m that have been found over large areas of the CCS since 2002. Off Oregon these may have been responsible for increased productivity; off southern California these were associated with shallower nutriclines and subsurface chlorophyll maxima in the offshore areas. It is unclear if these anomalies are ephemeral or related to long-term changes in ocean climate. The effects of the hypothesized 1998 “regime shift” on the CCS are still difficult to discern, primarily because of other physical forcing varying on different time scales (e.g., El Niño/Southern Oscillation, ENSO, cycles; the “subarctic influence”; global warming). The resolution of many of these issues requires larger scale observations than are available now. Establishment of the Pacific Coast Ocean Observing System (PaCOOS) under the guidance of NOAA will be a crucial step toward achieving that goal.