A report recently released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed that cool waters on the West Coast were caught between a marine heatwave and hot, dry land in 2021.
The findings were presented by NOAA Fisheries scientists to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, in the annual "California Current Ecosystem Status Report" (CCESR), NOAA announced March 15. The report examines the "biology, climate, physical and social conditions" of the California Current, a marine ecosystem running from California to Washington, NOAA states in the announcement. CCESR information shows fisheries management how changes in the ecosystem affect marine species, NOAA states.
"In 2021, the California Current continued a recent cooling trend, with researchers recording the coolest conditions on the continental shelf in nearly a decade," NOAA reports in the statement. Deep ocean water, rich in nutrients, are brought to the surface by wind-driven "upwelling," which cools coastal waters, according to NOAA. The cooler waters resulted in good feeding conditions for species from salmon to sea lions, NOAA reports.
Toby Garfield, an editor of the CCESR, said the cool water, which was between the "more stressful" conditions further offshore and on land, created a "productive habitat." He said the pattern of the "three regimes" - warm waters offshore, cool coastal waters and arid land - "may foretell how the California Current will respond under warming conditions. This year’s Ecosystem Status Report summarizes the good and the bad while linking the three regimes together."
Although marine heatwaves and drought conditions on land have plagued the region for years, 2021's hot-cold-hot conditions were a new anomaly that looks to continue in 2022, NOAA reports.
“Until the last two years, we hadn’t tracked conditions like these before in the California Current,” Chris Harvey, a lead editor on the report, said in the statement. "The system is throwing natural experiments at many of our species, where they're dealing with quite good conditions at one point and bad conditions at another point.
"It's put us in a place where we almost have to expect surprises, and we will learn a lot about how species respond to this climate variability in the years ahead,” Harvey said.
