Continuing Long-Term Shifts in Larval Fish Phenology in the Southern California Current Ecosystem Are Matched by Rapid Advances in the North.

Changing environmental conditions are leading to shifts in the timing of seasonal events globally. In the ocean, environmental cues affecting larval fish (ichthyoplankton) abundance may not be synchronized with factors optimizing larval and juvenile survival, making the study of ichthyoplankton phenology in the context of a changing environment critical. In the southern California Current Ecosystem (CCE), a major eastern boundary current upwelling system, significant long-term shifts in larval fish phenology have been previously observed.

An updated end-to-end ecosystem model of the Northern California Current reflecting ecosystem changes due to recent marine heatwaves.

The Northern California Current is a highly productive marine upwelling ecosystem that is economically and ecologically important. It is home to both commercially harvested species and those that are federally listed under the U.S.

Spatiotemporal patterns of variability in the abundance and distribution of winter-spawned pelagic juvenile rockfish in the California Current.

Rockfish are an important component of West Coast fisheries and California Current food webs, and recruitment (cohort strength) for rockfish populations has long been characterized as highly variable for most studied populations. Research efforts and fisheries surveys have long sought to provide greater insights on both the environmental drivers, and the fisheries and ecosystem consequences, of this variability. Here, variability in the temporal and spatial abundance and distribution patterns of young-of-the-year (YOY) rockfishes are described based on midwater trawl surveys conducted throughout the coastal waters of California Current between 2001 and 2019.

Phenological and distributional shifts in ichthyoplankton associated with recent warming in the northeast Pacific Ocean.

Understanding changes in the migratory and reproductive phenology of fish stocks in relation to climate change is critical for accurate ecosystem-based fisheries management. Relocation and changes in timing of reproduction can have dramatic effects upon the success of fish populations and throughout the food web. During anomalously warm conditions (1-4°C above normal) in the northeast Pacific Ocean during 2015-2016, we documented shifts in timing and spawning location of several pelagic fish stocks based on larval fish samples.