Journal
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-OCEANS
Volume 122, Issue 9, Pages 7267-7290Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2017JC012952
Keywords
extratropical warm event; the Blob; El Nino; water masses; nutrients; phytoplankton species; copepod species; krill
Categories
Funding
- U.S. GLOBEC program
- CAMEO program
- NOAA FATE program
- SAIP program
- BiOP program
- Bonneville Power Administration
- NOAA/NCCOSS/MOCHA program
- NSF/RISE project
- NASA [NNX13AH22G]
- NASA [NNX13AH22G, 473995] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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A warm anomaly in the upper ocean, colloquially named the Blob, appeared in the Gulf of Alaska during the calm winter of 2013-2014, spread across the northern North Pacific (NP) Ocean, and shifted eastward and onto the Oregon shelf. At least 14 species of copepods occurred which had never been observed in shelf/slope waters off Oregon, some of which are known to have NP Gyre affinities, indicating that the source waters of the coastal Blob were likely of both offshore (from the west) and subtropical/tropical origin. The anomalously warm conditions were reduced during strong upwelling in spring 2015 but returned when upwelling weakened in July 2015 and transitioned to downwelling in fall 2015. The extended period of warm conditions resulted in prolonged effects on the ecosystem off central Oregon, lasting at least through 2016. Impacts to the lower trophic levels were unprecedented and include a novel plankton community composition resulting from increased copepod, diatom, and dinoflagellate species richness and increased abundance of dinoflagellates. Additionally, the multiyear warm anomalies were associated with reduced biomass of copepods and euphausiids, high abundance of larvaceans and doliolids (indictors of oligotrophic ocean conditions), and a toxic diatom bloom (Pseudo-nitzschia) throughout the California Current in 2015, thereby changing the composition of the food web that is relied upon by many commercially and ecologically important species.
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