Short-term Climate Changes and the Dynamical and Ecosystem response of the Eastern North Pacific Coastal Ocean

Short-term climate changes organize patterns of physical and biological response across the Pacific Ocean over interannual and decadal time scales. The impacts of these climate changes on the western North American coastal ocean are determined by its regional sensitivity to the altered basin-scale patterns of sea-surface temperature, mixed-layer depth, thermocline depth and horizontal currents. Observed North Pacific climate regime changes will be summarized in the context of their effects on the eastern North Pacific coastal ocean. Physical-biological modeling studies of the California Current System will be used to interpret the impacts of these climate changes on the observed local mesoscale dynamics and the concomitant observed ecosystem response.