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Biology

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The California Current is a highly biologically active region. The scale of organisms in the current spans from single-celled bacteria up to the largest animal on Earth, the blue whale.

Despite their small size, microscopic organisms have a large impact on the region. Primary productivity in the current is influenced by microbial organisms, including marine viruses, bacteria, and grazers.[1] Although they occur on microscopic scales, the interactions between these groups constitute important ecosystem controls for the broader California Current that change on daily, seasonal, and interannual time scales.

The California Current is home to a range of species diversity spanning many taxa. Eastern boundary currents like the California Current support many different species, a quality termed species richness.[2] This section discusses a few groups of organisms important to the region. All organisms and trophic levels discussed in this section have species ranges and distributions that are variable throughout the California Current. Basin-scale climatic forces such as El Niño, La Niña, and Pacific Decadal Oscillation events combine with seasonal variations to create a highly dynamic system to which the biological properties of the California Current respond.[3][4]

Primary producers

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Microscopic algae like diatoms are an essential part of the food web in the California Current system and beyond.

Multiple species of the algal groups diatoms, coccolithophores, and dinoflagellates form diverse and dynamic communities throughout the California Current. The size and composition of these communities is considered an essential ecosystem metric.[5] Phytoplankton are microscopic ocean plants (smaller than 200 μm) that shape food web dynamics by providing food for other species, influencing available nutrient concentrations, and fueling primary production through photosynthesis.[6]

Ecosystem models show that large phytoplankton like diatoms comprise 90% of the California Current system's primary productivity. Rapid, significant periods of phytoplankton growth, or blooms, fuel ecosystem productivity. Blooms have also been linked to ocean oxygen-depletion events, which occur seasonally in the California Current system.[5] Some phytoplankton species found in the California Current, such as Psuedo nitchizia and Karenia brevis, produce toxins harmful to other organisms, like domoic acid and brevetoxins.[7]

Brown algae of the family Phaeophyceae are abundant throughout the California Current. Common brown algae include bull kelp and giant kelp. Large aggregations of kelp form dense forests along the coastal region of the current. These kelp forests are important habitat for thousands of marine species.[3]

Consumers

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Zooplankton

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Phytoplankton are an essential food source for zooplankton in the California Current, including copepods, jellyfish, euphausiids, and crustacean larvae.[3] In the California Current, environmental and climatic factors like upwelling and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation favor different types of zooplankton, resulting in seasonal shifts in zooplankton community structures that further impact the food web.[8]

 
Zooplankton such as copepods shape the waters they live in by grazing on phytoplankton and providing food for larger animals in the California Current.

Zooplankton community structure changes significantly throughout the California Current system, based on the diverse physical conditions that exist between the two ends of the Current. In addition, other oceanographic processes impact zooplankton populations. The formation and maintenance of large eddies, for example, can isolate zooplankton and influence survival of their larvae, as has been observed at Point Conception in southern California and Punta Eugenia in Baja California.[9]

Transport of zooplankton, including larval stages for marine organisms, is impacted by upwelling dynamics. The distribution of transported spawn is an important component of recruitment for individual species that has implications for future fish abundance throughout the California Current.[10]

Shellfish

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INSERT INVERT INTRO. Echinoderms such as sea urchins (Echinoidea) and sea stars (Astroidea) are commonplace throughout the California Current. These organisms live in kelp forests and rocky intertidal zones. On-going large-scale impacts of sea star wasting disease have ravaged populations.[11] Other invertebrate organisms found in the region of the current include a wide range of species from the phylum Mollusca, which includes clams and squid. Shrimp and crab species (Crustacea) are abundant in the California Current. Many are commercially valuable, most notably Dungeness crab and Oregon pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani).

Fish

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Fish at lower trophic levels feed on zooplankton and transport energy up the food chain. Examples of forage fish with varying ranges throughout the California Current include Whitebait smelt, Pacific sardine, Pacific herring, and Northern anchovy.[12] These species constitute important food sources for higher tropic levels in the ecosystem.[13] The California Current is also home to many types of predatory fish. Rockfish (Sabastes) is a genus of fish with over 100 species present along the West Coast of the United States. These are commercially important fish (see Fisheries section below) that rely on kelp forests for habitat. Other demersal (groundfish) predatory fishes important to the California Current ecosystem include hake, cod, and spiny dogfish.[14] Other predators in the region include a number of shark species including the salmon shark which migrate throughout the California Current.[15]

Seabirds

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A wide variety of seabirds take advantage of the productive waters within the California Current. Notable species include Cassin's auklets, Rhinoceros auklets, common murres, pigeon guillemots, brown boobies, Brown pelicans, sooty shearwaters, and several species of cormorants and gulls.[16] Sooty shearwaters migrate 40,000 miles annually from their breeding grounds in New Zealand to feed in the California Current.[17]

Marine mammals

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High biological productivity in the California Current provides food for humpback whales, seabirds, and other animals.

High levels of nutrient upwelling and primary productivity within the California Current also create food for large marine mammals, including whales, seals, and sea lions. One of the most visible groups of organisms within the current fall into the order Cetacea, which includes dolphins, porpoises, toothed whales, and baleen whales.

Dolphins are by far the most numerous cetaceans, with an estimated population size of 540,000 individuals within the California Current ecosystem.[18] Species that prefer warmer conditions, including common dolphins and short-finned pilot whales, tend to stay in the southern section of the Current off the coast of California.[18] Cold-loving species like Pacific white-sided dolphins tend to stay farther north, off the coast of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Dall’s porpoises also inhabit the colder regions of the Current. The “cosmopolitan” dolphins, including bottlenose dolphins and killer whales, travel throughout the entire range of the California Current.[18] Individual species ranges vary from year to year as temperatures fluctuate, especially during El Niño, La Niña, or Pacific Decadal Oscillation events.

Baleen and toothed whales also inhabit the California Current ecosystem, including humpback, gray, Minke, blue, and sperm whales.[19] Many species of baleen whales, including gray whales and humpbacks, migrate thousands of miles each year between seasonal feeding grounds and mating/birthing grounds. These migration patterns take many whales directly through the California Current ecosystem.

Seals and sea lions are also common sights in the California Current ecosystem. The six most frequently occurring pinniped species are California sea lions, Stellar sea lions, Northern fur seals, Guadalupe fur seals, harbor seals, and Northern elephant seals.[20] Whales, seabirds, and pinnipeds often congregate around schooling fish, creating "feeding frenzies" in coastal waters, especially during periods of intense upwelling.   

Biogeochemical properties

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The physical properties of the California Current strongly influence its underlying biogeochemistry through the process of upwelling, which brings water with different properties to the surface. The interactions between physical forces, which move water masses around, and biological processes, such as respiration and photosynthesis, produce a dynamic environment in the current region.

Nutrient flux

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As an eastern boundary current, the California Current is strongly influenced by upwelling and downwelling.[21] The biological responses in the current are a result of these physical drivers interacting with the underlying biogeochemistry. Changes in nutrient fluxes on seasonal timescales provides distinct regimes for the region based on atmospheric conditions and ocean circulation. The transport of water by upwelling and downwelling is an important driver of nutrient transport. Water transported by upwelling is rich in nutrients which are essential for primary productivity, which then supports productive ecosystems.[22] Flux of nutrients is not consistent along the length of the current because coastal geomorphology strongly influences the intensity of upwelling in a particular region; this creates an inherent patchiness to the distribution of nutrients and oxygen along the coast.[23]

Additional sources of nutrients from river and estuarine inputs along the US west coast fuel primary productivity local to the source of the input. Most notable is the Columbia River, which discharges an average of 3600 m³/yr.[24] The signature from the Columbia River, which drains a total area of 660,480 km², can be tracked throughout the northern extent of the California Current.[25]

 
Upwelling of low oxygen water can produce hypoxic and acidic conditions on the shelf due to the decomposition of plankton after a bloom. This process consumes oxygen and releases carbon dioxide in shelf waters that are already low in oxygen and high in carbon due to their source at mid depths. [26]

Limiting nutrients

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Macronutrients such as nitrate and phosphate along with trace metals like iron are supplied to the coastal region through wind-forced upwelling.[27] Nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and iron (Fe) are important limiting nutrients for the California Current. Iron availability governs nitrate drawdown in many coastal upwelling systems and is strongly influenced by the physical drivers and bathymetry along the California Current. Locations with narrow continental shelves can become Fe-limited due to the low suspended sediment levels and high nitrate concentrations from upwelling.[28] Further offshore, away from the freshly upwelled waters, there are regions that are high in nitrate, but Fe-limited. These areas are designated as high nutrient low chlorophyll regions, where given the abundance of nitrate, they should be producing more chlorophyll.[23]

Oxygen

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Dissolved oxygen (DO) is a critical component of the California Current. Oxygen dynamics play a significant role in not only the ecological and fishery components of the current, but the biogeochemical processes as well. The structure of oxygen is an important factor for the current, with the oxygen minimum zone intersecting the continental slope at more than 600 meters depth.[29] Oxygen minimum zones exist at between depths of 100 and 900 meters, with minimum values between 300 and 500 meters. These zones are formed due to a combination of poor ventilation with surface waters and respiration.[30] The biogeochemical cycling of many important inorganic compounds is highly oxygen-dependent.[31] Variations in oxygen dynamics in the California Current are important, and there is recent evidence of strong hypoxia (DO <1.4 ml L-1) or even anoxia (DO = 0 ml L-1) over large expanses of the California Current.[32][29] Oxygen concentrations are not homogenous across the California Current; there is an inherent patchiness in oxygen that is the product of general ocean circulation, wind forcing, and bathymetry.[21] Oxygen also changes on an interannual basis, with low DO typically observed during the boreal summer, between the spring and fall transition of prevailing winds. There is also evidence of oxygen changing on longer time scales because decadal variations in ocean gyres create conditions that transport more upwelled water onto large portions of the continental shelf.[33]

Carbonate chemistry

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The interaction between the atmosphere and ocean results in mixing and subsequent uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) by surface ocean waters. Aragonite saturation state is an important aspect of the carbonate chemistry. This trait of ocean water is imperative for shell forming organisms in the California current and throughout global waters. Aragonite saturation refers to the relative abundance of carbonate ion present in the water and is often used to track how readily shell forming organisms such as coccolithophores make their shells. When the aragonite saturation state falls below 3, these organisms become stressed, and when saturation state falls below 1, shells begin to dissolve.[34]

Eastern boundary currents and their associated upwelling systems are naturally more acidic than other surface regions. The California Current and other eastern boundary currents are susceptible to widespread undersaturation of aragonite. Aragonite saturation also impacts the buffering capacity of the current.[35] Low saturation with respect to aragonite is prevalent in the current because upwelling moves comparatively low pH waters onto the continental shelf.[36]


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