What is GLOBEC?

GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a coordinated research program that has been organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to study the effect global climate change may have on the abundance and production of animals in the sea.  The U.S. GLOBEC program  has research efforts located in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region as well as the Northeast Pacific.  The Northeast Pacific program studies components of the California Current and the Coastal Gulf of Alaska.   U.S. GLOBEC is a contributor to GLOBEC international.

The Northeast Pacific Program

The GLOBEC studies in the Northeast Pacific focus on two areas: the California Current and the Coast Gulf of Alaska.  The goals include mapping out the physical and biological oceanographic distributions and processes that influence juvenile salmonid habitat along the Oregon and northern California coast. The studies will also seek to understand how physical circulation features influence distributions of phytoplankton, zooplankton and larval fish.  These circulation features can include upwelling fronts and jets and recirculation around submarine banks.

The California Current System

The California Current runs north to south along the United States coast.  Winds blowing offshore in this area push water away from the coast causing upwelling of colder, nutrient-rich water which influence the productivity of copepod, euphausiid, and salmonid species.

The oceans are in constant motion due to wind-driven currents. The California current, carrying water cooled by its passage through the northern latitudes, flows southward along the shore from the Washington-Oregon border to Southern California. This basic current is modified by seasonal variations in wind direction.   These waters are replaced by deep, cold water that flows up over the continental shelf to the surface, carrying with it dissolved nutrients from the decay of organic material that had sunk to the ocean floor. This process, known as upwelling, is restricted mainly to west coasts of continents, and is responsible for the high productivity of Oregon's near shore waters.

Every few years this pattern is disrupted by a phenomenon known as El Nino. The El Nino baths near shore areas in unusually warm, nutrient poor water from the south, which affects coastal food webs and causes phytoplankton production to drop, fisheries to decline, seabirds to starve, and marine mammals to temporarily stop breeding.

Phytoplankton, the basis of almost all ocean food webs, thrives under normal near shore summer conditions. Nutrient rich waters, combined with long sunlight days, causes the phytoplankton to "bloom." The resulting abundance of phytoplankton causes herbivorous and carnivorous zooplankton populations to expand. Common members of the zooplankton communities include protozoan, jellyfish, copepods, krill, mollusk larvae, and arthropod larvae. These zooplankton provide food for fish which are in turn eaten by birds and mammals.

Links:

Northeast Pacific Program Summary

U.S. GLOBEC Reports (pdf files)