Following relaxations prevailing equatorward winds, warm water from the Santa Barbara Channel flows poleward around Point Conception and along the central California coast. Sequences of satellite sea surface temperature images show the events as bands of warm water extending up to 20 km offshore. Characteristics of these flows were examined using time series of currents and temperature from an array of moorings along the inner shelf (15 m depth), a mooring on the mid-shelf (100 m depth), and surface current observations from high frequency radars.

On the CCE Process Cruises in the California Current System, we used a Lagrangian sampling design to identify and track a series of discrete water parcels and entrained plankton communities through time.

The California Current System is a coastal upwelling biome, as found along the eastern margins of all major ocean basins. These are among the more productive ecosystems in the world ocean. The California Current Ecosystem (CCE) LTER site (centered on 32.9° N, 120.3° W) is investigating nonlinear transitions in the California Current coastal pelagic ecosystem, with particular attention to long-term forcing by a secular warming trend, multi-decadal oscillations (e.g., PDO and NPGO), and ENSO in altering the structure and dynamics of the pelagic ecosystem.

  A new Schoolyard children's book called Sea Secrets: Tiny Clues to a Big Mystery uncovers clues connecting the Cassin's Auklet from the California Current Ecosystem LTER and the Adelie penguin from Palmer Station LTER helping students understand that seabirds may be indicators of climate change.  

The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems (GCE) LTER site, located on the central Georgia coast, was established in 2000. The study domain encompasses three adjacent sounds (Altamaha, Doboy, Sapelo) and includes upland (mainland, barrier islands, marsh hammocks), intertidal (fresh, brackish and salt marsh) and submerged (river, estuary, continental shelf) habitats. Patterns and processes in this complex landscape vary spatially within and between sites, and temporally on multiple scales (tidal, diurnal, seasonal, and inter-annual).

The distribution of Adélie penguins along the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is spatially heterogeneous. Large Adélie colonies occur spatially in regions characterized by deep seafloor canyons. Often associated with these regions is persistent upwelling of warm, nutrient-rich UCDW, which is hypothesized to provide a predictable food resource close to the colonies such that they can be accessed by the penguins given their limited foraging range.

Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colonies in off the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) are undergoing changes in population size that have been correlated with climate-driven alteration of the marine and terrestrial environment. Climate-associated changes in the environment may affect chick growth processes which are important because large chicks are more likely to recruit to the breeding population and Adelie penguin population dynamics can correlate with fledging mass.

Hermatypic corals form the foundation of most coral reef ecosystems and provide critical habitat for hundreds of species of coral associated fishes. Recent decades have seen a decline in the abundance and areal cover of branching Acroporid corals along the north shore of Moorea, French Polynesia.

 Antarctic seabirds, including Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae), south polar skuas (Catharacta maccormicki) and southern giant petrels (Macronectes gigantus), are high trophic level predators that accumulate persistent organic pollutants (POPs) present in the marine food webs in which they forage. Diet and migration patterns influence the level of POP residues per species. Here we examine POP levels within the three bird species based on migratory patterns and trophic level using stable isotope analysis of δ15N and δ13C.

Herbivory plays a crucial role in structuring coral reef communities. A decrease in abundance of herbivores increases the probability of state shift from coral to algae domination. Although both fish and sea urchins are important herbivores, many tropical reef systems have suffered from over-harvesting of fishes and therefore, a more thorough understanding the effect of urchins on community structure is essential. This study examines how population dynamics of the urchin Diadema savignyi, affect the reef community of Moorea, French Polynesia. D.