NCCLME Ecosystem Indicators (Improving ecosystem-based fisheries management and integrated ecosystem assessments by linking long-term climatic forcing and the Pelagic Nekton Community in the Northern California Current)

Pelagic nekton communities are among the most ecologically and economically important components of marine ecosystems worldwide. From sardines and anchovies to squid and mackerel, these species are at once the object of dedicated and emerging fisheries and links connecting lower and higher trophic levels in the coastal ocean. These characteristics make an understanding of the dynamics of pelagic nekton communities fundamental to nascent ecosystem-based fisheries management efforts. There is a need to better understand the possibility of climatic variability inducing unexpected responses, such as different species co-occurring and the development of no-analog future communities.

This research aims to develop new indicators that will describe how the pelagic nekton communities in the NCC have responded to climatic forcing during the period 1998-2011, with the twin goals of providing critical ecosystem information for fisheries management and expanding the availability of indicators for Integrated Ecosystem Assessments. This project will directly contribute to FATE's goal of creating indices of ecosystem properties and processes that reflect the condition of the ecosystem and the potential for changes in the distribution and habitats of the economically and ecologically important fish stocks in the California Current. This work will help support the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, as they have started to incorporate ecosystem information into fisheries management. New indicators of ecosystem conditions and properties that will describe how the pelagic nekton communities in the NCC have responded to climatic forcing during the period 1998-2011.