Abstract
Multidisciplinary, integrated ocean observing programs provide critical data for monitoring the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems. California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) samples along the US West Coast and is one of the world’s longest-running and most comprehensive time series, with hydrographic and biological data collected since 1949. The pairing of ecological and physical measurements across this long time series informs our understanding of how the California Current marine ecosystem responds to climate variability. By providing a baseline to monitor change, the CalCOFI time series serves as a Keeling Curve for the California Current. However, challenges remain in connecting the data collected from long-term monitoring programs with the needs of stakeholders concerned with climate change adaptation (i.e. resource managers, policy makers, and the public), including for the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. We use the CalCOFI program as a case study to ask: how can long-term ocean observing programs inform ecosystem based management efforts and create data flows that meet the needs of stakeholders working on climate change adaptation? Addressing this question and identifying solutions requires working across sectors and recognizing stakeholder needs. Lessons learned from CalCOFI can inform other regional monitoring programs around the world, including those done at a smaller scale in developing countries.
Highlights
The US West Coast is one of the best studied marine regions of the world due to a high concentration of academic institutions, investment in fisheries, and political support
California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) represented a unique partnership between academic, federal, and state partners (Scheiber, 1990), which consists of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD, federal scientists at NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and scientists working for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Ohman and Venrick, 2003; McClatchie, 2014)
The US West Coast is well positioned to be able to respond to climate change effectively with an adaptive management framework for fisheries, aquaculture, and marine ecosystem use
Summary
The US West Coast is one of the best studied marine regions of the world due to a high concentration of academic institutions, investment in fisheries, and political support. More comprehensive oceanographic monitoring should lead to more climate-resilient management (Skern-Mauritzen et al, 2016; Davidson et al, 2019), there are unique challenges in linking physical and biological oceanographic data to management needs (Field and Francis, 2006). These include, for example, difficulties in linking meaningful climate indices to fisheries trends to inform management decisions (Myers, 1998; Smith et al, 2007; Pitcher et al, 2009), and in creating data products that support the needs of a diverse community of stakeholders (Rayner et al, 2019). Since 2004, CalCOFI contributes to the California Current Ecosystem Long Term Ecological Research (CCE LTER) Network (Ohman and Hobbie, 2008)
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