Coastal upwelling in the eastern Gulf of California

Abstract

Understanding and quantifying upwelling is of great importance for marine resource management. Direct measurement of this process is extremely difficult and observed time-series do not exist. However, proxies are commonly derived from different data; most commonly wind-derived. A local wind-derived coastal upwelling index (CUI) is reported for the period 1970–1996 and is considered representative for the eastern central Gulf of California, an important fishing area where no proxies exist. The index is well related to pigment concentration distribution, surface water temperature, and population dynamics of important fish resources over the seasonal time-scale. There is a biological response to ENSO activity not reflected by this index, indicating that improvement of biological enrichment forecasting also requires water column structure input. A clearly increasing seasonal amplitude signal is detected in the coastal upwelling index and sea surface temperature since the mid 1970s. Understanding the nature of these long-term trends, the incorporation of remote tropical ocean signals into the enrichment proxy, the dynamics of atmosphere and ocean, and the biological responses are major challenges to the proper management of fish resources in the Gulf of California. upwelling / Gulf of California / seasonality / climate change