Jet stream intraseasonal oscillations drive dominant ecosystem variations in Oregon's summertime coastal upwelling system

Abstract

Summertime wind stress along the coast of the northwestern United States typically exhibits intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) with periods from approximately 15 to 40 days, as well as fluctuations on the 2- to 6-day "weather-band" and 1-day diurnal time scales. Coastal upwelling of cool, nutrient-rich water is driven by extended periods of equatorward alongshore winds, and we show that the approximately 20-day ISOs in alongshore wind stress dominated the upwelling process during summer 2001 off Oregon. These wind stress ISOs resulted from north-south positional ISOs of the atmospheric jet stream (JS). Upper-ocean temperature, phytoplankton, and zooplankton varied principally on the approximately 20-day time scale as well, and these correlated with the ISOs in alongshore wind stress and JS position, even though there also were weather-band stress fluctuations of comparable magnitude. Such wind stress ISOs are typical along Oregon in the summer upwelling season, occurring in 10 of 12 years examined, including 2001. We present a previously unreported direct connection from the atmospheric JS to oceanic primary and secondary production on the intraseasonal time scale and show the leading importance of ISOs in driving this coastal upwelling ecosystem during a typical summer.