Climate variation is recognized as a primary driver of ocean ecosystems and their associated biological resources. This is seen clearly along the Pacific Northwest coast, where fluctuations in fishery stocks (including salmon, Dungeness crab, Pacific hake, sardines, anchovies) and other species such as krill and smelt have been explained by climate patterns. Our team focuses on understanding climate-production relationships along the Oregon and Washington coasts, and using that understanding to predict production of coastal resources. We do this through a combination of fundamental research, long-term monitoring, and data synthesis. Through these studies, we expect to gain better understanding of the control of coastal resource production, make better predictions of resource status, and better assess the effects of human management on these systems. We currently have three main areas of research:

Zooplankton ecology and monitoring. The core activity of the zooplankton program is biweekly hydrography and plankton cruises conducted off Newport by Bill Peterson and his staff. These cruises were initiated in May 1996 and continue to present. On each cruise we measure hydrographic conditions and sample the zooplankton at stations ranging from 1 to 25 miles from shore. We set up incubations of living plankton for (a) euphausiid (krill) molting rates, (b) adult female euphausiid brood sizes, and (c) copepod egg production (Calanus marshallae, C. pacificus and others).