Intellectual Merit: The California Current Ecosystem Long-Term Ecological Research site (CCE-LTER) addresses the impacts of climate change and climate variability on a major coastal upwelling ecosystem along the U.S. west coast within the U.S. EEZ. This pelagic ecosystem is of central importance to sustaining coastal fisheries, to the natural functioning of 4 National Marine Sanctuaries and state Marine Protected Areas, and to the sustainability of marine mammal and seabird populations, as well as to human livelihoods, coastal recreation, and safe navigation. During this grant period the CCE-LTER research program sustained long-term measurements of this important ecosystem, revealing: (1) long-term ocean warming and coincident increases in some krill populations, (2) a 37-year trend of ocean acidification, the longest such record in the Pacific Ocean, (3) multi-decadal changes in concentrations and ratios of dissolved nutrients that control phytoplankton growth at the base of the ocean food web, and (4) multi-decadal oscillations in several biological populations in parallel with changes in ocean climate variables. These findings, combined with experimental and modeling studies, led to the following new insights: - The novel concept of Conditional Top-Down ecosystem control, where predator-limitation acts primarily during certain ecosystem states. - The Enhanced Microbial Loop hypothesis, in which microbial grazers suppress the growth of prey and shift the composition of the plankton assemblage - The role of ocean fronts (i.e., regions of strong gradients) in accelerating carbon export from the surface to the interior of the ocean. - The consequences of coastal upwelling filaments in cross-shore transport of newly upwelled waters and newly fixed carbon to the offshore ocean. - Recognition of widespread limitation of phytoplankton growth by dissolved iron in the subsurface chlorophyll maximum. - Recognition via molecular analyses of the importance of nutrient (nitrogen) availability on the relative proportion of high biodiversity, offshore phytoplankton communities and low biodiversity, but highly productive nearshore communities. - Major advances in our understanding of the impacts of different types of El Nio on plankton production, plankton community composition, and distributional ranges. - Distinction of different physical drivers for different Marine Heatwaves, with differential consequences for marine food webs. - Changing phenology (i.e., seasonal timing) of blue whale migrations as a consequence of ocean warming and altered krill abundance. Broader Impacts: In this funding cycle, the CCE-LTER group engaged in extensive training and research support of future scientists, supporting the research of over 66 graduate students, 29 of whom completed a PhD or a Masters degree as a part of CCE Phase III. In addition, the research of 9 postdoctoral investigators was supported. Numerous undergraduates participated directly in research activities, including 37 REU (Research Experience for Undergraduate) students who participated in immersive summer research experiences, many of whom were from minority groups underrepresented in the Ocean Sciences. CCE research activities directly contributed to the content of at least 14 graduate courses and 6 undergraduate courses at SIO/UCSD and other institutions. Our ongoing relationship with the Birch Aquarium at Scripps (BAS) allows CCE to leverage the reach and science interpretation strengths of a major public aquarium. BAS served approximately 450,000 guests per year until 2020, continued to provide programming and services to guests throughout the pandemic, and is again reaching comparable members of the public. With BAS, our sponsorship of 3 secondary school teachers (via the NSF RET Research Experience for Teachers program) led to the incorporation of authentic CCE research results into lesson plans for local high school students. CCE graduate students and others shared their work regarding plankton ecology with the general public at Full Moon Pier Walks (over 1930 guests) and at SEA Days events (over 1800 guests). Graduate students and researchers also participated in Exploring Ocean STEM Career Nights for middle and high school students (420 students), serving on panels and facilitating hands-on stations featuring their work and discussions of their career pathway. BAS led a series of teacher workshops from 2016-2019 that provided middle school teachers the opportunity to explore research in an authentic way and to participate in activities designed for adult learners. Teachers then worked with their fellow educators and the CCE team to adapt these activities for the unique needs of their classrooms. CCE also has a long-term cooperative training program with the educational nonprofit Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California, helping to bring first hand experiences in plankton ecology to diverse school children in the southern California region. CCE publicly serves data via EDI (the Environmental Data Initiative) and DataZoo (CCEs own data-serving environment), to the scientific community and to the general public. Our datasets have been accessed by IP addresses located around the United States and from most countries in the world. Last Modified: 11/04/2023 Submitted by: MarkDOhman
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