Author: Stan Ulanski Publisher: UNC Press Books ISBN: 1469628252 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 311
Book Description
The California Current--part of the large, swirling North Pacific gyre--flows slowly southward along the west coast of North America, stretching nearly 2,000 miles from southern British Columbia to the tip of Baja California in Mexico. To a casual observer standing on the shore, the vast current betrays no discernible signs, yet life abounds just over the horizon. Stan Ulanski takes us into the water on a journey through this magnificent, unique marine ecosystem, illuminating the scientific and biological marvels and the astonishing array of flora and fauna streaming along our Pacific coast. The waters of the California Current yield a complex broth of planktonic organisms that form the base of an elaborate food web that many naturalists have compared to the species-rich Serengeti ecosystem of Africa. Every year, turtles, seals, fish, and seabirds travel great distances to feast in the current's distinct biological oases and feeding sites. Apex predators, such as the California gray whale, humpback whale, salmon shark, and bluefin tuna, undertake extensive north-south migrations within the current to find enough to eat. The California Current energizes us to celebrate and protect a marine ecosystem integral to the myriad fisheries, coastal communities, and cultures of the Pacific coast.
Author: Jochen Kämpf Publisher: Springer ISBN: 3319425242 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 433
Book Description
Upwelling systems are special places in the oceans where nutrient-enriched water is brought into the euphotic zone to fuel phytoplankton blooms that, via marine food-web interactions, create the world’s richest fish resources. This book introduces the reader to the interdisciplinary science of upwelling and provides a comprehensive overview of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems in the context of climate variability, climate change and human exploitation. This material presented is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate study or just for anyone interested to learn about the creation of life in the oceans and how this is compromised by human activities.
Author: Erwin G. Gudde Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 0520266196 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 496
Book Description
This anniversary edition concentrates on the origins of the names currently used for the cities, towns, settlements, mountains, and streams of California, with engrossing accounts of the history of their usage. The dictionary includes a glossary and a bibliography.
Author: Harold Mooney Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 0520278801 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 1008
Book Description
This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for CaliforniaÕs remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem typeÑits distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of CaliforniaÕs ecological patterns and the history of the stateÕs various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the stateÕs ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of CaliforniaÕs environment and curious naturalists.
Author: California. Department of Fish and Game Publisher: Calif. Department of Fish and Game ISBN: Category : Biodiversity Languages : en Pages : 116
Book Description
Those of us who live in California know that it is an amazing place, and one of the reasons our state is so unique is the incredible diversity of life throughout its length and breadth. This atlas shows what the diversity of life in California is and where such resources are located.
Author: Matthew W. Hecht Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 1118671996 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 654
Book Description
Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 177. This monograph is the first to survey progress in realistic simulation in a strongly eddying regime made possible by recent increases in computational capability. Its contributors comprise the leading researchers in this important and constantly evolving field. Divided into three parts Oceanographic Processes and Regimes: Fundamental Questions Ocean Dynamics and State: From Regional to Global Scale, and Modeling at the Mesoscale: State of the Art and Future Directions The volume details important advances in physical oceanography based on eddy resolving ocean modeling. It captures the state of the art and discusses issues that ocean modelers must consider in order to effectively contribute to advancing current knowledge, from subtleties of the underlying fluid dynamical equations to meaningful comparison with oceanographic observations and leading-edge model development. It summarizes many of the important results which have emerged from ocean modeling in an eddying regime, for those interested broadly in the physical science. More technical topics are intended to address the concerns of those actively working in the field.
Author: Sam McClatchie Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 9400772238 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 235
Book Description
The California Current System is one of the best studied ocean regions of the world, and the level of oceanographic information available is perhaps only surpassed by the northeast and northwest Atlantic. The current literature (later than 1993) offers no comprehensive, integrated review of the regional fisheries oceanography of the California Current System. This volume summarizes information of more than 60-year California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigation (CalCOFI). While providing a large bibliography, the intent was to extract themes relevant to current research rather than to prepare a compendious review of the literature. The work presents a useful review and reference point for multidisciplinary fisheries scientists and biological oceanographers new to working in the California Current System, and to specialists wishing to access information outside their core areas of expertise. In addition it aims to deliver an up to date reference to the current state of knowledge of fisheries oceanography in the California Current System.
Author: Craig S. Nelson Publisher: ISBN: Category : California Current Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
Historical surface marine observations are summarized by 1-degree square area and long term month to describe the seasonal distribution of wind stress over the California Current. Off the coasts of southern California and Baja California, an alongshore equatorward component is present throughout the year. The distributions north of Cape Mendocino are characterized by marked changes in direction and magnitude between summer and winter. The predominant wind stress maximum shifts northward coherently from off Point Conception in March to south of Cape Blanco in September, and extends approximately 500 km in the offshore direction and 1000 km in the alongshore direction. Maximum values of surface wind stress occur during July near Cape Mendocino. The wind stress curl is positive near the coast and negative in the region offshore.
Author: Ross P. Mitchell Publisher: ISBN: Category : California Current Languages : en Pages : 136
Book Description
A high-resolution, multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response of an idealized, flat-bottomed, eastern boundary oceanic regime on a beta-plane to both steady and seasonally-varying climatological wind forcing. The focus of the study is the California Current System along the coastal region, from 35 deg N to 45 deg N, off the Western United States. With steady equatorward wind forcing, a surface equatorward current and poleward undercurrent develop. Eddies form around days 60 and 7 with initial development in the northern region of the domain. The strong meandering current continues to grow throughout the 360 days of model time and can produce eddies that have wavelengths up to 200 km and can propagate at least -200 km offshore. When the alongshore component of the temporally averaged seasonally varying climatological wind forcing is used, there is a weak poleward undercurrent and equatorward surface current. There is weak upwelling and very little eddy activity with the eddies only propagating to -100 km offshore. When alongshore component of the time-dependent wind forcing with spatial variability in latitude is used, a surface equatorward jet, poleward undercurrent and eddies are generated. The eddies form throughout the domain in this experiment due to a competition between the 0-plan effect and the continuous and stronger equatorward wind forcing in the southern portion of the domain. The eddies in this experiment propagate at least -150 km from shore.
Author: Stan Ulanski
Author: Jochen Kämpf
Author: Erwin G. Gudde
Author: Harold Mooney
Author: California. Department of Fish and Game
Author: Matthew W. Hecht
Author: Sam McClatchie
Author: Craig S. Nelson
Author: Craig S. Nelson
Author: Ross P. Mitchell