Climate and ecological Variability go hand-in-hand:

• Populations show substantial variability in size and spatial distribution on all time scales--Baseline is always shifting

• Awareness of the full range of natural variability is necessary for assessing potential anthropogenic effects

• Long-term (Century-scale) conservation requires understanding the sources of population/ecosystem variability and accounting for them in reserve design

Decadal Oscillations in Ocean EcosystemsSIO Pelagic Invertebrates Collection

Large-scale warming in the NE Pacific in 1976-77 (see PDO) was associated with increases in subtropical plankton and decreases in cool-water plankton in the California Current. Ocean cooling in 1999 appeared to reverse this pattern, suggesting that such changes may be cyclical.

Subtropical krill

Subtropical doliolid

Cool water salps

D. WrobelFrom M. Ohman

Abundance of the planktic foraminifer, Globorotalia miocenica,fluctuates on a 41 kyr cycle in tune with growth and decay of glacial ice

Geological climate archives--Corals

Thanks to Chris Charles