An overview of interactions among oceanography, marine ecosystems, climatic and human disruptions along the eastern margins of the Pacific Ocean

Physical processes, biotic processes and human activities all act to shape marine ecosystems. Future management of these valuable ecosystems requires an integrative approach that takes into account complicated organismal interactions, oceanographic processes that span large scales of time and space,...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: HALPIN,PATRICIA M.; STRUB,P. TED; PETERSON,WILLIAM T.; BAUMGARTNER,TIM R.
Format: Article
Status:Published version
Publication date:2004
Country:Chile
Institution:Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
Repository:SciELO Chile
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:scielo:S0716-078X2004000300002
Online Access:http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-078X2004000300002
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:eastern boundary currents
anthropogenic effects
marine community ecology
fisheries
interdecadal variability
Description
Summary:Physical processes, biotic processes and human activities all act to shape marine ecosystems. Future management of these valuable ecosystems requires an integrative approach that takes into account complicated organismal interactions, oceanographic processes that span large scales of time and space, and how anthropogenic effects interact with the natural environment. The temperate west coasts of North and South America represent a unique opportunity for comparison, as many of the same oceanographic processes, particularly upwelling, occur off both coasts. Additionally, a number of marine ecosystems in both areas have surprising parallels. Here we present an overview of the oceanographic processes that dominate the coastlines, and give examples of ecosystems and the effects that oceanography, human activities and their interaction have on the communities