asdfasdfas
...titution of Oceanography report in the Sept. 15 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.Using high-resolution, color-sensitive satellite images, the researchers examined the impact of the 1997/1998 El Niņo event on the abundance of phytoplankton in the California ocean current system. Launched in 1996 and 1997, the satellites enabled the researchers to monitor the amount of phytoplankton in the top 10 meters of the ocean. "Our work adds to a growing body of evidence about the impact of El Niņo on the ocean ecosystem," said Greg Mitchell, a research biologist in the marine research division at Scripps.In southern and central California, ocean temperatures rose as much as four degrees higher than normal during the height of El Niņo, Mitchell explained. This resulted in a critical reduction of surface nutrients and consequently a reduction in the high-concentration patches of phytoplankton that may be necessary for the reproductive success of many fish populations. "Success of fish population recruitment, and therefore commercial fisheries, may in part depend on inter-annual cycles of nutrient and phytoplankton distributions associated with El Niņo and La Niņa," he said. "(The 1997/1998 El Niņo year) was not a good year for fisheries," said John Hunter, director of the fisheries division at NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Most affected were organisms with shorter life spans that depend on cold water ecosystems, he explained. "Squid, which have a life span of about six months virtually...