CCE LTER

For Researchers

Data sharing, proposals, etc...

For Educators & Students

Lesson plans, multimedia, etc...

For the Public

Links, webcams, etc...

 Other LTER Network Sites

  • Washing down bongo nets

  • Bongo nets

  • Copepods of CCE

  • "Radiolarian"

  • Sampling water from the CTD

  • Chief scientist Mike Landry prepares for a CTD cast

  • Pelagic red crab

  • Plankton display at Birch Aquarium

  • Teacher, undergrads, postocs, grad student

  • R/V Sikuliaq - P1604

  • MOCNESS preparation

  • Phaeodarians

  • Teacher workshop on CCE at the Birch Aquarium

  • Summer 2016 REUs and mentors

  • Loading day

  • CCE REUs tour the Marine Vertebrate Collection at SIO

  • Scientific party, SKrillEx2

  • Midwater dragonfish

  • Epifluorescent phytoplankton montage

  • Mesopelagic fish at Chicano day

  • Copepod with newly laid eggs

  • Ralf filling bottles

  • Splitting the doliolid-heavy sample

  • Krill and micronekton soup

  • Sediment trap team

  • MOHT midwater trawl deployment

  • CCE grad students & postdoc at UCSB exchange

  • Sunset

  • Checking the CCE-1 mooring

  • Sunset in the California Current

  • Mesopelagic copepod

  • Sorting for copepod egg production

  • Loosejaw (deep-sea fish) captured in Mocness

  • UVP and Tristan

  • SeaSoar and Sediment trap

  • Stern of R/V Sikuliaq

  • CTD, bongo, MVP

  • R/V Sikuliaq afloat in the CCE

  • Barbeau lab and trace metal rosette

  • Setting up the O2/Argon gas system

  • Thetys (solitary salp)

  • Night-time MOCNESS crew

  • Nighttime MOCNESS

  • Velella velella (by-the-wind sailor)

  • R/V Oceanus student cruise scientific party, 2015

  • CTD-rosette with mascot Ophelia

  • Sediment trap deployment

  • Holey sock retrieval

  • Sorting an otter trawl sample

  • P1604

  • Scientific party, CCE P1408

  • CCE REUs tour the Pelagic Invertebrate Collection at SIO

  • Grad students collecting water from CTD bottles

  • Doliolids at Cycle 3

  • CTD data watch

  • 8th graders tour SIO

  • Site review team sets sail

  • Lead PI Mark Ohman and boy scouts at Birch Aquarium

  • MOCNESS deployment

  • Chl-a image and CalCOFI stations

  • Preuss 6th graders visit the Pelagic Invertebrate Collection

The California Current System is a coastal upwelling biome, as found along the eastern margins of all major ocean basins. These are among the most productive ecosystems in the world ocean.

The California Current Ecosystem LTER (32.9°, -120.3°) is investigating nonlinear transitions in the California Current coastal pelagic ecosystem, with particular attention to long-term forcing by a secular warming trend, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and El Niño in altering the structure and dynamics of the pelagic ecosystem. The California Current sustains active fisheries for a variety of finfish and marine invertebrates, modulates weather patterns and the hydrologic cycle of much of the western United States, and plays a vital role in the economy of myriad coastal communities.