CCE-LTER IV - process 1

The California Current Ecosystem (CCE) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site is a coastal upwelling biome and the site of a 73-year (ongoing) spatially-resolved ocean timeseries (CalCOFI) that has demonstrated physical forcing on multiple spatiotemporal scales with concomitant impacts on ocean biota. The CCE is part of the larger LTER Network, founded in 1980 by the National Science Foundation. CCE-LTER studies are making excellent progress towards diagnosing mechanisms of ecosystem change in a major upwelling ecosystem and developing a quantitative framework for forecasting future changes. Our field site is in the CA Current upwelling regime, centered around Point Conception, within the CalCOFI time series station plan. The CCE LTER field program includes several different elements: experimental process cruises, time series cruises (ship time augmented on existing CalCOFI cruises) and mooring servicing cruises to maintain the deep water CCE1 and CCE2 moorings. The science carried out on these field expeditions is highly interdisciplinary, involving elements of biological, chemical, and physical oceanography.