Sonia D. Batten

CPR Survey Marine Biological Association

Time series of phytoplankton and zooplankton collected from the shelf and oceanic northern Gulf of Alaska from 2000 to 2018 are examined to describe changes in abundance and composition that occurred during the 2014–2016 marine heat wave (MHW). Zooplankton abundances were very high on the shelf during the MHW, particularly copepods and pteropods, w...

Oceanic features, such as mesoscale eddies that entrap and transport water masses, create heterogeneous seascapes to which biological communities may respond. To date, however, our understanding of how internal eddy dynamics influence plankton community structuring is limited by sparse sampling of eddies and their associated biotic communities. In...

North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) Special Publication

The Northeast Pacific is a highly heterogeneous and productive ecosystem, yet it is vulnerable to climate change and extreme events such as marine heat waves. Recent heat wave induced die-offs of fish, marine mammals, and seabirds in the Gulf of Alaska were associated with the loss of large, lipid-rich copepods, which are a vital food resource for...

Macroecological relationships provide insights into rules that govern ecological systems. Bergmann's rule posits that members of the same clade are larger at colder temperatures. Whether temperature drives this relationship is debated because several other potential drivers covary with temperature. We conducted a near‐global comparative analysis on...

Some of the longest and most comprehensive marine ecosystem monitoring programs were established in the Gulf of Alaska following the environmental disaster of the Exxon Valdez oil spill over 30 years ago. These monitoring programs have been successful in assessing recovery from oil spill impacts, and their continuation decades later has now provide...

The eastern North Pacific experienced a prolonged heat wave in 2014–2016 manifested by high sea surface temperature anomalies in the south-central Gulf of Alaska (GOA). The event provided a natural experiment on the response of the southern GOA ecosystem to a dramatic change in sea temperature. Spatial and temporal variability in zooplankton commun...

During the Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016, abundance and quality of several key forage fish species in the Gulf of Alaska were simultaneously reduced throughout the system. Capelin (Mallotus catervarius), sand lance (Ammodytes personatus), and herring (Clupea pallasii) populations were at historically low levels, and within this community abr...

Despite their critical role as the main energy pathway between phytoplankton and fish, the functional complexity of zooplankton is typically poorly resolved in marine ecosystem models. Trait-based approaches—where zooplankton are represented with functional traits such as body size—could help improve the resolution of zooplankton in marine ecosyste...

The Gulf of Alaska experienced extreme temperatures during 2014-2019, including the four warmest years ever observed. The goal of this study is to evaluate the ecological consequences of that warming event, across multiple trophic levels and taxa. We tested for evidence that observed sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies were outside the envelope...

The Gulf of Alaska experienced extreme temperatures during 2014-2019, including the four warmest years ever observed. The goal of this study is to evaluate the ecological consequences of that warming event, across multiple trophic levels and taxa. We tested for evidence that observed sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies were outside the envelope...

We modelled isoscapes in the Northeast (NE) Pacific using satellite‐based data, with the main objective of testing whether isoscapes defined by a few key parameters can be used as a proxy for secondary productivity. Northeast Pacific; 46–60° N and 125–165° W. From 1998 to 2017 (ongoing). Zooplankton, with a focus on large herbivores. Approximately...

Development of global ocean observing capacity for the biological EOVs is on the cusp of a step-change. Current capacity to automate data collection and processing and to integrate the resulting data streams with complementary data, openly available as FAIR data, is certain to dramatically increase the amount and quality of information and knowledg...

Plankton are the base of marine food webs, essential to sustaining fisheries and other marine life. Continuous Plankton Recorders (CPRs) have sampled plankton for decades in both hemispheres and several regional seas. CPR research has been integral to advancing understanding of plankton dynamics and informing policy and management decisions. We des...

In this paper we review the technologies available to make globally quantitative observations of particles in general-and plankton in particular-in the world oceans, and for sizes varying from sub-microns to centimeters. Some of these technologies have been available for years while others have only recently emerged. Use of these technologies is cr...

Several species of the marine diatom Pseudo-nitzschia can produce the neurotoxin domoic acid that is responsible for the seafood-borne illness amnesic shellfish poisoning in humans, marine wildlife mortalities and prolonged closures of fisheries resulting in economic losses to coastal communities. Since the year 2000, Pseudo-nitzschia species have...

Developing enduring capacity to monitor ocean life requires investing in people and their institutions to build infrastructure, ownership, and long-term support networks. International initiatives can enhance access to scientific data, tools and methodologies, and develop local expertise to use them, but without ongoing engagement may fail to have...

Oceanographers have an increasing responsibility to ensure that the outcomes of scientific research are conveyed to the policy-making sphere to achieve conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity. Zooplankton monitoring projects have helped to increase our understanding of the processes by which marine ecosystems respond to climate chan...

A new Scientific Committee for Ocean Research (SCOR, http://www.scor-int.org/) working group has been formed, entitled SCOR WG-154 “Inte- gration of Plankton-Observing Sensor Systems to Existing Global Sampling Programs (P-OBS, http://www.scor-int.org/SCOR_WGs_WG154. htm.).” The working group (P-OBS WG) is review- ing biological sensing technologie...

Measurements of the status and trends of key indicators for the ocean and marine life are required to inform policy and management in the context of growing human uses of marine resources, coastal development, and climate change. Two synergistic efforts identify specific priority variables for monitoring: Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) through th...

We examined the hypothesis of top‐down (predator) control of plankton populations around the Aleutian Islands and in the southern Bering Sea using a 15 year time series (2000–2014) of plankton populations sampled during summer by Continuous Plankton Recorders. Our analyses reveal opposing biennial patterns in abundances of large phytoplankton and c...

Sustained observations of marine biodiversity and ecosystems focused on specific conservation and management problems are needed around the world to effectively mitigate or manage changes resulting from anthropogenic pressures. These observations, while complex and expensive, are required by the international scientific, governance and policy commu...

Update on the status of Alaskamarineecosystems

This study describes results from the first 16 years of the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) program that has sampled the lower trophic levels (restricted to larger, hard-shelled phytoplankton and robust zooplankton taxa) on the Alaskan shelf. Sampling took place along transects from the open ocean across the shelf (to the entrance to Prince Will...

Ecosystem models are valuable tools for informing fisheries management due to their ability to simulate the spatial dynamics of modelled species, their trophic interactions, and their responses to fishing in an ecosystem context. In this study, we developed an OSMOSE (Object- oriented Simulator of Marine Ecosystems Exploitation) model for the Pacif...

Ecosystem models are valuable tools for informing fisheries management due to their ability to simulate the spatial dynamics of modelled species, their trophic interactions, and their responses to fishing in an ecosystem context. In this study, we developed an OSMOSE (Object-oriented Simulator of Marine Ecosystems Exploitation) model for the Pacifi...

Ecosystem models are valuable tools for informing fisheries management due to their ability to simulate the spatial dynamics of modelled species, their trophic interactions, and their responses to fishing in an ecosystem context. In this study, we developed an OSMOSE (Object-oriented Simulator of Marine Ecosystems Exploitation) model for the Pacifi...

This study examines the relationships between first year growth of juvenile Prince William Sound herring, temperature and their food. We present time series of herring first year growth, determined from scale measurements as a proxy for herring length, water temperature and indices of multiple trophic levels of plankton obtained from Continuous Pla...

In: 25 Years of PICES: Celebrating the Past, Imagining the Future. PICES 2016 Annual Meeting, November 2-13, 2016, San Diego, USA.

Spatial and temporal variation in copepod community structure, abundance, distribution and biodiversity were examined in the western subarctic North Pacific (40–53°N, 144–173°E) during 2001–2013. Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) observational data during the summer season (June and July) were analyzed. The latitudinal distribution of warm-water s...

The global distribution of zooplankton community structure is known to follow latitudinal temperature gradients: larger species in cooler, higher latitudinal regions. However, interspecific relationships between temperature and size in zooplankton communities have not been fully examined in terms of temporal variation. To re-examine the relationshi...

Deliberate fertilization of a patch of water west of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, with iron sulphate and oxide occurred in summer 2012 and triggered a phytoplankton bloom strongly visible in satellite imagery in late August and detectable through September 2012. Routine sampling by the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey from commercial ships occ...

Pelagic ecosystems cover more than 70% of the surface of the earth. Their species diversity and richness are related to physicochemical and biological processes acting at a range of temporal and spatial scales. They are strongly influenced by atmosphere–ocean (coupling) interactions related to hydrodynamic processes. Pelagic biodiversity is part of...

We explored interannual variations and regional differences in abundance patterns and the timing of developmental events in the dominant copepods Eucalanus bungii, Neocalanus flemingeri, Neocalanus plumchrus and Neocalanus cristatus in the western North Pacific Ocean using Continuous Plankton Recorder survey data collected in the period 2001–2009....

Nursery areas for juvenile fishes are often important for determining recruitment in marine populations by providing habitats that can maximize growth and thereby minimize mortality. Pacific ocean perch (POP, Sebastes alutus) have an extended juvenile period where they inhabit rocky nursery habitats. We examined POP nursery areas to link growth pot...

Phytoplankton phenology and community structure in the western North Pacific were investigated for 2001-2009, based on satellite ocean colour data and the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey. We estimated the timing of the spring bloom based on the cumulative sum satellite chlorophyll a data, and found that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)-rel...

Marine zooplankton must deal with seasonal variations of the upper-ocean environment that are both intense and prolonged compared to their life spans. This leads to large seasonal fluctuations of population size, and strong evolutionary tuning of demographic processes (e.g. reproduction, somatic and population growth, and dormancy) for optimal matc...

At the base of the marine foodweb, the free floating plant life of the sea (phytoplankton) provide food for the animal plankton (zooplankton) which in turn provide food for many other marine organisms. The carrying capacity of marine ecosystems in terms of the size of fish resources and recruitment to individual stocks as well as the abundance of m...

The Continuous Plankton Recorder has been deployed in the NE Pacific on two intersecting transects since 2000. Many deployments included a temperature sensor providing in situ temperature data to supplement the species abundance data for similar to 1300 samples. Twenty-nine copepod taxa were sufficiently abundant to examine their temperature-relate...

Arising from D. G. Boyce, M. R. Lewis & B. Worm Nature 466, 591–596 (2010); Boyce et al. reply Phytoplankton account for approximately 50% of global primary production, form the trophic base of nearly all marine ecosystems, are fundamental in trophic energy transfer and have key roles in climate regulation, carbon sequestration and oxygen producti...

The following CPR Atlas contains the biogeographical distribution of 240 common pelagic plankton taxa of the North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. The biogeographical charts were produced using data collected by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey from 1958 to 1999, incorporating over 155 000 plankton samples. The methodology on spatial int...

In conjunction with the North Pacific Continuous Plankton Recorder program, we conducted surveys of seabirds from June 2002 to June 2007. Here, we tested the hypotheses of (i) east– west variations in coupled plankton and seabird abun-dance, and (ii) that surface-feeding and diving seabirds vary in their relationships to primary productivity and me...

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) began its first routine deployment to collect plankton samples in the North Sea in 1931. The better part of a century after that event, the Recorder is used for sampling plankton widely in many oceans. The CPR is designed to be towed behind ships of opportunity (such as commercial and passenger vessels) and to...

Plankton are the main food source in the majority of marine ecosystems and have a crucial role in climate change through primary production and the export of carbon to the deep ocean. Understanding how ocean biology and biogeochemical cycles contribute and respond to climate and other global change is a major challenge of high significance for the...

The calanoid copepod Neocalan us plumchrus (Marukawa) is a dominant member of the spring mesozooplankton in the subarctic North Pacific and Bering Sea. Previous studies have shown interdecadal and latitudinal variation in seasonal developmental timing, with peak biomass occurring earlier in years and places with warmer upper ocean temperatures. Bec...

lankton are the main food source in the majority of marine ecosystems and have a crucial role in climate change through primary production and the export of carbon to the deep ocean. Understanding how ocean biology and biogeochemical cycles contribute and respond to climate and other global change is a major challenge of high significance for the f...

Decapoda taken in Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) samples from the Pacific in 1997 and 2000–2003 have been identified and measured. Some previously un-described larval stages were referred to species and characteristics of these are described. Distributions and seasonal occurrence of decapod taxa in the samples are described and discussed with p...

As the eastward-flowing North Pacific Current approaches the North American continent it bifurcates into the southward-flowing California Current and the northward-flowing Alaska Current. This bifurcation occurs in the south-eastern Gulf of Alaska and can vary in position. Dynamic height data from Project Argo floats have recently enabled the creat...

The consequences for pelagic communities of warming trends in mid and high latitude ocean regions could be substantial, but their magnitude and trajectory are not yet known. Environmental changes predicted by climate models (and beginning to be confirmed by observations) include warming and freshening of the upper ocean and reduction in the extent...

Adult sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka, N=179) from six Fraser River populations (British Columbia) were intercepted in continental shelf waters ∼215km from the Fraser River mouth, gastrically implanted with acoustic transmitters, non-lethally biopsied for blood biochemistry, gill Na+,K+-ATPase activity and somatic energy density and then release...