IAI-FinalReport_ISP2_078: Benthic Communities and Biogeographic Boundaries in Chile and California

The prospect of future climate change has led to several recent predictions for changes in the physical oceanography of the Pacific, including changes in water temperature, sea-level rise, and the frequency and intensity of naturally occurring large scale anomalies such as ENSO (e.g. Bakun 1990, Manabe et al. 1991, 1992, Peterson et al. 1993).

The ecology of benthic nearshore organisms in the temperate Pacific coast of North and South America is comparatively well understood (Mooney et al. 1993, Paine 1994). However, we know little about the links between these highly productive and specious benthic systems and the coastal water masses in which they are immersed. Understanding the connections between coastal oceanographic processes and benthic populations is precisely the kind of knowledge needed to build a predictive framework of ecosystem responses to short- and long-term climatic changes.