Using the historical Atlantic tropical cyclone record, this study examines the empirical relationships between climate state variables and Atlantic tropical cyclone counts. The state variables considered as predictors include indices of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation and Northern Atlantic Oscillation, and both “local” and “relative” measures of Main Development Region sea surface temperature. Other predictors considered include indices measuring the Atlantic Meridional Mode and the West African monsoon. Using all of the potential predictors in a...

The 2014-2016 Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave (MHW) induced the warmest 3-year period on record in the California Current Ecosystem. We tested whether larval fish assemblage structure, phenology and diversity dynamics were comparable to past warming events from 1951-2013. First, we hypothesized, based on past observations of biological effect of warming, that mesopelagic species with southern distributions relative to southern California and Pacific sardine Sardinops sagax (a coastal pelagic species) would increase during the MHW while...

Genetic differentiation has been observed in marine species even when no obvious barriers to gene flow exist, and understanding such differentiation is essential for effective fisheries management. Highly differentiated outlier loci can provide information on how genetic variation might contribute to local adaptation but may also be affected by historical demographic events. A locus which aligned to a predicted zona pellucida sperm-binding protein 3 gene (ZP3) in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) was previously identified as...

Patagonia is an understudied area, especially when it comes to population genomic studies with relevance to fishery management. However, the dynamic and heterogeneous landscape in this area can harbor important but cryptic genetic population structure. Once such information is revealed, it can be integrated into the management of infrequently investigated species. Eleginops maclovinus is a protandrous hermaphrodite species with economic importance for local communities that is currently managed as a single genetic unit. In this...

Recovery of anadromous salmonid populations is complicated by the fact that these fish have complex life-histories. Habitat valuation and capacity methods need to account for spatiotemporal variability in temperature, geomorphic features, and a species’ thermal sensitivity mediated by biological interactions. We examined this interplay in a case study of steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Chinook Salmon (O. tshawytscha) in California’s Eel River watershed. We estimated habitat suitability and fish capacity for each salmonid run and...

Southern Ocean ecosystems are rapidly changing due to climate variability. An apparent beneficiary of such change in the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is the gentoo penguin Pygoscelis papua, which has increased its population size and expanded its range southward in the last 20 years. To better understand how this species has responded to large-scale changes, we tracked individuals during the non-breeding winter period from five colonies across the latitudinal range of breeding sites in the...

1. Understanding encounters between marine predators and fisheries across national borders and outside national jurisdictions offers new perspectives on unwanted interactions to inform ocean management and predator conservation. Although seabird-fisheries overlap has been documented at many scales, remote identification of vessel encounters has lagged because vessel movement data often is lacking. 2. Here, we reveal albatross-fisheries associations throughout the North Pacific Ocean. We identified commercial fishing operations using Global Fishing Watch data and algorithms to...

In the manuscript entitled, "Rethinking sustainability in seafood: synergies and trade-offs between fisheries and climate change", we quantified the climate forcing per unit fish protein associated with several different U.S. tuna fishing fleets, among the most important capture fisheries by both volume and value. The fishing fleets include the U.S. purse seine that operates in the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission convention area, the U.S. North Pacific albacore surface gear (which includes both troll and...

The CCGG cooperative air sampling network effort began in 1967 at Niwot Ridge, Colorado. Today, the network is an international effort which includes regular discrete samples from the NOAA GML baseline observatories, cooperative fixed sites, and commercial ships. Air samples are collected approximately weekly from a globally distributed network of sites. Samples are analyzed for Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Hydrogen Gas (H2), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), and Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6); and by...

Sexually selected traits have long been thought to drive diversification, but support for this hypothesis has been persistently controversial. In fishes, sexually dimorphic coloration is associated with assortative mating and speciation among closely related species, as shown in now-classic studies. However, it is unclear whether these results can generalize to explain diversity patterns across ray-finned fishes, which contain the majority of vertebrate species and 96% of fishes. Here, we use phylogenetic approaches to test for...

Pacific salmon have diverse life histories including phenotypic plasticity in the age at which males initiate maturation (range 1-6 years). Both genotype and rearing practices (feed type and rate, rearing temperatures) influence age of maturation. We have been monitoring age 2 (minijack) precocious male maturation rates at various Columbia River basin hatchery facilities from 1997 to the present. Thus, it is a compilation of over two decades of monitoring minijack rates at hatcheries primarily focused...

For the sea otter (Enhydra lutris), genetic population structure is an area of research that has not received significant attention, especially in Southwest Alaska where that distinct population segment has been listed as threatened since 2005 pursuant to the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In this study, 501 samples from 14 locations from Prince William Sound, Alaska to the Commander Islands in Russia were analyzed for variation at 13 microsatellite loci. Our results indicate a high...

Rare phenotypes and behaviours within a population are often overlooked, yet they may serve a heightened role for species imperilled by rapid warming. In threatened spring-run Chinook salmon spawning at the southern edge of the species range, we show late-migrating juveniles are critical to cohort success in years characterized by droughts and ocean heatwaves. Late migrants rely on cool river temperatures over summer, increasingly rare due to the combined effects of warming and impassable dams....

Ensemble-based data assimilation of radar observations across inner-core regions of tropical cyclones (TCs) in tandem with satellite all-sky infrared radiances across the TC domain improves TC track and intensity forecasts. This study further investigates potential enhancements in TC track, intensity, and rainfall forecasts via assimilation of all-sky microwave radiances using Hurricane Harvey (2017) as an example. Assimilating GPM constellation all-sky microwave radiances in addition to GOES-16 all-sky infrared radiances reduces the forecast errors in the...

The phylogeny and systematics of fur seals and sea lions (Otariidae) have long been studied with diverse data types, including an increasing amount of molecular data. However, only a few phylogenetic relationships have reached acceptance pointing at strong gene-tree species tree discordance. Divergence times in the group also vary largely between studies. These uncertainties impeded the understanding of the biogeographical history of the group, such as when and how trans-equatorial dispersal and subsequent speciation events...