Resumen del producto

The California Current System has been referred as the most intensively studied oceanicsystem in the world. Since 1997, in the southern California Current region, theIMECOCAL Program has conducted quarterly oceanographic cruises with an average of80 stations following the original CalCOFI Program sampling grid. This program wasdesigned to provide quantitative descriptions of physical and biological processes thatcontribute to broadening our understanding of the role they play in the dynamics of theCalifornia Current ecosystem, particularly in the Mexican area off the Baja CaliforniaPeninsula. In each station CTD casts are made in order to obtain temperature, conductivityand pressure of seawater. In addition, surface fluorescence and speed of marine currentsare continuously recorded. Bongo-net hauls are carried out to determine biomass andstructure of the zooplankton community and water samples are taken for the determinationof nutrients and dissolved oxygen. Also in most cruises, in selected stations, primaryproduction experiments are carried out. Although the program has had some changes duefinancial struggling, in total 63 cruises have been conducted, accomplishing 15 fall cruises,17 winter cruises, 16 spring cruises and 15 summer cruises. As a direct result fromIMECOCAL research, oceanographic structure has been characterized, as a transitionalzone where the relatively cold and low-salinity water of the California Current meetswarmer and more saline tropical and subtropical waters. Distribution of the correspondentbiota from these different types of water masses are affected mostly by seasonal andinterannual variability. According to this, fish larvae communities divide the region in threemayor zones: ENSENADA, between Ensenada, BC and Punta Baja (CalCOFI lines 97 to110), defined by a lower larval diversity of mostly subartic and temperate taxa; VIZCAINOBAY, and the adjacent oceanic region (CalCOFI lines 113 to 127), with the highest larvaldiversity in the region, where biota of northern and southern taxa coincide, and SOUTHPUNTA EUGENIA, which is the less sampled area, but most of the time includes samplingstations in the Gulf of Ulloa and north Bahía Magdalena (CalCOFI lines 130 to 137). Fishlarvae of tropical and subtropical taxa are dominant in this area.

Palabras clave: IMECOCAL; Southern California Current; Fish larvae

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