Zooplankton functional groups from the California current and climate variability during 1997-2013.

Zooplankton plays an important role in recycling matter and energy trough the pelagic ecosystem.The California Current is one of the large marine ecosystems with high productivity and bio-physical variability at multiple time scales. An interannual scale or longer periods requires data series sufficiently long to ensure reliable averages of zooplankton abundance in order to estimate their low frequency variability. Here, tendencies inphysical and biological variables are presented for the period 1997-2013 with data obtained from IMECOCAL cruises in the Mexican sector of the California Current. The area was divided into four regions, two oceanic (off North and Central Baja California) and two neritic (Vizcaino bay and Gulf of Ulloa). Sea surface temperature (SST) and El Niño Oceanic Index (ONI) showed correlation in all areas, while extratropical indices (PDO andNPGO) exhibited different tendencies among the regions. The PDO had significant correlation with SST only in the central and Vizcaino bay regions. The NPGO was not correlated with temperature but presented significantly strong correlation with sea surface salinity in all regions, which has been attributed to changes in large-scale circulation of the north Pacific subtropical gyre. In spite of a significant influence of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in SST, the correlation between ONI and zooplankton abundance was limited to gelatinous herbivorous (tunicates) from the North region. Local influence was remarkable in Vizcaino bay where the tunicates showed a period of negative abundance anomalies (2000-2004) followed by increasing positive anomalies between 2005 and 2013 associated with positive upwelling index anomalies. Geometric mean abundance of salps (per oceanographic cruise) averaged in Vizcaino bay 33.3 ind m-3 during 2005-2013  compared to 1.4 ind m-3 in 2000-2004. Salps partially displaced crustacean herbivores since they compete for feeding particles; copepods decreased from 88.2 ind m-3 during 2000-2004 to 59.7 ind m-3 in 2005-2013; and euphausiids from 16.1 ind m-3 to 10.4 ind m-3. In the oceanic domain a period of saline stratification during 2002-2006 was associated with positive anomalies of all trophic groups (crustaceans, tunicates and carnivores). Alternation of particular taxa of tunicates and carnivores is discussed. The increase of gelatinous organisms associated to higher stratification in the oceanic region and enhanced upwellng in the coastal shelf appears to be in detriment of crustaceans, though the time-series are shortto outline a more defined trend. That tendency is particularly disturbing in Vizcaino bay affecting the availability of food for fishes and other predators.