McGowan JA, Cayan DR, Dorman LM
J. A. McGowan and L. M. Dorman are at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. D. R. Cayan is at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the U.S. Geological Survey, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Science. 1998 Jul 10;281(5374):210-6. doi: 10.1126/science.281.5374.210.
The role of climatic variation in regulating marine populations and communities is not well understood. To improve our knowledge, the sign, amplitude, and frequency of climatic and biotic variations should be compared as a necessary first step. It is shown that there have been large interannual and interdecadal sea-surface temperature changes off the West Coast of North America during the past 80 years. Interannual anomalies appear and disappear rather suddenly and synchronously along the entire coastline. The frequency of warm events has increased since 1977. Although extensive, serial, biological observations are often incomplete, it is clear that climate-ocean variations have disturbed and changed our coastal ecosystems.
气候变化在调节海洋生物种群和群落方面的作用尚未得到充分理解。为了增进我们的了解，作为必要的第一步，应比较气候和生物变化的特征、幅度和频率。研究表明，在过去80年里，北美西海岸出现了大幅度的年际和年代际海表温度变化。年际异常沿着整个海岸线突然且同步地出现和消失。自1977年以来，暖事件的频率有所增加。尽管广泛的、连续的生物学观测往往并不完整，但很明显，气候-海洋变化已经扰乱并改变了我们的沿海生态系统。
