Publications by authors named "Toby D Auth"

The Northern California Current is a highly productive marine upwelling ecosystem that is economically and ecologically important. It is home to both commercially harvested species and those that are federally listed under the U.S.

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Rockfish are an important component of West Coast fisheries and California Current food webs, and recruitment (cohort strength) for rockfish populations has long been characterized as highly variable for most studied populations. Research efforts and fisheries surveys have long sought to provide greater insights on both the environmental drivers, and the fisheries and ecosystem consequences, of this variability. Here, variability in the temporal and spatial abundance and distribution patterns of young-of-the-year (YOY) rockfishes are described based on midwater trawl surveys conducted throughout the coastal waters of California Current between 2001 and 2019.

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Article Synopsis
  • Climate warming is significantly altering ocean ecosystems, particularly in the Northeast Pacific, due to phenomena like El Niño and recent marine heatwaves, notably from 2014 to 2016.
  • Ichthyoplankton, or larval fishes, serve as key indicators of these changes, as their abundance and diversity were analyzed across four ecoregions from 1981 to 2017 to understand ecosystem responses to climate fluctuations.
  • The analysis revealed that the marine heatwave caused a decline in ichthyoplankton in some areas, like the Gulf of Alaska, while others, like Oregon and southern California, saw an increase in warmer-water species, indicating varied impacts depending on the specific marine ecosystem.
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Understanding changes in the migratory and reproductive phenology of fish stocks in relation to climate change is critical for accurate ecosystem-based fisheries management. Relocation and changes in timing of reproduction can have dramatic effects upon the success of fish populations and throughout the food web. During anomalously warm conditions (1-4°C above normal) in the northeast Pacific Ocean during 2015-2016, we documented shifts in timing and spawning location of several pelagic fish stocks based on larval fish samples.

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