To celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8, the National Science Foundation (NSF) interviewed biological oceanographer Mark Ohman and physical oceanographer Dan Rudnick of California’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography about the El Niño effect. But is El Niño really on the horizon? Ohman is PI of the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, which is investigating the California Current coastal pelagic ecosystem, with particular attention to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and El Niño in altering the structure and dynamics of the pelagic ecosystem. Among the questions asked of the scientists: how certain are we of the El Niño’s arrival? How will we know it’s here? What effect will it have on the weather, on coastal species, and on what’s on our dinner tables?
To find out more, see “World Oceans Day: 12 things to know about El Niño: Is it coming, and when?” at http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=131638&org=NSF
