Long-Term Variability in North Pacific Climate and Ecosystems

Paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic data demonstrate significant variability in the North Pacific ocean-climate system on scales from decades to millennia. Concurrent data on ecosystem variability, from sources including archeological middens, fish scales in ocean sediment cores, and d15N records from sockeye salmon lake cores, indicate variability on similar time-scales, with shifts often concurrent with changes in the climate-ocean system. Dramatic changes in marine productivity and species abundance, on the scale of a human lifespan, are intrinsic of this system.