Did the Thermocline Deepen in the California Current after the 1976/77 Climate Regime Shift?

Abstract

Abstract The 55-yr California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) dataset in the southern California Current reveals a significant surface-intensified warming and stratification (buoyancy frequency) change across the 1976/77 climate regime shift. However, the average depth of the thermocline, defined as the maximum gradient of temperature, did not change significantly across the regime shift. The maximum-gradient criterion for thermocline depth may be more appropriate than following an isotherm because the isotherm necessarily deepens in the presence of surface-intensified warming. As the surface heating changed the strength of stratification, it also changed the slope of the nitrate–temperature relation for the middepth waters (roughly 30–200 m). Thus, the quality of upwelled water may have been fundamentally altered after the shift.