MARINE SCIENCE 57 
it is important to have quantitative information on the major constituent groups. 
So far such measurements are available only for a limited number of plankton 
samples from the eastern North Pacific. 
Volumetric measurements are preferable to counts of individuals. Constitu- 
ent measurements can be made by group (euphasiid, copepods, salps, ete.) and, 
where warranted, by the major species making up each constituent group. 
The information is needed in evaluating the potential of the standing crop of 
zooplankton, in food studies of plankton feeding fishes, and in studies on the 
success of survival of year classes of fishes. 
Bureau of Commercial Fisheries annual cost (3 years) ---------_----_- $28, 000 
1.2.2.3 Comparative analysis and history of the California Current system.— 
This program will have two interrelated objectives, as follows: 
A. To compare the present research period (1949 to present) with the modern 
data period (1912-49), and 
B. To place these two periods in perspective with the long-term record of the 
California Current system. 
A. Modern data period (1912-49) 
It has been said that a high priority of the CALCOFI research is to discover 
if possible, the basic causes of the catastrophic change of sardine abundance 
and distribution that occurred in the 1940’s. 
Thus the first part of this program will extrapolate our present understanding 
of the ecology of the California Current system back to the beginnings of modern 
weather, fisheries, and oceanographic data. This beginning was about 1912. 
This will include such matters as— 
. The dominant meteorological regimes of these years; 
. The strength and position of the California Current; 
. The intensity of the countercurrent and its period of operation; 
. Temperature regime; 
. Upwelling and nutrient advection; 
. Nature of the plankton; 
. General meteorological; and 
. Oceanographic conditions of the North Pacific. 
The data becomes more diffuse as the beginnings of this period are approached, 
but adequate comparisons with the present research period undoubtedly are 
possible. 
B. Long-term record 
The long-term record of the California Current system must be derived from 
more primitive data—continuous temperature—rainfall and wind data extend 
from about 1865. It is the purpose of this research to extend our present under- 
standing back through this period and to understand the representivity of the 
two recent periods in the long-term record. Some earlier accounts of weather, 
fishes, ete., will be examined to gain additional perspective. 
Seripps Institution of Oceanography annual cost______________________ $60, 000 
1.2.2.4 Organic energy budget of the California Current system.—An essen- 
tial to the thorough understanding of the living resources of a region is the 
understanding of the food supply to these resources. 
For example, in the California Current system the principal food supply may 
be either the food produced in the current by phytoplankton or the more highly 
organized food brought by currents into the system. It is now not clear which 
is dominant, although the important ascribable to such processes as upwelling 
depend vitally on the understanding of this dominance. 
It is first necessary to understand the food supply represented by the zoo- 
plankton. This will be done by chemical analysis, covering in a somewhat differ- 
ent way an independent evaluation of the research proposed under paragraph 
IPA 
Secondly, it is necessary to ascertain the level of primary productivity in the 
system by C“ measurements. 
Thirdly, it is necessary to determine the relationship between the more highly 
organized food represented by the advection (of zooplankton, principally), and 
this local primary productivity. The factor of equivalence probably lies be- 
tween 10 and 2, which estimate is adequate for the prior work. 
Seripps Institutions of Oceanography (38 years) annual cost__-_------ $25, 000 
DBADMIRWNE 
