Voyage into the Past: Stories from the California Current
USGS Friday's Findings Webinar - July 17, 2026
USGS scientists are using geochemical proxies to reconstruct past ocean conditions and better understand long-term changes to Earth's marine ecosystems. Join Friday's Findings as USGS researcher Jason Addison shares how paleoceanographic tools are shedding light on past conditions and offering insight to how marine systems respond to environmental change.
Date: Friday, July 17, 2026, 2:00–2:30 pm ET / 11:00–11:30 am PT
Speaker: Jason Addison, Research Geologist at the Geology, Minerals, Energy, & Geophysics (GMEG) Science Center
Summary
The California Current System spans more than 3,000 kilometers along the U.S. West Coast and supports a marine ecosystem that is home to iconic species such as Dungeness crab, sea otters, great white sharks, and humpback whales. These living resources are part of a vibrant coastal economy that supports more than 673,000 jobs and is valued at over \$70 billion annually. This talk will highlight how paleoceanographic tools allow us to look into Earth’s past to understand long-term changes in marine ecosystems, including those that support commercial fisheries. The presentation will share insights from a case study of Pacific cod in the adjacent Gulf of Alaska region, highlighting how historical records can reveal patterns of variability relevant to modern resource management along the West Coast. It will also provide results from ongoing USGS research in Monterey Bay and the Southern California Borderlands, where new sediment evidence is shedding light on the history of the California Current. These studies preserve deposits of historical harmful algal blooms and abrupt shifts in phytoplankton productivity during extreme ocean events, offering broader lessons about how this system responds to environmental change.
Series Info
Friday’s Findings is a twice‑monthly public webinar series hosted by the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.