TY - JOUR
T1 - Remembering the Gulf
T2 - Changes to the marine communities of the Sea of Cortez since the Steinbeck and Ricketts expedition of 1940
AU - Sagarin, Raphael D.
AU - Gilly, William F.
AU - Baxter, Charles H.
AU - Burnett, Nancy
AU - Christensen, Jon
PY - 2008/9
Y1 - 2008/9
N2 - One of the most storied biological expeditions is the 1940 trip to the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) by author John Steinbeck and his close friend Edward F Ricketts, a professional biologist. Steinbeck and Ricketts visited intertidal sites around the Gulf and made extensive collections, taking notes on fauna and natural history. In 2004, we retraced the Steinbeck and Ricketts voyage, visiting the same intertidal sites during the same season and using the authors' extensive natural history notes as a baseline for comparison. Although we found many of the same species as they did, populations were, in many cases, not as geographically widespread, and individuals were fewer in number and smaller in size. In particular, echinoderms and large gastropods showed declines, as did most large pelagic vertebrate species. One of the most remarkable changes in the pelagic community is the present abundance of jumbo squid, Dosidicus gigas, a species not reported in 1940. Although Steinbeck and Ricketts, by their own admission, "could not yet relate the microcosm of the Gulf with the macrocosm of the sea", the changes we observed with historical perspective are in agreement with documented changes in ocean and coastal ecosystems around the world.
AB - One of the most storied biological expeditions is the 1940 trip to the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) by author John Steinbeck and his close friend Edward F Ricketts, a professional biologist. Steinbeck and Ricketts visited intertidal sites around the Gulf and made extensive collections, taking notes on fauna and natural history. In 2004, we retraced the Steinbeck and Ricketts voyage, visiting the same intertidal sites during the same season and using the authors' extensive natural history notes as a baseline for comparison. Although we found many of the same species as they did, populations were, in many cases, not as geographically widespread, and individuals were fewer in number and smaller in size. In particular, echinoderms and large gastropods showed declines, as did most large pelagic vertebrate species. One of the most remarkable changes in the pelagic community is the present abundance of jumbo squid, Dosidicus gigas, a species not reported in 1940. Although Steinbeck and Ricketts, by their own admission, "could not yet relate the microcosm of the Gulf with the macrocosm of the sea", the changes we observed with historical perspective are in agreement with documented changes in ocean and coastal ecosystems around the world.
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U2 - 10.1890/070067
DO - 10.1890/070067
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:50949090520
SN - 1540-9295
VL - 6
SP - 372
EP - 379
JO - Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
JF - Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
IS - 7
ER -