Off the coast of Peru and Chile, the ecosystem surrounding thrives on the nutrients brought up by the upwelling off the coasts. They have noticed El Nino causes the thermocline to decrease causing the amount of nutrients to decline as well affecting the different organisms in the ecosystem. They wanted to test this theory, so they took research vessels and collected data such as the temperature at the different depths. They also looked at the amount of oxygen dissolved in the given testing area. They noticed deepening of temperature as they continued to test the area. This observation helped them understand that these changes were linked to the incoming of El Nino. They went off the coast of Chile twice every month, using the same methods each time they were in the water.
In the results found, as they continued to study the temperature of the water, they also looked at a specific plankton species in the area, Calanus chilensis. They found, there was a higher production, biomass, and overall number during an El Nino event than without an event. These
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They used the surface level of the water then went to depth ranging from 0-80 meters. Comparing the temperature, they noticed small rises in each of the depths of the experiment during an El Nino event. However, in the oxygen part of the experiment they found increases of oxygen near the surface of water till around 20 meters in depth with the effects of an El Nino. The other variable they looked at was the integrated chlorophyll at the same depths excluding the surface level of the water. In this part of the experiment, they found the opposite of temperature and oxygen. The integrate chlorophyll dropped a larger amount during an El Nino event. They also noticed a drop in the biomass of zooplankton in the experimental area during compared to a non-El Nino