Welcome to the 2026 GIS in Action Annual Conference hosted by the Oregon & SW Washington Chapter of the Geospatial Professional Network & Cascadia ASPRS.
Salps are gelatinous grazers that can rapidly form dense blooms in ocean ecosystems, yet the environmental conditions that drive where and when these blooms occur remain poorly understood. Understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of salp blooms is increasingly important as ocean conditions shift and as blooms potentially influence commercially important fisheries. This study investigates the question: what environmental conditions allow salps to bloom and persist, and how might changes in their distribution affect market fisheries along the California Current System? To explore these questions, I mapped salp bloom occurrences along the California Current from 2013 to 2023 using observational data to identify patterns in bloom presence, magnitude, and geographic distribution. Spatial analysis revealed evidence of range expansion over the study period, with blooms appearing across a broader portion compared to earlier years. In addition, bloom magnitude increased during the middle of the decade, with particularly strong bloom events observed in 2017 and 2018. After these peak years, bloom intensity and frequency appeared to return to levels seen earlier in the decade. These patterns raise important questions about the oceanographic conditions, such as temperature shifts or altered circulation. This study provides insight into how changing ocean conditions may shape salp dynamics and, in turn, impact regional fisheries within the California Current ecosystem.
