Data from: Coastal upwelling drives ecosystem temporal variability from the surface to the abyssal seafloor

Abstract Long-term biological time series that monitor ecosystems across the ocean’s full water column are extremely rare. As a result, classic paradigms have yet to be tested. One such paradigm is that variations in coastal upwelling drive changes in marine ecosystems throughout the water column. We examine this hypothesis by using data from three multi-decadal time series spanning surface (0 m), midwater (200-1000 m), and benthic (~ 4000 m) habitats in the central California Current Upwelling System. Data include microscopic counts of surface plankton, video quantification of midwater animals, and imaging of benthic seafloor invertebrates. Taxon-specific plankton biomass and midwater and benthic animal densities were separately analyzed with principal component analysis. Within each community, the first mode of variability corresponds to most taxa increasing and decreasing over time, capturing seasonal surface blooms and lower-frequency midwater and benthic variability. When compared to local wind-driven upwelling variability, each community correlates to changes in upwelling damped over distinct timescales. This suggests that periods of high upwelling favor increases in organism biomass or density from the surface ocean through the midwater down to the abyssal seafloor. These connections most likely occur directly via changes in primary production and vertical carbon flux, and to a lesser extent indirectly via other oceanic changes. The timescales over which species respond to upwelling are taxon-specific and are likely linked to the longevity of phytoplankton blooms (surface) and of animal life (midwater and benthos), that dictate how long upwelling-driven changes persist within each community. Data set description This data set includes 3 files, one for each community. The files contain plankton biomass (for the surface community) or animal density (for midwater and benthos communities) as a function of sampling time and taxonomic group. surface.csv: autotrophic and heterotrophic surface plankton sampled in Monterey Bay by CTD-rosette and analyzed by epifluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry midwater.csv: midwater animals observed by ROV in the Monterey Bay mesopelagic zone from 200-1000m benthos.csv: benthic animals observed by ROV in a ~ 4000 m abyssal seafloor habitat at the base of the Monterey deep-sea fan Detailed description (see additional details and references in Messié et al., 2023): Surface time series: Plankton biomass was estimated f