El Niño’s role in changing fauna

Past faunas show how El Niño frequency affects eastern Pacific community structure El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a major driver of interannual climate variability in the Pacific basin and plays a pivotal role in global climate ( 1 ). Among the many ENSO phenomena are the eastern Pacific events—commonly known as El Niño, which is synonymous with “baby Jesus” in Spanish, a name that reflects its occurrence around Christmastime. Because of the far-reaching consequences of these global climate phenomena, it is important to understand and predict the frequency and magnitude of El Niño events and their impact on resources. On page 1202 of this issue, Broughton et al. ( 2 ) provide an evaluation of El Niño’s effects on vertebrate fauna over 12,000 years and characterize the intensity of human exploitation of these resources.