Southern California Bight

Epipelagic Zone of the Southern California Bight

The plants and animals that live in the Southern California Bight are diverse and abundant. They include offshore animals such as sharks, squid, sponges, flatworms, etc. The foundation of the food wed here typically consists of phytoplankton (tiny floating plants) which is consumed by tiny animals (zooplankton) which in turn are consumed by larger animals such as fish. This is the foundation for the complex web of co-dependant organisms in the Southern California Bight.

The Southern California Bight epipelagic zone is euphotic, which is ideal for plants and phytoplankton to flourish which provides the base of the ecosystem. Many animals you see here have a dark top and light bottom. This was an adaptation to blend in with the light overhead when being seen from predators below. The temperature of the California Bight is typically pretty warm, averaging at 19.6 degrees Celsius. Of course, temperature drops with increasing water level to about 4 degrees Celsius. This is also ideal for many life forms to exist. The salinity may vary though, depending on location in the Southern California Bight. Some offshore sites saline levels shift during some parts of the day depending on tides somewhat like an estuary. Because of this some animals were forced to adapt to the conditions and become able to handle the changes in salinity. Typically in the epipelagic zones saline levels are pretty average though at about 0/00 33.585. The overall depth of the bight is ~30km from land to about 910m maximum. The epipelagic zone that we are focusing on lies somewhere in between, at up to 200m deep.

The Southern California Bight is very Mediterraneanesque, with many rocks and heavy