The Humboldt Current System with its upwelling area on the Pacific coast of South America is a highly productive ecosystem and a hotspot of marine biodiversity. An average of around nine million tons of fish and other seafood are caught here every year. The ecosystem is highly complex. In the Pacific Ocean, off almost the entire American coast, the trade winds transport cold, nutrient-rich water from the depths to the surface.
However, if the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru warms up, due to the weakening of the winds, this also affects other regions. This process results in droughts or extreme rainfall, depending on the location, and is known as the El Niño phenomenon, with its global effects. In order to really understand this ecosystem, the human influence through fishing and the consequences of climate change cannot be ignored. But what can be done if anthropogenic drivers change in the middle of the ongoing research?
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