Introduction to collection of papers on the response of the southern California Current Ecosystem to the Warm Anomaly and El Niño, 2014–16.

Abstract This contribution provides an introduction to a sequence of five papers (CCE I- CCE V) that describe the impact of the Warm Anomaly of 2014–15 and El Niño 2015–16 on the pelagic food web of the southern California Current Ecosystem. These contributions analyze the influence of these two warm water perturbations on satellite-based measures of ocean fronts, export efficiency out of the euphotic zone, copepod egg production, mesozooplankton community structure, and a synthesis of primary production, mesozooplankton grazing, and gravitational fluxes of organic carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]