Clustering to characterize extreme marine conditions for the benthic region of the Northeastern Pacific continental margin

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions lead to ocean warming, deoxygenation and acidification. Superimposed on the long-term trends are episodic extremes of temperature, oxygen, and acidity. Here we present an innovative method for assessing single and multiple stressor extremes using a high-resolution regional model of the Northeastern Pacific Ocean. We use an unsupervised clustering approach to identify regions with similar habitat characteristics near the seafloor. We define extreme thresholds seasonally using a fixed baseline (1996-2020) within each cluster, and quantify the fraction of ocean waters that exceed these thresholds for both single and compound stressors.