GLOBEC: Long Term Monitoring and Analysis of Currents and Water Properties on the Southern Oregon (Coos Bay) and Mid Washington (Grays Harbor) Shelves.
B. Hickey [Univ. of Washington]
Both temporal and alongshore spatial variability are significant in all regions of the CCS. Alongshore differences can occur as a result of alongshore gradients in wind stress; changing bottom topography (in particular canyons and banks) and coastline irregularities; and buoyant inflow from rivers (in particular the Columbia River and the Strait of Juan de Fuca). For GLOBEC to bring the US west coast to a new level of understanding of the interplay between zooplankton and juvenile salmon, the GLOBEC field program must sample time and space scales in such a way as to resolve dominant gradients and to understand how ocean properties change with time.
We propose field work to continue time series of water properties along the GLOBEC Coos Bay transect; to fill resolution gaps in the present GLOBEC alongshore data array; to provide data in an area where rivers deliver salmon smolt to the ocean; and to fill two data gaps for modelers, one between Canadian and US GLOBEC model domains, a second, in a region where river plumes occur. In addition to providing these data we will collaborate with other GLOBEC PIs on developing a more complete understanding of how the physical environment changes and how these changes affect zooplankton and salmon smolts in the coastal ocean. Specifically, our objectives are
To fulfill these objectives we will maintain moored arrays to measure currents and water properties at two locations, one off southern Oregon (Coos Bay); the other off the central Washington coast (Grays Harbor). With the addition of these two arrays to arrays either proposed or already in place, the GLOBEC field study will include an alongshore time series array sufficient to define large scale alongshore water property gradients and responses to forcing mechanisms.The proposed installations will continue an already two year long time series at each site. In addition, an earlier 5 year time series (the longest on the West Coast shelf north of Point Conception) is available at the Coos Bay site. Thus, with funding of the work proposed herein, the Coos Bay site would include 11 record years, the Washington site, six years by the end of GLOBEC. As components of a network of moored arrays being proposed for GLOBEC support, the proposed arrays provide an alongshore array sufficient to resolve large scale processes along the west coast north of Eureka, California to central Washington, and perhaps to mid Vancouver Island. The data obtained will provide vital information to modeling studies of this area over the next decade.
In the first year of this project moored sensor arrays will be deployed on the shelf off Coos Bay, Oregon and off Grays Harbor, Washington, continuing the time series that began two years previously with support from the Pacific Northwest Coastal Ecosystem Research Study (PNCERS). The arrays will be deployed in April and recovered and redeployed in September, coincident with the GLOBEC large scale surveys planned by Oregon State University. Arrays will consist of upward looking Doppler profiling current meters, two additional single depth current meters for redundancy, and several MicroCats to measure temperature and conductivity. The goal is to sample both water property and current variability at the two sites throughout the GLOBEC study period to provide information on spatial and temporal variability of the ocean nearshore environment. In addition the PI will collaborate with other GLOBEC PIs in determining mechanisms and extent of spatial and temporal variability and how they affect zooplankton and salmon smolts.
Due to the long term nature of the proposed deployments, the first year budget exceeds that in other years. The budget includes several equipment items to supplement equipment being provided by the University of Washington so that a second set of equipment is available for each turnaround. Experience dictates that the likelihood of obtaining continuous and good quality time series is much higher if sensors are refurbished in the home laboratory rather than at sea.
This page was last updated on
March 15, 2007.
Maintained by:
Hal Batchelder
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331-5503
phone: 541-737-4500; FAX 541-737-2064