GLOBEC. Long-term changes in hydrography and zooplankton in the northern California Current waters off the Oregon coast
William T. Peterson [NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Oregon State University, Hatfield Mari ne Science Center and the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resource Studies]
Project start date delayed until FY2001.

This proposal addresses the Retrospective Analysis component of the GLOBEC Announcement of Opportunity which calls for the need to document population variability of key species in the Northeast Pacific (NEP) on several different time and space scales, and to examine linkages between physical and biological processes. This project involves compiling historic hydrographic and zooplankton data collected off Newport, Oregon and merging these data with new data that are now being collected in the same region in order to compare past and present oceanographic conditions in the U.S. GLOBEC study region. Specifically, we seek funds to carry out retrospective analysis of zoopla nkton samples that have been collected since the 1960s off the central Oregon coast, along with an analysis of historical wind, upwelling, hydrographic and fisheries survey data. The purpose is to analyze the degree to which ecosystem change has occurred in the NEP GLOBEC study region and to determine if/how historical changes in salmon growth and survival are related to historical changes in ocean conditions. This project has two objectives:

• Assemble time series of plankton densities and hydr ographic data collected in the northern California Current region off the central Oregon coast from the 1960s until present;
• Describe changes in the coastal ecosystem in the Oregon upwelling zone before and after the regime shift of 1977, and during the present warming which began in 1992, in terms of local winds, upwelling, hydrography, and plankton abundance.
• Relate changes in ocean conditions to changes in survival and growth of coho salmon, and changes in community structure of pelagic fishes .

STATEMENT OF WORK FOR THE FIRST YEAR.

We propose two major tasks. One is to enumerate the zooplankton by species and developmental stage from approximately 200 plankton samples, collected off Newport OR in 1971-1972, 1978, 1981, a nd 1983 and approximately 100 samples that have been collected off Newport OR since 1996. During the first year we will be able to process about 70% of these samples. This work would be done by a full-time Faculty Research Assistant.

The second task is to enter into an electronic database the species enumeration data from about 1500 historical samples which have been counted but whose data currently exist only on paper. The data base has already been set-up in Microsoft Access so the need is solely for someone to key in the data. For this work, we suggest that a graduate student would be appropriate and would expect that the student develop a thesis on some aspect of historical changes in ecosystem structure of the northern California Current. We expect that all data can be entered into the data base during the first year, leaving the student one year to carry out analysis and write a thesis.

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