Grantee Research Project Results
2001 Progress Report: CISNet: In Situ and Remote Monitoring of Productivity and Nutrient Cycles in Puget Sound
EPA Grant Number: R826942Title: CISNet: In Situ and Remote Monitoring of Productivity and Nutrient Cycles in Puget Sound
Investigators: Emerson, Steven
Institution: University of Washington
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: October 1, 1998 through September 30, 2001 (Extended to September 30, 2002)
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2000 through September 30, 2001
Project Amount: $581,876
RFA: Ecological Effects of Environmental Stressors Using Coastal Intensive Sites (1998) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Environmental Statistics , Aquatic Ecosystems , Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration
Objective:
The purpose of this research project is to develop a profiling mooring?the Oceanic Remote Chemical/optical Analyzer (ORCA)?to monitor water quality remotely from south Puget Sound, Washington State. With extensive urbanization of the area predicted for the next 10 years, south Puget Sound is potentially at risk to impacts from eutrophication. ORCA will enable us to monitor tidal, diel, seasonal and interannual cycles and trends in stratification, oxygen, nutrients, water clarity, and phytoplankton abundance and community distribution. In addition to the mooring itself, there is a field component for verification of the mooring-derived data. The mooring data combined with the survey data and optics data from the mooring location would allow extension of interpretations to greater Puget Sound through the broader survey and remote sensing data.Progress Summary:
The goals of the third year of the ORCA project were to continue maintenance, development, and calibration of the mooring in south Puget Sound, and conclude development and begin the implementation of additional sensors. After a period of instrument debugging at the beginning of the year, ORCA began acquiring a continuous data stream in March 2001 (please visit the ORCA Web Site listed at the end of this report for more detail). We completed the development of several additional sensors, including the meteorological station, underwater PAR, AC-9, and gas detection device (GTD). Since its implementation in March, the meteorological station has provided a near continuous stream of data, including wind speed and direction, solar irradiance, air temperature, humidity, and pressure. In June, we implemented two additional sensors onto the profiling package: the AC-9, underwater PAR sensor; and a second computer to travel on the package during profiles and receive data from these instruments. We mounted a GTD on the mooring's ballast ring between April and June and are still analyzing the resultant data.
ORCA has provided a continuous data stream since March, with some data gaps due to malfunctioning instrumentation. We are continuing to perform data quality assurance, data reduction, and time-series analysis in an effort to understand the sources of variability in this ever-growing data set. As was observed in the 2000 data, a considerable covariation in all parameters continues to indicate a tight coupling between physical and biological processes in Carr Inlet. Throughout the summer and early fall, variability in wind, rainfall, and sunlight force temperature and salinity between intermittent periods of strong stratification and deep mixing. The seasonal cycle also is intense, with the intermittently high surface temperatures disappearing entirely in the fall and salinity increasing steadily throughout the summer and fall. Oxygen and chlorophyll co-vary in the summer through a combination of physical responses to the intermittent stratification and mixing and biological response to primary production and respiration. At depth, we have observed the generation and strengthening of low oxygen conditions throughout the summer with destruction of this stratification during the onset of intense mixing in the fall.
We are continuing to develop a biogeochemical model to help us quantitatively distinguish between the biological and physical effects such that we can understand controls on oxygen concentrations in both the surface and deep waters, as well as evaluate the vulnerability of Carr Inlet to hypoxia through eutrophication.
Future Activities:
We are in the process of evaluating and purchasing a second nutrient analyzer to be implemented into the profiling package. We also are in the process of obtaining several satellite data images for the location corresponding to the ORCA mooring. We plan to determine whether any correlation exists between observed fronts in the satellite images and abrupt water mass changes observed in our time-series data. We plan to continue analysis and modeling of data taken with ORCA. Our goal for 2002 is to have 1 year of uninterrupted data, with high-frequency calibrations obtained through field measurements.Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 11 publications | 1 publications in selected types | All 1 journal articles |
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Dunne JP, Devol AH, Emerson S. The Oceanic Remote Chemical/Optical Analyzer - An autonomous moored profiler. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 2002;19(10):1709-1721. |
R826942 (2000) R826942 (2001) R826942 (Final) |
not available |
Supplemental Keywords:
water, marine, estuary, effects, vulnerability, population, water quality, nitrate, oxygen, environmental chemistry, ecology, modeling, monitoring, in situ, Pacific Coast, Pacific Northwest, Washington, WA, EPA Region 10., Scientific Discipline, Water, Geographic Area, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Nutrients, State, Monitoring/Modeling, Ecological Risk Assessment, anthropogenic stress, aquatic ecosystem, coastal ecosystem, eutrophication, nutrient supply, nutrient transport, remote sensing, CISNet, bioavailability, chemical speciation, coastal zone, remote sensing data, Puget Sound, CISNet Program, biomass, Washington (WA), nutrient cycling, water quality, gas concentrations, nutrient transport model, in situ chemical profilesRelevant Websites:
http://www.ocean.washington.edu/research/orca/
(Oceanic Remote Chemical/optical Analyzer) 
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/mar_wat/mwm_intr.html
(Washington State Department of Ecology's long-term monitoring program)
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.