Project Information

Title: Long-term monitoring of oceanographic conditions in Prince William Sound 24120114-G

Project Year and Number: 2024: 24120114-G

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2023: 23120114-G , 2022: 22120114-G , 2021: 21120114-G, 2020: 20120114-G, 2019: 19120114-G, 2018: 18120114-G, 2017: 17120114-G, 2016: 16120114-E, 2015: 15120114-E, 2014: 14120114-E, 2013: 13120114-E, 2012: 12120114-E

Principal Investigator (PI): Robert Campbell (Prince William Sound Science Center)

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: None

Project Website: https://gulfwatchalaska.org/monitoring/environmental-drivers/oceanographic-conditions-in-prince-william-sound/

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Monitoring

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract:

This project will continue physical and biological measurements that may be used to assess trends in the marine environment and bottom-up impacts on the marine ecosystems of Prince William Sound (PWS) that were highly impacted by the 1989 oil spill. Regular (~6 per year) vessel surveys of PWS will be conducted to maintain ongoing time series observations of physical (temperature, salinity, turbidity), biogeochemical (nitrate, phosphate, silicate, dissolved oxygen) and biological (chlorophyll-a concentration, zooplankton abundance and composition) parameters in several parts of PWS: in central PWS, at the entrances (Hinchinbrook Entrance and Montague Strait), and at four priority bays that were part of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council-funded Sound Ecosystem Assessment project in the 1990s and the Herring Research and Monitoring project in the 2010s.

Additionally, an autonomous profiling mooring will be deployed each year in central PWS to provide high frequency (twice daily) depth-specific measurements of the surface layer that will be telemetered out in near real-time. The profiler will include measurements that complement the survey activities (temperature, salinity, oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll-a, turbidity). An in situ plankton camera mounted on the profiler will also capture images of zooplankton, large phytoplankton and other particles to very high resolution.

This project was approved for the FY22-FY26 funding cycle.


Proposal: View (1,475 KB)

Reports: None Available

Publications from this Project: None Available

Resolutions: