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Project Information

Title: LTM Program - Long-term monitoring of oceanographic conditions in Cook Inlet/Kachemak Bay to understand recovery and restoration of injured near-shore species

Project Year and Number: 2012: 12120114-G

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2021: 21120114-J, 2020: 20120114-J, 2019: 19120114-J, 2018: 18120114-J, 2017: 17120114-J, 2016: 16120114-G, 2015: 15120114-G, 2013: 13120114-G

Principal Investigator (PI): Angela Doroff

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: Kris Holderied

Project Website: https://gulfwatchalaska.org/monitoring/environmental-drivers/oceanographic-conditions-in-lower-cook-inlet-and-kachemak-bay/

Research Location: Lower Cook Inlet

Restoration Category: Monitoring

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract:

This project is a component of the integrated Long-term Monitoring of Marine Conditions and Injured Resources and Services submitted by McCammon et. al. The Kachemak Bay Research Reserve (KBRR) and NOAA Kasitsna Bay Laboratory jointly propose to continue and enhance oceanographic monitoring in Kachemak Bay and lower Cook Inlet, in order to provide the physical data needed for a comprehensive restoration monitoring program in the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) affected area. This project will leverage and enhance KBRR water quality monitoring stations, establish routine small boat oceanographic and plankton surveys to assess spatial, seasonal and inter-annual variability in water mass movement, leverage information from previous oceanographic surveys, provide environmental information to aid separately proposed benthic monitoring projects, and benefit from a new NOAA ocean circulation model for Cook Inlet. Longterm monitoring of physical changes and connectivity in the marine environment is essential to understand what drives both gradual and sudden changes in coastal ecosystems and estuarine systems in the affected area, including Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet. In addition to longterm effects from the EVOS, these coastal waters and habitats are impacted by the other physical stressors including climate change, ocean acidification, and continuing land-level and sedimentation changes from the 1964 earthquake and isostatic rebound from melting glaciers. The Cook Inlet/Kachemak Bay oceanographic information from this project will allow determination of patterns and trends in ocean circulation and plankton and aid in interpretation of biological monitoring data on the status and trends of injured resources in the near-shore environment. In conjunction with separately proposed oceanographic monitoring projects in PWS and the Gulf of Alaska, the project will enable assessment of whether circulation patterns in the Gulf of Alaska are synchronous with near-shore trends, which has implications for biological abundance and diversity. Our objective is to implement an enhanced, long-term Cook Inlet near-shore oceanographic monitoring program that directly informs management for sustained recovery and restoration of EVOS-injured resources in the face of environmental variability, shifts and long-term changes.


Proposal: View (361 KB)

Reports:
Annual Report FY12: View (2,211 KB)
Final Report: See Project 16120114-E

Publications from this Project: None Available