Project Information

Title: LTM Program: Long-term Monitoring of Oceanographic Conditions in the Alaska Coastal Current from Hydrographic Station GAK-1 17120114-I

Project Year and Number: 2017: 17120114-I

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2024: 24120114-I , 2023: 23120114-I , 2022: 22120114-I , 2021: 21120114-I, 2020: 20120114-I, 2019: 19120114-I, 2018: 18120114-I, 2016: 16120114-P, 2015: 15120114-P, 2014: 14120114-P, 2013: 13120114-P, 2012: 12120114-P

Principal Investigator (PI): Seth Danielson

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: Tom Weingartner (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

Project Website: https://gulfwatchalaska.org/monitoring/environmental-drivers/gulf-of-alaska-mooring-gak1-monitoring/

Research Location: Gulf of Alaska, Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Monitoring

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract:

This program continues a 45-year time series of temperature and salinity measurements at hydrographic station GAK-1. The data set, which began in 1970, now consists of quasi-monthly conductivity-temperature versus depth (CTD) casts and a mooring outfitted with seven temperature/conductivity recorders distributed throughout the water column and a fluorometer at 20 m depth. The project monitors five important Alaska Coastal Current (ACC) ecosystem parameters that quantify and help us understand hourly to seasonal, interannual and multi-decadal period variability in: 1. Temperature and salinity throughout the 250 m deep water column 2. Near surface stratification 3. Surface pressure fluctuations 4. Fluorescence as an index of phytoplankton biomass 5. Along-shelf transport in the ACC All of these parameters are basic descriptors that characterize the workings of the inner shelf and the ACC, an important habitat and migratory corridor for organisms inhabiting the northern Gulf of Alaska (GOA), including Prince William Sound (PWS). We are aware of 69 publications utilizing data collected at station GAK-1 and since 2000 the citation list has grown by nearly three publications per year. GAK-1 data are cited within at least eight student Masters theses and Doctoral dissertations, peer-reviewed papers, and both State of Alaska and federal agency reports. The topics covered by these publications range from physical oceanography and climate through lower- and upper-trophic (including commercial fisheries) level components and ecosystem analyses.


Proposal: View (654 KB)

Reports:
Annual Report FY17: View (1,090 KB)
Final Report: See Project 21120114-I

Publications from this Project: None Available