Project Information

Title: Oceanographic Station GAK-1 Long Term Monitoring of the Alaska Coastal Current 22120114-I

Project Year and Number: 2022: 22120114-I

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2024: 24120114-I , 2023: 23120114-I , 2021: 21120114-I, 2020: 20120114-I, 2019: 19120114-I, 2018: 18120114-I, 2017: 17120114-I, 2016: 16120114-P, 2015: 15120114-P, 2014: 14120114-P, 2013: 13120114-P, 2012: 12120114-P

Principal Investigator (PI): Seth Danielson (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: None

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 now half-century-long time series of temperature and salinity monitoring at oceanographic station GAK-1. The GAK-1 data set is the single longest regularly repeated water column hydrographic profile times series in all of Alaska’s coastal waters. Sampling began in 1970 and consists of quasi-monthly vessel-based conductivity-temperature versus depth (CTD) casts. In 1998, the monthly measurements were augmented with a mooring eventually outfitted with up to seven temperature/conductivity dataloggers distributed between 20 m and 250 m depth and optical sensors near 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 variability in (1) temperature and salinity throughout the 250 m deep water column; (2) near surface stratification; (3) surface pressure fluctuations; (4) chlorophyll a fluorescence as an index of phytoplankton biomass; and (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. We are aware of over 100 publications employing data collected at station GAK-1 and since 2010 the citation list has grown on average by nearly five publications per year. GAK-1 data is used within at least fifteen graduate student Masters theses and doctoral dissertations, many dozens of peer-reviewed papers, and both State of Alaska and federal management agency reports. The topics covered by these publications range from physical, chemical and biological oceanography to paleoclimate studies, fisheries research and management, and ecosystem-based management applications. The GAK-1 data set provides a consistent, curated, long-term baseline for assessing temporal change of environmental conditions in the GOA.

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


Proposal: View (1,346 KB)

Reports:
FY22 Annual Report: View (1,195 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available

Resolutions: