Project Information

Title: SEA: Plankton Dynamics: Phytoplankton and Nutrients 94320-G

Project Year and Number: 1994: 94320-G

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 1999: 99320-G-CLO, 1998: 98320-G, 1997: 97320-G, 1996: 96320-G, 1995: 95320-G

Principal Investigator (PI): Peter McRoy (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

Managing Agency: ADFG

Assisting Personnel: Dave Eslinger

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Pacific Herring, Pink Salmon

Abstract: This project is a component of the Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) program, a multi-disciplinary effort to acquire an ecosystem level understanding of the marine and freshwater processes that interact to constrain levels of fish, marine bird, and marine mammal production in Prince William Sound (PWS). Pink salmon and herring populations in PWS have been damaged by the EVOS and are not recovering. Populations of harbor seals (predators of salmon and other fishes) are continuing to decline. Primary production is the basis of the food web and subsequent energy transfers are ultimately based on the phytoplankton growth in PWS or phytoplankton imported in the oceanic water mass. No measurement of ambient nutrient conditions of phytoplankton biomass and production has been conducted throughout the EVOS recovery period. This project will provide phytoplankton and nutrient data to examine the temporal and spatial variability in the chemical and primary production fields, and to test the ecological theory that the production of upper trophic level species is modulated by variations in nutrient-driven phytoplankton production. Water samples will be collected for plankton sampling, chlorophyll measurements, and nutrient analysis. Satellite imagery will be used to track PWS water masses, chlorophyll distribution, and sea-surface temperatures.


Proposal: Not Available

Reports:
Final Report: View (1,423 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available

Datasets:
EVOSTC Data Archive: The data collected by this project include ocean nutrients and phytoplankton variables. Nutrient measurements include nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, phosphate and silicate. Phytoplankton variables include biomass as chlorophyll and HPLC pigments. We measure total particulate carbon and nitrogen, a measure of both phytoplankton and micro- animal biomass. We do species determinations and counts for all phytoplankton samples (as time allows). CTD measurements are made at the same time as our samples are collected. Our aerial coverage includes all SEA stations on all oceanographic cruises and some fish catch cruises for the same parameters. In addition we have a time series of these variables from WNH. ASCII files Availability: Available to collaborating researchers and managers and through the scheduled release of the SEA database.