HR: 16:30h
AN: OS52F-09    [PDF]
TI: Import of Coastally-derived Phytoplankton to Pacific Northwest Estuaries and Links to Benthic Suspension Feeders
AU: * Roegner, C
EM: curtis.roegner@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Fisheries, Pt. Adams Biological Field Station, Hammond, OR 97121 United States
AB: We have used moored instrumentation, shipboard sampling, and oyster growth experiments to investigate the source and sinks of phytoplankton in Pacific Northwest coastal estuaries. Wind- generated upwelling on this coast induces elevated chlorophyll production 10 to 20 km from shore. During wind relaxation or downwelling events, this offshore production is transported across the shelf to estuarine mouths where it is advected into estuaries by tidal advection. During bloom intrusions, instrumentation records a characteristic signature of high fluorescence in high salinity water during flood tides. Experiments with suspension feeding oysters in Willapa Bay confirm enhanced growth patterns near the estuary mouth relative to further inland. Given the scales of variation in phytoplankton production and subsequent shoreward advection during upwelling-downwelling cycles, coastally-derived phytoplankton is likely an important yet episodic food source for estuarine suspension-feeding fauna. This scenario contrasts Atlantic and Gulf coast estuaries where energetic pathways are more generally influenced by riverine rather than ocean dynamics.
DE: 4219 Continental shelf processes
DE: 4235 Estuarine processes
DE: 4804 Benthic processes/benthos
DE: 4815 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting