HR: 14:00h
AN: OS52I-01    [PDF]
TI: Spring Upwelling in the Southern California Bight - Three Seasons of Observation
AU: * McPhee-Shaw, E E
EM: eemcphee@icess.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California Santa Barbara, 6832 Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AU: Siegel, D
EM: davey@icess.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California Santa Barbara, 6832 Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AU: Washburn, L
EM: washburn@icess.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California Santa Barbara, 6832 Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AU: Reed, D
EM: reed@lifesci.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California Santa Barbara, 6832 Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AU: Brzezinski, M
EM: brzezins@lifesci.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California Santa Barbara, 6832 Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AB: Moorings deployed on the inner shelf have been maintained by the Santa Barbara Channel Long Term Ecological Research (SBC-LTER) project since February 2001. Time series from these moorings demonstrate that coastal upwelling events, generally occurring between March and May, are the primary source of nutrients to inner shelf kelp ecosystems in this region. Processes such as internal wave transport are important during other seasons when upwelling is infrequent. Shipboard measurements from April 2002 reveal the evolving spatial distribution of stratification, nutrients, and chlorophyll, both with depth and across the shelf, during a single upwelling event. Comparison of time series from the spring seasons of 2001 to 2003 allows us to address interannual variability in features such as timing of the onset of upwelling, spatial variability in upwelling response, and the nutrient fluxes associated with upwelling events. The mooring time series are compared to tissue nitrogen in local kelp plants to assess the link between variable nutrient supply and kelp growth. We also examine how interannual variability in stratification and pycnocline depth at the end of winter helps determine the "effectiveness" of upwelling, not just in terms of wind strength, but in terms of the more biologically relevant quantity of nutrient concentration delivered to coastal surface waters.
DE: 4219 Continental shelf processes
DE: 4223 Descriptive and regional oceanography
DE: 4279 Upwelling and convergences
DE: 4845 Nutrients and nutrient cycling
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting