Despite progressive policies and continued advances in ocean management, numerous shifts associated with global changes have been observed in marine ecosystems in recent years, including warming, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation. As global change accelerates, science is needed to inform evidence-based management strategies for continued ecosystem services. Resilience management, in which...
Twenty years ago, the creation of a new scientific program, the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO), funded by the Packard Foundation, provided the opportunity to integrate—from the outset—research, monitoring, and outreach to the public, policymakers, and managers. PISCO’s outreach efforts were initially focused primarily on sharing scientific...
A major goal of the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) has been to understand the impacts of climate change and variability on the coastal ecosystems of the inner shelf of the California Current Large Marine System in particular, and other marine and even nonmarine systems more generally....
Coastal upwelling ecosystems around the world are defined by wind-generated currents that bring deep, nutrient-rich waters to the surface ocean where they fuel exceptionally productive food webs. These ecosystems are also now understood to share a common vulnerability to ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH). In the California Current Large Marine...
Meanders of the shelf break front in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) during April and May of 1997 were associated with chlorophyll enhancement along a hydrographic and a topographic feature. The hydrographic feature was the surface outcrop of the front, which ranged from ~10 to >100 km seaward of the shelf...
Hydrographic observations made with an undulating vehicle carrying a CTD and concurrent shipboard ADCP velocity observations over a 12‐day period are combined to investigate vertical mixing and cross‐frontal fluxes on the Northern Flank of Georges Bank. The CTD density time series is analyzed to detect the presence of vertical overturns,...
Equatorward velocities in the upwelling jet of the northern California Current were 0.05–0.06 m s¯¹ faster in spring and summer 2002 than on average over 1998–2002. This result is based on a five-year data set of surface drifters released across the continental margin off central Oregon (44.65°N) during April and...
Evidence for secondary circulation associated with a shelfbreak front is obtained from a high‐resolution, cross‐shelf section of hydrographic, optical and velocity fields. Convergence in the bottom boundary layer on the inshore side of the front and subsequent upwelling into the interior is evident by a mid‐water region of suspended bottom...
Two physical oceanography cruises on the R/V Endeavor were conducted by the co-PIs Jack Barth and Mike Kosro as part of the ONR-sponsored Coastal Mixing and Optics (CMO) Accelerated Research Initiative. The objective was to rapidly survey a region around 40.5N, 70.5W where a set of moorings and a stationary...
Small-scale turbulence is a random phenomenon, and theoretical relationships about turbulent processes are often only crude approximations. There are relatively few accurate statements that can be made about a turbulent flow without recourse to experimental evidence from flow itself (Tennekes and Lumley, 1972). In the atmosphere, turbulent flows are relatively...
We present velocity observations from a shipborne acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on RIV Wecoma during cruise W9408A, August 23 to September 2, 1994. The ADCP processing procedures are described in detail. This cruise was part of the Coastal Jet Separation project, funded by the National Science Foundation, to study...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on R/V Wecoma during cruise W0105c (23 May to 13 June 2001). The cruise was a component (Survey I) of the Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) experiment. The ADCP was an RD Instruments hull-mounted 153.6-kHz narrowband...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on RJV Revelle during cruises R9710 (20 October to 23 November 1997) and R9801 (9 January to 7 February 1998). The cruises were conducted as part of the Southern Ocean JGOFS (Joint Global Ocean Flux) Antarctic Polar Frontal...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP) on RN Wecoma during cruise W9508b, 17-27 August 1995. Results from the short half-day cruise W9508c on 31 August 1995 are also shown. The ADCP processing procedures for W9508b are described in detail. This cruise was part of...
A central challenge for natural resource management is developing rigorous yet practical approaches for balancing the costs and benefits of diverse human uses of ecosystems. Economic theory has a long history of evaluating tradeoffs in returns from different assets to identify optimal investment strategies. There has been recent progress applying...
Accurate ship velocity is important for determining absolute currents from acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) measurements. In this paper, the authors describe the application of two methods to improve the quality of ship velocity estimates. The first uses wide-area differential global positioning system (WADGPS) navigation to improve ship positioning. During...
Upwelling jets flow alongshore in approximate geostrophic balance with the onshore pressure gradient induced by coastal upwelling. Observations of such jets have shown that they often move offshore downstream of capes, leaving a pool of upwelled water inshore. Comparisons are made between this behavior and the hydraulic transition of a...
A high-resolution numerical model with idealized topography is used to investigate the degree to which a coastal upwelling jet separates from the shelf as it flows around a submarine bank depending on the wind strength and the horizontal scale of the bank. Experiments were run using several wind forcing magnitudes...
As part of the Coastal Ocean Processes (CoOP) project Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST), this was the second of two cruises in 2001 to study cross-shelf transport processes in a wind-driven coastal ocean. The project includes field experiments off the Oregon coast and coordinated ocean circulation/ecosystem and atmospheric...
Shore-based video remote sensing is used to observe and continually monitor nonlinear internal waves
propagating across the inner shelf. Month-long measurements of velocity from bottom-mounted acoustic
Doppler current profilers and temperature from thermistor chains at the 10- and 20-m isobaths are combined
with sea surface imagery from a suite of...
Shore-based video remote sensing is used to observe and continually monitor nonlinear internal waves
propagating across the inner shelf. Month-long measurements of velocity from bottom-mounted acoustic
Doppler current profilers and temperature from thermistor chains at the 10- and 20-m isobaths are combined
with sea surface imagery from a suite of...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on
R/V Wecoma during cruise W0108a (6-25 August 2001). The cruise was a component (Survey
II) of the Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) experiment. The ADCP was an
RD Instruments hull-mounted 153-kHz narrowband unit. Data were...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on
R/V Wecoma during cruise W0108a (6-25 August 2001). The cruise was a component (Survey
II) of the Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) experiment. The ADCP was an
RD Instruments hull-mounted 153-kHz narrowband unit. Data were...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on
R/V Wecoma during cruise W0301b (19 January - 3 February 2003). The cruise was a component
(Survey III) of the Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) experiment. The
ADCP was an RD Instruments hull-mounted 153-kHz narrowband...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on
R/V Wecoma during cruise W0301b (19 January - 3 February 2003). The cruise was a component
(Survey III) of the Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) experiment. The
ADCP was an RD Instruments hull-mounted 153-kHz narrowband...
From mid-May to August 2011, extreme runoff in the Columbia River ranged from 14,000 to over 17,000 m³/s, more than two standard deviations above the mean for this period. The extreme runoff was the direct result of both melting of anomalously high snowpack and rainfall associated with the 2010–2011 La Niña....
Semidiurnal velocity and density oscillations are examined over the mid- and inner continental shelf near Heceta Bank on the Oregon coast. Measurements from two long-term observation networks with sites on and off the submarine bank reveal that both baroclinic velocities and displacements are dominated by the first mode, with larger...
Various ocean-climate models driven by increased greenhouse gases and higher temperatures predict a decline in oceanic dissolved oxygen (DO) as a result of greater stratification, reduced ventilation below the thermocline, and decreased solubility at higher temperatures. Since spreading of low oxygen waters is underway and predicted to increase, understanding impacts...
During fall/winter off the Oregon coast, oceanographic surveys are relatively scarce because of rough
weather conditions. This challenge has been overcome by the use of autonomous underwater gliders deployed
along the Newport hydrographic line (NH-Line) nearly continuously since 2006. The discharge from the
coastal rivers between northern California and the...
Shore-based video remote sensing is used to observe and continually monitor nonlinear internal waves
propagating across the inner shelf. Month-long measurements of velocity from bottom-mounted acoustic
Doppler current profilers and temperature from thermistor chains at the 10- and 20-m isobaths are combined
with sea surface imagery from a suite of...
This is an author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by Inter-Research and can be found at: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10835
Several mechanisms can drive vertical velocities in the coastal ocean, including wind-forcing and through gradients in the vorticity field generated by flow-topography interactions. A two-layer, steady, wind-driven, analytical model is applied to the major upwelling systems of Brazil : Cabo Frio (CF) and Cabo de Santa Marta (CSM) regions. Comparisons...
In the productive central-Oregon coastal upwelling environment, wind-driven upwelling, tides, and topographic effects vary across the shelf, setting the stage for varied biogeochemical responses to physical drivers. Current, temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen (DO) measurements from three moorings deployed during the upwelling seasons of 2009–2011 off the central-Oregon coast are...
The seasonal cycle of the near-surface circulation off central Chile was analyzed using satellite altimetry and an oceanic model. To evaluate the role of the wind stress curl on the circulation we performed two identical simulations except for the wind-forcing: the "control run" used long-term monthly mean wind stress and...
Climate models predict a decrease in oceanic dissolved oxygen and a thickening of the oxygen minimum zone, associated with global warming. Comprehensive observational analyses of oxygen decline are challenging, given generally sparse historical data. The Newport hydrographic (NH) line off central Oregon is one of the few locations in the...
MicroSoar, an undulating profiler capable of measuring turbulence parameters such as Thorpe scales and thermal dissipation rate while being towed at speeds of up to 4 m s⁻¹, offers the possibility of obtaining a close-to-synoptic image of mixing over large spatial areas. In this paper, the method of calculating Thorpe...
A high-resolution upper-ocean survey of a cyclonic jet meander and an adjacent cyclonic eddy in the California Current region near 38°N, 126°W was conducted as part of the summer of 1993 Eastern Boundary Currents program. Temperature and salinity were measured from a SeaSoar vehicle, and velocity was measured by shipboard...
Several diagnoses of three-dimensional circulation, using density and velocity data from a high-resolution, upper-ocean SeaSoar and acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) survey of a cyclonic jet meander and adjacent cyclonic eddy containing high Rossby number flow, are compared. The Q-vector form of the quasigeostrophic omega equation, two omega equations derived...
Recent work by S. Lentz et al. documents offshore transport in the inner shelf due to a wave-driven return
flow associated with the Hasselmann wave stress (the Stokes–Coriolis force). This analysis is extended using
observations from the central Oregon coast to identify the wave-driven return flow present and quantify the...
The event-scale variability of across-shelf transport was investigated using observations made in 15 m of
water on the central Oregon inner shelf. In a study area with intermittently upwelling-favorable winds and
significant density stratification, hydrographic and velocity observations show rapid across-shelf movement of
water masses over event time scales of...
The spatial and temporal variability of inner-shelf circulation along the central Oregon coast during the
2004 upwelling season is described using a 70-km-long array of moorings along the 15-m isobath. Circulation
at three stations located onshore of a submarine bank differed from that of a station north of the bank,...
Wind-driven coastal ocean upwelling supplies nutrients to the
euphotic zone near the coast. Nutrients fuel the growth of phytoplankton,
the base of a very productive coastal marine ecosystem
[Pauly D, Christensen V (1995) Nature 374:255–257]. Because
nutrient supply and phytoplankton biomass in shelf waters are
highly sensitive to variation in...
By mapping the three-dimensional density field while simultaneously tracking a subsurface, isopycnal float, direct observations of upwelling along a shelfbreak front were made on the southern flank of Georges Bank. The thermohaline and bio-optical fields were mapped using a towed undulating vehicle, and horizontal velocity was measured with a shipboard...
Drifters released offshore of Oregon during predominantly downwelling favorable alongshore winds during three different deployments (October 1994, January 1998, and September 1998) display similar behavior: after being advected around in the offshore eddy field, they move onshore to a particular isobath and are advected poleward alongshore, without coming ashore. Numerical...
Connectivity and larval dispersal is explored off the Oregon coast during the summer upwelling season of 2001 using numerical ocean circulation simulations. The study region, with strong wind-driven currents and variable topography, is modeled using the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) forced by the Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System....
Horizontal current measurements from an array of moored acoustic Doppler profilers are assimilated sequentially into a model of coastal wind-driven circulation off Oregon during the upwelling season of May–August 2001. Model results are compared against independent moored and ship survey data to document a positive effect of velocity data assimilation...
A fluorescent dye tracer was injected into the
pycnocline on the Oregon shelf at a depth of 9–10 m. It
spread rapidly cross-shelf as two distinct layers, one above
the other in the water column, split by interleaving dye-free
water. The vertical scale of these layers, and associated
density steps,...
During the upwelling season in central California, northwesterly winds along the
coast produce a strong upwelling jet that originates at Point Año Nuevo and flows
southward across the mouth of Monterey Bay. A convergent front with a mean
temperature change of 3.77 ± 0.29°C develops between the warm interior waters...
Observations, from the Oregon continental shelf, describe the slumping of a coastal
upwelling front in response to a reversal of winds from upwelling-to downwelling-favorable.
Initially, the front outcropped in a surface mixed layer of depth 10–20 m with a
pronounced cross-shelf density gradient. Following wind reversal, both the unbalanced
cross-shelf...
During March–April 1999, 2 weeks of undulating CTD and shipboard acoustic
Doppler current profiler surveys revealed the variability of the intense internal tide on the
northern edge of Georges Bank. The nature of the internal tide was modulated by episodic
surface intrusions of cool, fresh Scotian Shelf Water (SSW), stratifying...
Velocity measurements from 17 deployments of moored acoustic Doppler current
profilers obtained during four summer upwelling seasons are used to describe the crossshelf
divergence of Ekman transport in the inner shelf off Oregon. For each deployment
the measured surface and bottom cross-shelf transports were compared with estimates
of the theoretical...
In the northern California Current, the onset of the 2005
upwelling season was five weeks later than usual, and well established
upwelling with a cold surface signature did not
occur until about seven weeks after this. As part of the joint
US-Canada Pacific hake survey, from 14–16 July 2005 we...
The stability of a coastal jet and front is investigated using the primitive
equations applied to a continuously stratified flow in geostrophic balance. A linear
stability analysis successfully explains the growth of two modes of instability with
distinctly different horizontal scales. A long-wavelength mode (fastest-growing
wavelength of 0(100 km)) is...
As part of the U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study Southern Ocean
program, high-resolution surveys of the Antarctic Polar Front near 170øW were
conducted during October-November 1997 with a towed undulating system equipped
with conductivity-temperature-depth and bio-optical sensors. Transects along
170°W and two successive mapping surveys revealed zonal bands with...
High concentrations of chlorophyll are found in the California Current System over
300 km offshore, far from the productive coastal upwelling region, and between 150 and
250 m, well below the depth to which photosynthetically active solar radiation penetrates.
This exceptionally deep chlorophyll feature is formed near the coast and...
During summer 2001, high-resolution hydrographic, velocity, and bio-optical surveys
were conducted over Heceta Bank off central Oregon. North of the bank, upwelling
over simple bottom topography exhibited a classic response with a midshelf, baroclinic
coastal jet and upwelled isopycnals. The coastal upwelling jet follows the bank
topography as it widens...
Data from Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellites are used to study the seasonal evolution of
temperature fronts in the northern California Current
System (CCS), focusing on the interactions with
topographic features. Fronts first appear close to the coast
in response to upwelling winds, moving offshore with the
continuous input of energy...
Sea surface temperature (SST) fronts are determined for the 2001–2004 time period
from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) data in the California
Current System (CCS). The probability of detecting a SST front at an individual pixel
location in the CCS is presented as a bi-monthly climatology. Fronts clearly indicate the...
Observations of internal solitary waves (ISWs) and of their role in sediment
resuspension during the Coastal Mixing and Optics 1996 (CMO 96) experiment are
reported. The largest resuspension events observed in the experiment can be related to
retarded flow under the wave footprint. Two distinctly different periods of resuspension
events...
Data from the SeaWinds scatterometer on the
QuikSCAT satellite are used to estimate upwelling around
Cabo Frio, Brazil, due to Ekman transport and Ekman
pumping. The region close to shore (up to 200 km from the
coast) is characterized by negative wind stress curl
(upwelling favorable) year-round, with maximum values...
Repeated mesoscale surveys of waters over the shelf and slope off Oregon were
conducted during spring and summer of 2001 to study the spatial structure of the velocity
and hydrographic fields. The ocean response to wind forcing is compared between a
region of relatively simple topography with alongshore uniformity and...
Data from the Coastal Transition Zone (CTZ) experiment are used to describe the velocity fields and water properties associate with cold filaments in the California Current. Combined with previous field surveys and satellite imagery, these show seasonal variability with maximum dynamic height ranges and velocities in summer and minimum values...
As part of an experiment to study wind-driven coastal circulation, 17 hydrographic
surveys of the middle to inner shelf region off the coast of Newport, OR (44.65°N, from
roughly the 90 m isobath to the 10 m isobath) were performed during Summer 1999
with a small, towed, undulating vehicle. The...
The Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) program conducted an
interdisciplinary study of coastal upwelling off central Oregon during summer 2001.
Two intensive field efforts during May–June and August 2001 were coordinated with
ocean circulation, ecosystem, and atmospheric modeling of the region. A primary
goal was to contrast the...
This report summarizes the SeaSoar and CTD observations from R/V Wecoma cruise
W9408A (23 August to 2 September 1994) conducted as part of the Coastal Jet Separation
(CJS) experiment, under funding from the National Science Foundation. The goal of this
study is to establish how and why a strong alongshore...
The primary objectives of R/V Wecoma cruise W9907C were to: 1) collect threedimensional fields of temperature, salinity, and light absorption and attenuation using the towed, undulating vehicle SeaSoar; 2) collect 3-D fields of velocity using shipboard ADCP; 3) to make turbulence profiles along a single cross-shelf transect; and 4) locate,...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on RN Endeavor during cruises E9608 (14 August to 1 September 1996) and E9704 (25 April to 15 May 1997). The cruises were conducted as part of the Office of Naval Research Coastal Mixing and Optics Accelerated Research...
This report summarizes the Seasoar and CTD observations from Wecoma
cruises W9306A (5 June to 12 July, 1993) and W9308B (14 August to 22 September
1993) conducted as part of the Eastern Boundary Currents Accelerated Research
Initiative, under funding by the Office of Naval Research. The cruises were
designed to...
During Spring and Summer 1999, as part of the Oregon State University National Oceanographic Partnership Program (OSU-NOPP) field program, 20 successful hydrographic surveys were undertaken on the Oregon mid- to inner shelf, all near Yaquina Bay. These consisted of 17 cross-shelf sections along the Newport Hydrographic line ( extending approximately...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on
R/V Wecoma during cruise W0301b (19 January - 3 February 2003). The cruise was a component
(Survey III) of the Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) experiment. The
ADCP was an RD Instruments hull-mounted 153-kHz narrowband...
As part of the Coastal Ocean Processes (CoOP) project Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf
Transport (COAST), this was the first of two cruises in 2001 to study cross-shelf transport
processes in a wind-driven coastal ocean. The project includes field experiments off the Oregon
coast and coordinated ocean circulation/ecosystem and atmospheric...
As part of the GLOBEC NEP collaborative research project on the California Current (CC),
this was the second of two cruises in 2002 to study the physical and biological oceanographic
distributions and processes that influence juvenile salmonid habitat along the Oregon and northern
California coast. The 2002 cruises followed similar...
We present velocity observations from a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on
R/V Wecoma during cruise W0108a (6-25 August 2001). The cruise was a component (Survey
II) of the Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) experiment. The ADCP was an
RD Instruments hull-mounted 153-kHz narrowband unit. Data were...