Coastal sand dunes and beaches offer a variety of ecosystem services such as coastal protection, sand stabilization, species conservation, and recreation. However, the management and balance of ecosystem services offered by dunes and beaches is challenging when ecosystem services interact across the landscape. Management focusing only on one ecosystem service...
Coastal flood hazard zones and the design of coastal defenses are often devised using either the maximum recorded total water level (TWL) or a 'design' event such as the 100-year return-level flood, usually projected from observed extreme events. Despite technological advances driving more consistent instrumental records of wave heights and...
This report presents observations from two programs in 1975, WISP and UP-75 to study circulation off Oregon. WISP was a study of the transition between the winter and spring regimes, and UP-75 was designed to determine whether there is a poleward undercurrent along the continental slope during the upwellinq season....
Salinity, temperature, oxygen phosphate, nitrate and silicate
observatIons were taken by Oregon State University on 21 hydrographic
cruises in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean during 1968. Alklinity , pH
and total CO2 were taken on special occasions. Fifteen cruises were
taken along the Newport line. The rest were special cruises made...
Salinity, temperature, oxygen, phosphate, nitrate and silicate
observations were taken by Oregon State University on 17 hydrographic
cruises in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean during 1966. Alkalinity, pH
and total CO2 were taken on special occasions. Nine cruises were
taken along the Newport line. The rest were special cruises made
off...
This is the fourth data report of a study designed to determine
the current patterns and water mass characteristics along the
Oregon coast.
All data in this report were collected at stations occupied by
Research Vessel ACONA (Burt and Pattullo, 1961). The
This is the third data report of a study designed to determine the
current patterns and water mass characteristics along the Oregon coast.
The first report covered the period July 1958 to July 1959 (Wyatt and
Callaway, 1961). During that year observations were taken to a maximum
depth of 30...
The study of the vegetation of one of the natural coastal
prairies in Oregon was undertaken for the purpose of describing
some of its synecological features. Specific objectives of the study
were to describe certain plant assemblages in the study area, present
phenological relationships on some of the assemblages, and...
Although plant remains, such as opal phytolith and charcoal analyses, have been used since the beginning of the 20th century to reconstruct past environments by ecologists and botanists, only recently have these techniques been considered by archaeologists in understanding the past at the site level. This study employs opal phytolith...
Knowledge of the pelagic organisms in vast areas of the open ocean is very limited. This is particularly true of the small nekton or swimming forms such as fishes, squid, prawns and euphausiids, which are important as intermediate animals in the food chain and are preyed upon by species such...
Understanding how large-scale processes (>100 kms) influence ecological communities is currently a major focus in ecology. In marine systems, coastal upwelling, a large-scale oceanographic process in which surface water pushed offshore by winds is replaced by cold, nutrient-rich water from depth, appears to cause variation in rocky intertidal communities. Along...
The Oregon upwelling system is a region of high biomass and primary
productivity as well as strong mesoscale variability. In order to examine the
interaction of physical forcing and ecosystem dynamics, four 3-week sampling
cruises were conducted in the Oregon upwelling system as part of the Northeast
Pacific Global Ocean...
Rockfish (family Scorpanidae) are an important segment of Oregon trawl landings. Two distinct fisheries commonly produce nineteen species with 5 others rarely seen. A description of catch and catch per unit effort in the Pacific ocean perch and "other rockfish" fisheries is provided. Also reported are species composition of sampled...
This report summarizes information obtained from groundfish surveys conducted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife from 1971 through 1974. The program was a comprehensive marine resource survey of the continental shelf and upper continental slope off Oregon between the Columbia River and Cape Blanco. Major goals were: (1)...
Oregon Fishermen in Ocean Observing Research (OrFIOOR) is a cooperative research program between ocean scientists and fishermen in the Pacific Northwest. Dungeness crab fishermen attach sensor packages (temperature and dissolved oxygen) to crab pots. The pots serve as platforms of opportunity for ocean observing. This study examines three principle questions...
Published June 1967. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
This report summarizes the results of the research contract,
"Species Composition and Distribution of Marine Nekton in the Pacific
Ocean off Oregon" (AT(45-1)1726) for the two-year period from September
1, 1961, to September 1, 1963.
Hydrographic observations were made over the continental shelf and slope off Oregon during the 1973 Coastal Upwelling Experiment (CUE-II) from three ships: R/V OCEANOGRAPHER, R/V THOMAS G. THOMPSON, and R/V YAQUINA. This report contains the observations made on four YAQUINA cruises between June and August 1973 (Table I). Observations were...
Aanderaa recording current meters, moored off the Oregon coast at fixed depths measured water temperature, current speed, current direction and for some meters, conductivity and pressure. In addition to these subsurface meters, surface meteorological buoys were installed to measure wind speed, wind direction, air and water temperature. Data from each...
Aanderaa recording current meters, moored in CUE-I off the Oregon coast at specific depths along both the Newport hydrographic line and perpendicular to the isobaths off Depoe Bay, were set to measure water temperature, current speed, current direction and, in some cases, pressure. In addition, surface buoy meteorological stations were...
During 1967 the Department of Oceanography, Oregon State University, continued its program of shore sampling of ocean temperatures and salinities along the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Observations for 1960 through 1966 are contained in five Data Reports which are listed under references. The data in this report were collected...
Salinity, temperature, oxygen, phosphate, and nitrate observations were taken by Oregon State University on 16 hydrographic cruises in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean during 1969. Alkalinity , pH and silicate were taken on special occasions. Nine cruises were taken along the Newport line. The rest were special cruises made off Depoe...
During 1968 the Department of Oceanography, Oregon State
University, continued its program of shore sampling of ocean temperatures
and salinities along the coast of the Pacific Northwest.
Observations for 1960 through 1967 are contained in six Data Reports
which are listed under references. The data in this report
were collected...
During 1963 and 1964 the Department of Oceanography, Oregon
State University, continued its program of shore sampling, of ocean
temperatures and salinities along the coast of the Pacific Northwest.
Observations for 1960, 1961, and 1962 are contained in three Data
Reports: No. 6 (Kujala and Wyatt, 1961), No. 8 (Oliphant,...
During 1961, a program of shore station sampling of ocean temperatures
and salinities was carried out by the. Oceanography Department of Oregon
State University. This is a continuation of the work reported by
Kujala and Wyatt (1961). Sampling was conducted at 11 locations along
the Oregon coast and at one...
This report includes the temperature and salinity data collected at nine shore stations along the Oregon coast from the Columbia River south to Bandon, Oregon. The purpose of this study is to obtain basic information and to supplement our monthly offshore oceanographic survey cruises.
During the period from July 1961 to September 1963, rocks were collected from 138 different locations on the continental shelf and slope off the central coast of Oregon by the Department of Oceanography, Oregon State University. The sample locations, types of samplers, and general lithologies for all of the samples...
A geoarchaeological investigation was conducted at the Devils Kitchen archaeological site, located in the Devils Kitchen State Park along the southern Oregon coast. In this thesis research, the author paired previous and recent excavated stratigraphy profiles to define culturally significant deposits. These stratigraphic units were defined further geochemically using a...
Freshwater provided from river discharge influences the dynamics and circulation of most continental shelves around the world. It has profound effects on the transport and fate of materials and substances originated from rivers and estuaries, as well as on the ocean biogeochemistry and marine ecosystems. The effect of buoyancy forcing...
Published November 1973. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the Sea Grant Catalog: http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/publications
The lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus) is an important groundfish species in both recreational and commercial fisheries of the Northeastern Pacific. It is a large, fast-growing, generalist predator of invertebrates and fishes. In response to concerns that lingcod may limit populations of rockfishes (Sebastes spp.), I compared the diets of 375 adult...
This compilation is meant only to be a guide because it is imperfect. I gathered these citations during a single search of the sources cited in section B; ideally, I would have gone through all those sources again to perhaps find records that I missed or to correct errors that...
During the W7711A cruise, from November 5 through November
13, 1977, a series of measurements were made on the hydrography, suspended particulate matter (spm), nutrients, first and second trophic level biomasses, primary productivity and zooplankton species for the purpose of gaining concurrent winter time information on these parameters. The cruise...
Rockfish of the genus Sebastes are important components of Oregon reef communities. I examined patterns of age and growth in young-of-year rockfish across two nested spatial scales – local and regional – along the Oregon coast. Using otolith microstructural examination, I examined the relative importance of local versus regional factors...
Black rockfish (Sebastes melanops) is an important marine recreational species throughout the Pacific Northwest. Recent catch data indicate a trend of age-truncation in the black rockfish population off the Oregon coast, with older females rapidly disappearing from the population. In populations with broad age distributions, older fish may contribute disproportionately...
This is the first of two technical reports derived from the dissertation
by Yao, Neng-Chun titled "Bispectral and Cross-bispectral Analysis
of Winds and Currents off the Oregon Coast. " In this first technical
report we give the theoretical development of the rotary component
approach to the bispectrum and cross-bispectrum among...
Identification of critical habitat for all life stages of commercially exploited fish populations is critical for effective management. Despite a clear need for basic biological information on juvenile rockfish life history, there have been very few efforts to describe distribution and habitat of this life stage, particularly along the Oregon...
First-order analyses of wind and current time series obtained from a Totem buoy off the Oregon coast during 1970 are presented. In addition, winds at Totem are compared with winds recorded simultaneously at Newport, Oregon.
In September 1988, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and the Governor of Oregon announced the creation of the joint state-federal Placer Minerals Technical Task Force. The group was charged with performing an analysis of the potential economic and environmental aspects of placer mineral mining in the nearshore waters of...
Inner-shelf circulation and mechanisms of across-shelf transport of water masses were examined using seven years of observations collected by the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) program, a long-term monitoring effort along the central Oregon coast. Since 1998, moored velocity and hydrographic measurements have been obtained during the...
The Oregon State University School of oceanography conducted purse
seining surveys of juvenile salmonids in the ocean off Oregon and Washington
during spring and summer 1981. The objectives of the field study were:
1) To collect information on the distribution and abundance of juvenile
salmonids off Oregon and Washington; and...
Salinity, temperature, oxygen, phosphate, and nitrate observations were taken by Oregon State University of 15 hydrographic cruises in the Northeastern Pacific and one cruise in the Sea of Cortez during 1970. Alkalinity, pH and silicate were taken on special occasions.
Data were collected by Oregon State University personnel aboard the...
As part of the SuperCODE project, three hydrographic cruises were conducted
off Oregon and California in July 1983, and January to February 1984,
and April 1984. CTD observations were made near Coos Bay at 43°13'N during 12
July 1983 and 31 January 1984, and off Newport at 44°39'N on 11-12...
As part of the SuperCODE and CODE projects, two hydrographic cruises were conducted off Oregon and California in January and April 1984. CTD sections across the continental shelf and slope were made near Coos Bay at 43°13'N, off Crescent City at 41°54%, off Eureka at 40°51%, along the Arena and...
CTD observations were made along sections near Coos Bay at 43° 13'N, off Crescent City at 41° 54'N, off Eureka at 40° 51 'N, off of Half Moon Bay at 37°2q'N, off of Pt. Purisima at 34° 45'N, and along the Code Central and Pt. Arena lines near 39°N during...
CTD observations were made in the Code region near Pt. Arena on the
northern California coast at 39°N, off Coos Bay at 43°12'N, off Crescent
City at 41°54'N, of Eureka at 40°51'N, off Half Moon Bay at 37°25'N, off
Pt. Purisima at 34°45'N and in the Santa Barbara Channel during...
Current meter moorings were recovered and deployed off of Coos Bay at 43°13'N, off of Crescent City at 41°54'N, off of Half Moon Bay at 37°25'N and off of Pt. Purisima at 34°45'N during 28-29 January 1982. CTD observations were made off of Coos Bay at 43°13 1 N, off...
CTD observations were made in the CODE region near Pt. Arena on the northern California coast at 39°N, off Coos Bay, Oregon at 43°13'N, off Crescent City at 41°541N, and off Half Moon Bay at 37°25'N. The observations in the CODE region included two repeated sections along the Central Line,...
This dissertation focuses on the importance of pelagic subsidies in the Northeast Pacific to rocky shore community regulation. My results document the patterns of pelagic subsidy supply, determine if those subsidies are correlated with community structure, and examine if community regulation differs between areas of high- and low-subsidies. Understanding how...
Influences of tidal and slower (subtidal) oceanic flows over the continental shelf and slope off Oregon are studied using a high-resolution ocean circulation model and comparative model-data analyses. The model is based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), a fully nonlinear, three-dimensional model (using hydrostatic and Boussinesq approximations). The...
The high productivity of Eastern Boundary Upwelling Ecosystems (EBUE), some of the most productive ecosystems in the globe, is attributed to the nutrient rich waters brought up through upwelling. Climate change scenarios for coastal upwelling systems, predict an intensification of coastal upwelling winds. Associated with intensification in upwelling are biogeochemical...
Foundation species are important components of ecosystems because they provide habitat and ameliorate stressful conditions for residents. This thesis considers the role of surfgrasses (Phyllospadix spp.) as dynamic foundation species on the coast of Oregon in two studies. Chapter 2, which presents an observational survey of two Phyllospadix congeners, investigates...
Sea-cliff erosion is a significant problem along the Oregon coast in that many
communities have been built on terraces affected by bluff retreat. There is considerable
coast-wide variability in the rates of cliff erosion. This variability is attributed in part to
tectonic activity that is causing differential interseismic uplift along...
This study illustrates geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental approaches to the
investigation of an active margin coastal setting and provides examples of how information gleaned through examination of the stratigraphic record can reveal depositional signatures that provide insights into the geomorphic and tectonic forces active within coastal river basins. Three case studies...
The continental terrace west of Oregon between 43° 50'N and
44° 40' N latitude is 50 to 55 miles wide. It consists of a continental
shelf, 16 to 35 miles wide, and a continental slope, 16 to 37 miles
wide. The eastern portion of the shelf is a smooth, sediment...
On July 1, 1969, the Fish Commission of Oregon, under contract by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, began a 1-year study of the pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani Rathbun) off Tillamook Head, Oregon. The primary goal was to determine the seasonal movement of this special within a given area. The study...
Improved nonirrigated pastures consist of subterranean clover) New Zealand white clover or lotus major (big trefoil). These legumes are generally planted with perennial or H-1 ryegrass, alta fescue, orchardgrass, or meadow foxtail.
Fertilizing weeds and weedy grasses (bent, velvet, and June grass) seldom pays.
Project CROOS, Collaborative Research on Oregon Ocean Salmon, is a unique partnership of scientists and commercial fishermen that combines catch location data with stock assignments obtained from genetic micro-satellite analysis to investigate the distribution of Oregon Chinook across multiple spatial scales. Using catch data collected by collaborating Oregon troll fishermen,...
Most benthic marine organisms have a bipartite life with an early pelagic stage that enables dispersal of offspring, connecting spatially separated populations, and a late stage where individuals reside in a benthic habitat. Settlement of pelagic offspring to bottom associated substrates is the process that connects the two life history...
Early life stages of many marine and diadromous fish species use sandy beach surf zones, which occur along >50% of the world's marine coastlines. This extensive habitat can provide juvenile fishes with an abundant supply of potential prey and the ability to hide from predators in its shallow turbid waters....
The Oceanbook focuses on the ocean environment from the coastline to roughly 200 miles offshore, the limit of U.S. jurisdic-tion, and from Cape Mendocino, California, to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We excluded the intertidal area of interest to low-tide beachcombers from the Oceanbook because this area is well covered in...
Sediments on the inner portion of the Oregon continental shelf
consist of clean, well-sorted, detrital sand. This sand has an average
median diameter of 2.53Φ (. 173 mm) and is both positively and
negatively skewed. Deposits with median diameters in the coarse
sand and gravel classes occur at depths of...
This report documents the oceanographic and meteorological measurements made by the Mooring Observations component of the Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) project during the upwelling experiment from May to August 2001. The focus of COAST is to study the cross-shelf transport processes in a wind-driven system by making...
Wind-driven coastal upwelling brings subsurface water onto the central-Oregon shelf after the spring transition each year. This cold and salty source water is oxygen-poor, yet above the hypoxic threshold, dissolved oxygen < 1.4 ml l⁻¹. Once on the shelf, dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations of upwelled near-bottom waters are modified by...
With congressional passage of the BEACH Act in October of 2000, Coastal and Great Lakes states were mandated to assess coastal recreation waters for the application of ambient water quality standards. This research encompasses two components involved in applying the BEACH Act statues to Oregon. The first component was to...
Published September 1982. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Two bloom-detection products were developed for the Oregon coast that describe the relative percent change observed between successive pairs of 8-day chlorophyll-a (CHL) and fluorescence line-height (FLH) products obtained from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the Aqua spacecraft (MODIS-Aqua). The CHL[subscript dev] and FLH[subscript dev] products, respectively, were optimized...
The ecological interaction between the largest coastal predator, the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) and the most abundant shallow water marcrozooplanktonic prey, mysids, were examined in a poorly-understood predator-prey relationship along the central Oregon coast. From 2002-2008, 83 seasonal gray whales were identified. These whales returned each year around Memorial Day...
From 3 April – 21 September 2007, we monitored the distribution, abundance and productivity of the federally Threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) along the Oregon coast. From north to south, we surveyed and monitored plover activity at Sutton Beach, Siltcoos River estuary, the Dunes Overlook, North Tahkenitch Creek,...
From 2 April – 14 September 2006, we monitored the distribution, abundance and productivity of the federally Threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) along the Oregon coast. From north to south, we surveyed and monitored plover activity at Sutton Beach, Siltcoos River estuary, the Dunes overlook, North Tahkenitch Creek,...
From 1 April – 24 September 2008, we monitored the distribution, abundance and productivity
of the federally Threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) along the Oregon
coast. From north to south, we surveyed and monitored plover activity at Sutton Beach, Siltcoos River
estuary, the Dunes Overlook, North Tahkenitch Creek,...
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...
This is a case study of the cooperative development of an ocean condition forecasting tool by Oregon commercial fishermen, Oregon State University (OSU) scientists, and OSU student software engineers. Ocean condition forecasting models developed by OSU scientists were used to create an online tool to assist decision-making for fishermen. This...
The typical coho salmon life history has been characterized by juvenile fish that spend their entire first year in freshwater habitats before migrating into estuaries as smolts. However, reports of early migrating coho fry (age 0), including migration downstream to estuarine habitats, date back to the 1960s. Until a few...
The Oregon Coast's small water systems, like the vast number of small water systems across the U.S., are greatly vulnerable. Failing infrastructure, limited financial capital, and inadequate staff combined with future changes in climate, population size, and regulatory stringency spell out a potentially dire future for the region's water supply...
Various mollusks, including small bivalves and gastropod snails, are a common food source for intertidal crabs. Prey opening techniques used on hard-shell prey are dependent on claw size and morphology. For example, large, strong claws can crush a snail outright while smaller, weaker claws leave characteristic peels, pulls and upper...
Interannual variability of Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) occurrence in the northern California Current System is largely unknown. In Oregon, the distribution of this versatile predator and what is influencing their range expansion from Mexico is poorly understood due to the recent nature of their "invasion" and a lack of monitoring....
This study was directed to improve our understanding of the ecology of Swiss needle cast (SNC) of Douglas-fir, a disease that produces extensive damage to forests and plantation in the coastal region of Oregon and Washington. A disease prediction model for the coastal area of Oregon was built by establishing...
Published September 1975. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
In the Pacific Northwest, several species of rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) are under extreme conservation measures due to low population levels. Although currently at healthy population levels, one species of interest is the black rockfish (S. melanops), which has been shown to utilize estuarine habitat during its early life history stages....
Summertime, wind-driven upwelling off the Oregon coast delivers nutrient rich water to the surface that fuels the autotrophic production of particulate organic carbon (POC). This POC can be transported horizontally by fluid motions and vertically by sinking to the bottom where it can be entrained in the benthic boundary layer...
The purpose of the research project leading to this paper was to determine if a
community management approach to fishery management would be feasible in Oregon.
The basis for answering this question was a survey of residents in Oregon's eleven
incorporated fishing port communities.
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...
This is the fifth report of data collected during a study designed to
determine the currents and water masses along the Oregon coast. The
first four reports cover the period from July 1958 to December 1961 (Wyatt
and Callaway, 1961; Wyatt and Kujala, 1961; Wyatt and Kujala, 1962; Wyatt
and...
Environmental stress can negatively affect the ability of organisms to reproduce. Energetic trade-offs exist in all organisms, and under stress, energy may be allocated away from reproduction and towards physiological defense and repair mechanisms. The rocky intertidal environment is ideal for investigating the influence of environmental stress, as organisms are...
An empirical statistical model is developed that relates the non-tidal motion of the ocean surface currents off the Oregon coast to forecasts of the coastal winds. The empirical statistical model is then used to produce predictions of the surface currents that are evaluated for their agreement with measured currents. Measurements...
In the last decade, the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem has experienced a trend of increased severity of upwelling-driven coastal hypoxia. This thesis strove to examine the potential upper trophic level impacts of moderate and severe hypoxia in the CCLME. Initially I conducted a literature review of Pacific harbor seal...
Bi-weekly sampling of zooplankton and environmental parameters was conducted along a cross-shelf transect off the coast of Newport, OR, USA (44.65°N) from 1996 to present. Results have demonstrated the feasibility of using copepod community structure as an early indicator of ecosystem response to seasonal and large scale environmental changes in...
A large-scale west coast shelf experiment called SuperCODE
was conducted off Oregon and California between February 1981
and April 1984. Current and temperature measurements were made
from subsurface arrays off Coos Bay (43°N), Crescent City
(42°N), Eureka (41°N), Half Moon Bay (37.5°N) and Purisima
Point (34.70), between February 1981 and...
Understanding sandbar dynamics and variability is integral to developing a predictive
capacity for nearshore flows, sediment transport, morphological change, and
ultimately for determining coastline exposure to damaging storm waves. Along the
high-energy U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) coast, sandbars typically dominate the
bathymetry of the active zone. Here we report on...