Across-shelf transects over the eastern flank of Barrow Canyon were obtained in August 2005 with an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Here, the shelf topography creates a “choke” point in which a substantial portion of Pacific inflow from the Bering Strait is concentrated within 30 km of the coast, providing an...
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...
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a problem for coastal communities, the fishing industry, and coastal organisms. Pseudo-nitzschia spp. is a regularly occurring diatom in Oregon’s coastal waters. At times, Pseudo-nitzschia spp. can facultatively produce domoic acid, a neurotoxin that can bioaccumulate in the food chain. While regular shore-based sampling provides...
Turbulent mixing of salt is examined in a shallow salt wedge estuary with strong fluvial and tidal forcing. A numerical model of the Merrimack River estuary is used to quantify turbulent stress, shear production, and buoyancy flux. Little mixing occurs during flood tides despite strong velocities because bottom boundary layer...
Small rivers, such as those that line the Oregon coast, have been shown to deliver significant concentrations of suspended sediments and nutrients to estuaries and the coastal ocean during wet seasons during which winds are predominantly downwelling-favorable. The fate of the buoyant source water and of any suspended or dissolved...
The northern California Current System is impacted by two primary freshwater
sources: the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Columbia River. The Columbia is frequently
bidirectional in summer, with branches both north and south of the river mouth
simultaneously. We describe the interaction of these two warm Columbia plumes...
The temporal response of the length of a partially mixed estuary to changes in freshwater discharge Q𝒻 and
tidal amplitude Uₜ is studied using a 108-day time series collected along the length of the Hudson River
estuary in the spring and summer of 2004 and a long-term (13.4 yr) record...
Turbulence controls the composition of river plumes through mixing and alters the plume's trajectory by diffusing its momentum. While believed to play a crucial role in decelerating river-source waters, the turbulence stress in a near-field river plume has not previously been observationally quantified. In this study, finely resolved density, velocity,...
In most estuarine systems it is assumed that the dominant along-channel momentum balance is between the integrated pressure gradient and bed stress. Scaling the amplitude of the estuarine circulation based on this balance has been shown to have predictive skill. However, a number of authors recently highlighted important nonlinear processes...
Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula) are narrow oblong bivalves that can be found in sandy habitats along the western coast of the United States, from Alaska (Aleutian Islands) to southern California (Pismo Beach). In Washington state, the razor clam fishery has been documented to be an important contributor to the...
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...
Measurements of inherent optical properties (IOP) were conducted over bottoms with different substrates by use
of a sampling package mounted on and operated by a SCUBA diver. It was found that in areas of low ambient
currents the distribution of IOP varies with bottom type in (1) its value relative...
Topographically generated eddies and internal waves have traditionally been studied separately
even though bathymetry that creates both phenomena is abundant in coastal regions. Here a numerical
model is used to understand the dynamics of eddy and wave generation as tidal currents flow past
Three Tree Point, a 1 km long,...
A tidally and cross-sectionally averaged model based on the temporal evolution of the quasi-steady Hansen and Rattray equations is applied to simulate the salinity distribution and vertical exchange flow along the Hudson River estuary. The model achieves high skill at hindcasting salinity and residual velocity variation during a 110-day period...
The tidally varying circulation, stratification, and salt flux mechanisms are
investigated in a shallow salt wedge estuary where fluvial and tidal velocities are large and
the steady baroclinic circulation is comparatively weak. The study integrates field
observations and numerical simulations of the Merrimack River estuary. At moderate to
high discharge...
Time‐dependent buoyant plumes form at the outflow of tidally dominated estuaries. When estuary discharge velocity exceeds plume internal wave speed c, a sharp front forms at the plume’s leading edge that expands from the time‐dependent source. Using observations of the Columbia River tidal plume from multiple tidal cycles we characterize...
The initial composition of a river plume depends on the cumulative turbulent
entrainment within the estuary and how this dilutes the supplied freshwater. Here we
examine the relative roles of turbulence and freshwater input using observations from the
Columbia River estuary and plume during two periods with contrasting river flow....
A new planktonic ecosystem model was constructed for the Eastern Bering Sea based on observations from the 2007–2010 BEST/BSIERP (Bering Ecosystem Study/Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program) field program. When run with forcing from a data-assimilative ice-ocean hindcast of 1971–2012, the model performs well against observations of spring bloom time...
Continental shelf sediments are sinks for dissolved oxygen and sources of many major and minor nutrients required for oceanic surface primary production, resulting in a strong coupling between benthic and pelagic biogeochemical cycling. However, the influence and spatiotemporal variability of benthic remineralization on bottom-water chemistry and the supply of nutrients...
It is well documented that microplastics and semi-synthetic particles (<5 mm) pervade the marine environment, with their ingestion by marine fauna eliciting global concern. While fishes exposed to microparticles in a laboratory setting have exhibited both sub-lethal and lethal effects, the diversity in material, morphology, and size of these contaminants...