Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique is the first cultured representative of the SAR11 clade, a clade that is found throughout the oceans and accounts for approximately 25% of all bacterial cells [1]. It has a streamlined genome that is the smallest of any known free-living organism. In this study the complete genome...
Continental shelves located along eastern boundary currents occupy relatively small volumes of the world’s oceans, yet are responsible for a large proportion of global primary production. The Oregon coast is among these ecosystems. Recent analyses of dissolved oxygen at shallow depths in the water column has suggested increasing episodes of...
Experiments were designed to answer key questions about diatom-derived organic matter cycling (i.e., production and degradation) in coastal systems. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) production was examined in axenic batch cultures of five diatom species. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) release rates varied between species, but were significantly higher for all species...
In September of 1989, the site of an active seafloor methane vent was confirmed
approximately 20 km off the coast of Oregon in shelf waters 135 m deep. The location of
the vent had been described to Oregon State University oceanographers by a local
commercial fisherman. Preliminary observations in 1989...
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...
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...
Discrete layers of phytoplankton and zooplankton were observed over the Oregon continental shelf in summer and fall of 2001 and summer 2002 using optical and acoustical technologies and a pump sampling system. Layers of phytoplankton had steep vertical gradients which were associated with gradients in density and local peaks in...
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...
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...
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...