Nearshore marine vital signs monitoring in the Southwest Alaska Network of National Parks: 2010

Coletti, Heather; Bodkin, James; Dean, Thomas; Kloecker, Kimberly

In 2010, we successfully completed a fifth year of protocol testing and field sampling for the Southwest Alaska Network‘s (SWAN) Nearshore Vital Signs monitoring program in accordance with standard operating procedures set forth for each of six vital signs: marine intertidal invertebrates, kelp and seagrass, marine water chemistry and quality, marine birds, black oystercatcher, and sea otter. Summer sampling in 2010 represented the fifth year of data collection at Katmai National Park & Preserve (KATM) and fourth year of data collection in Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ) for vital signs including intertidal invertebrates and algae, water chemistry and quality, marine bird surveys, black oystercatcher diet and productivity, and sea otter diet. No modifications were made to the rocky intertidal sampling protocol from previous years and the protocol and SOPs have been finalized. Hobo water temperature sensors are currently deployed at five rocky intertidal sites in both KATM and KEFJ. In addition, salinity loggers were co-located at all rocky intertidal sites at both KATM and KEFJ in 2010. We implemented a third year of mussel bed and eelgrass bed sampling at both parks. A final SOP for sampling mussel beds is complete and is currently out for peer review. A final SOP for eelgrass bed monitoring is in final draft form and will be sent for review in the fall of 2011. Marine bird surveys in KEFJ will continue with little modification in 2011. KATM will not be sampled in 2011, but will be again in 2012. For marine bird surveys, we recommend that current survey effort continue until further analysis can be completed. The existing SOP for marine bird surveys is final. While not reported here, a winter marine bird survey was conducted in March of 2010 in KEFJ. Black oystercatcher abundance, nests density, productivity and diet data should continue to be collected with little revision. Sampling at the current intensity should allow us to detect trends in changes of nest density, productivity and diet (especially prey size) of the black oystercatcher. The SOP for black oystercatcher monitoring is also final. Although an aerial survey of sea otter abundance was completed in KEFJ during June 2010, results from the survey are reported elsewhere and available. Sea otter foraging data was collected at both parks. In general, mussels continue to be the dominate prey in KEFJ and clams the dominate prey in KATM. A sea otter forage database has been completed. Database completion will ease data entry both in the field and office as well as optimize data analysis. Carcass collection continues in KATM and KEFJ, although to date we have not recovered enough carcasses from KEFJ to employ age-specific mortality analyses. In 2011, we plan to finalize the protocol narrative through an external peer review process and finalize data entry and data management procedures for the rocky intertidal SOP. We will continue to sample nearshore vital signs at KEFJ in 2011 and return to sampling both parks in 2012.

Nearshore marine vital signs monitoring in the Southwest Alaska Network of National Parks: 2010

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