Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve oceanographic monitoring program: 2010 annual report
Sharman LC. 2013. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve oceanographic monitoring program: 2010 annual report. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/SEAN/NRTR—2013/728. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
The Southeast Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network assumed responsibility from the USGS for long-term oceanographic monitoring of Glacier Bay in 2009. 2010 is the 18th consecutive year of the continuous dataset, and this is the second annual report. As operational conditions allowed, vertical profiles of temperature, salinity, light, turbidity, dissolved oxygen concentration, and chlorophyll fluorescence were obtained for the water column once in early spring and once in mid-summer at 22 permanent stations throughout Glacier Bay; seven of those stations were occupied monthly from February through October. Parameters reflected ranges observed in past sampling years, with pronounced seasonal variability and strong length-of-fjord gradients along the glacier-to-baymouth transects. The upper water column was well-mixed by the end of winter to at least 50 m, and strongly stratified in summer. At most stations, chlorophyll fluorescence averaged over the uppermost 50 m of the water column exhibited low values ( 0.5 mg/m3) between late spring and fall, showing that primary productivity is likely sustained well beyond the initial spring bloom. Compared to historical data, a warm, fresh, and low-density anomaly below 40-m depth was observed during July at a central bay station. This anomalous signal appears not to represent a response to large-scale external forcing from the Gulf of Alaska; rather, it was likely a reflection of more local processes. Data quality and quantity for 2011 and future years should be enhanced by improved equipment including a dedicated vessel, and operational improvements such as casts that sample closer to the bottom.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Sharman, Lewis
- Date of Issue
- 2013-04
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GLBA , NRSS , SEAN
- Keywords
- Alaska, chlorophyll-a, CTD, fluorometer, Glacier Bay, Glacier Bay National Park, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, GLBA, Icy Strait, Monitoring, OBS, Oceans, PAR, photic depth, photosynthetically available radiation, physical oceanography, Pressure, Salinity, SEAN, sigma-t, Southeast Alaska Network, Temperature, Turbidity
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Water | Hydrology | Marine Hydrology