Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve oceanographic monitoring program: 2011 annual report
Sharman LC. 2013. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve oceanographic monitoring program: 2011 annual report. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/SEAN/NRTR—2013/729. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
The Southeast Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network (SEAN) assumed responsibility fromthe USGS for long-term oceanographic monitoring of Glacier Bay in 2009. 2011 is the 19thconsecutive year of the continuous dataset, and this is the third annual report. As operationalconditions allowed, vertical profiles of temperature, salinity, light, turbidity, dissolved oxygenconcentration, and chlorophyll fluorescence were obtained for the water column once in latewinter and once in mid-summer at 22 permanent stations throughout Glacier Bay (although castdata from the winter cruise were ultimately disqualified due to equipment failure); seven of thosestations were occupied monthly from March through October, and an eighth was formally addedin August. In general, parameters reflected typical ranges and spatial (both horizontal andvertical) and temporal trends expected for a high-latitude tidewater glacial fjord, with strongseasonal signals and strong length-of-fjord gradients along the glacier-to-baymouth transects.The water column was well-mixed in winter and strongly stratified in summer. Fluorescencemeasurements indicated phytoplankton production occurred in surface waters from late springthrough fall, presumably fueled by a near-continuous injection of nutrients to the euphotic zoneby tidal, wind, and/or internal wave induced mechanisms. Compared to historical data, arelatively cold, salty, and dense water column anomaly below 10-m depth was observed duringJuly in the central bay. The third consecutive year of significant departures from the historicalmean, 2011 closely resembled 2009, while 2010 was anomalously warm, fresh, and low-density.These observations highlight Glacier Bay’s inherent variability on inter-annual timescales. The2011sampling year marked the first with a dedicated survey vessel and the initiation of a threeyearocean acidification study that involves water sampling from discrete depths through thewater column. Analyses of these samples (results reported elsewhere) will significantly enhanceour understanding of Glacier Bay oceanography.
- 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