Nov 13
Julie Keister
UW—Oceanography
Variability in mesoscale circulation and distributions of zooplankton in a coastal upwelling system
Abstract
Upwelling filaments are a dominant component of the mesoscale circulation in eastern boundary current upwelling systems. In an effort to understand their role in structuring the California Current ecosystem, we studied filaments that developed during summer off Oregon and northern California using satellite imagery, hydrographic data, and zooplankton collected over several years as part of the U.S. GLOBEC Program. We found that upwelling filaments in our region can be deep, high velocity circulation features that transport coastal water and the associated taxa from the continental shelf to the open ocean. One filament that we intensively sampled using CTD casts, zooplankton net tows, and velocities transported ~4 x 104 tons of carbon offshore over its 6-8 week lifetime. The result was an offshore “hot-spot” in which zooplankton biomass was 3-4X higher than in the surrounding open ocean and marine mammal activity was elevated. Our results demonstrate that upwelling filaments are important in structuring the marine ecosystem. Since several upwelling filaments develop along the Oregon and California coast and transport large volumes of carbon offshore every summer, they also may be a significant, but overlooked, component of the global carbon cycle.
Bio
Julie received her Ph.D. in Oceanography from Oregon State University and is currently here at the UW in a new position as an Assistant Professor in Oceanography. Her research focuses on the physical and biological processes that effect zooplankton in coastal ecosystems. Most of her research has been in the California Current, but she did her M.S. in Chesapeake Bay, a brief stint in fisheries acoustics in Columbia River, and is now happy to be starting a research program in Puget Sound.
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