Fisheries and Oceans Canada Salish Sea Water Properties Survey
Presentation Abstract
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has carried out water properties surveys in the Strait of Georgia and Juan de Fuca Strait every year since 1999. With 17 years of monitoring at 75 stations (for the most part collected 4 times per year; April, June, September, December) the program has provided a synoptic view in three dimensions to resolve the horizontal and vertical, seasonal and interannual, variability of the fundamental water properties.
Over the years the station locations and the timing of the survey have remained largely unchanged to provide consistency in the dataset. During each survey CTD profiles are made at every station, and water samples are collected at the 20 stations along the thalweg. In addition to electronic sensors measuring temperature, salinity, fluorescence, transmissivity and oxygen, bottle samples are taken at standard oceanographic depths to measure nutrients (nitrate, phosphate and silicate) and dissolved oxygen; chlorophyll is measured at three near-surface depths. Since 2012 additional sampling has included dissolved inorganic carbon and alkalinity at six stations, and vertical SCOR net tows at up to nine stations per survey.
About one third of the 75 survey stations are located in US waters providing a suitable dataset for trans-boundary monitoring. The sampling protocols and instrumentation are not experimental, and there is an expectation that these comply with standard oceanographic practice, although no specific comparison with other surveys has yet been undertaken. The length of this time series provides sufficient statistical power to distinguish normal from anomalous conditions for temperature, salinity and oxygen, making it useful for comparison with other datasets.
Session Title
Trans-boundary monitoring in the marine evironment: Challenges and opportunities
Conference Track
Fate and Effects of Pollutants
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2016 : Vancouver, B.C.)
Document Type
Event
Start Date
2016 12:00 AM
End Date
2016 12:00 AM
Location
2016SSEC
Type of Presentation
Oral
Genre/Form
conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)
Contributing Repository
Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Water quality management--Environmental aspects--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Water quality--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Geographic Coverage
Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Rights
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Fisheries and Oceans Canada Salish Sea Water Properties Survey
2016SSEC
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has carried out water properties surveys in the Strait of Georgia and Juan de Fuca Strait every year since 1999. With 17 years of monitoring at 75 stations (for the most part collected 4 times per year; April, June, September, December) the program has provided a synoptic view in three dimensions to resolve the horizontal and vertical, seasonal and interannual, variability of the fundamental water properties.
Over the years the station locations and the timing of the survey have remained largely unchanged to provide consistency in the dataset. During each survey CTD profiles are made at every station, and water samples are collected at the 20 stations along the thalweg. In addition to electronic sensors measuring temperature, salinity, fluorescence, transmissivity and oxygen, bottle samples are taken at standard oceanographic depths to measure nutrients (nitrate, phosphate and silicate) and dissolved oxygen; chlorophyll is measured at three near-surface depths. Since 2012 additional sampling has included dissolved inorganic carbon and alkalinity at six stations, and vertical SCOR net tows at up to nine stations per survey.
About one third of the 75 survey stations are located in US waters providing a suitable dataset for trans-boundary monitoring. The sampling protocols and instrumentation are not experimental, and there is an expectation that these comply with standard oceanographic practice, although no specific comparison with other surveys has yet been undertaken. The length of this time series provides sufficient statistical power to distinguish normal from anomalous conditions for temperature, salinity and oxygen, making it useful for comparison with other datasets.
