NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL - Monterey Bay Aquarium

79 Pages·2008·1.54 MB·English

NPS-OC-08-004

NAVAL
POSTGRADUATE
SCHOOL

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA

Physical, Nutrient, and Biological Measurements of
Coastal Waters off Central California in November 2007

by

Thomas A. Rago, Reiko Michisaki, Baldo Marinovic, Marguerite Blum, and
Katherine Whitaker

July 2008

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Prepared for: Marine Sciences Institute,
University of California, Santa Cruz
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NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

Monterey, California 93943

Daniel T. Oliver Leonard A. Ferrari
President Provost

This report was prepared for and funded by: Marine Sciences Institute, University of
California, Santa Cruz.

Reproduction of all or part of this report is authorized.

This report was prepared by:

THOMAS A. RAGO REIKO MICHISAKI BALDO MARINOVIC
Oceanographer Oceanographer Research Biologist

MARGUERITE BLUM KATHERINE WHITAKER
Oceanographer Marine Mammal Observer

Reviewed by: Released by:

CURTIS A. COLLINS MARY L. BATTEEN DAN C. BOGER
Professor/Principal Investigator Professor and Chairman Dean of Research,
Dept. of Oceanography Dept. of Oceanography Naval Postgraduate
School
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July 2008 Technical Report, November 2007
4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE: Title (Mix case letters) 5. FUNDING NUMBERS
Physical, Nutrient, and Biological Measurements of Coastal Waters off
Central California in November 2007.
6. AUTHOR(S) Thomas A. Rago, Reiko Michisaki, Baldo Marinovic, Marguerite
Blum, and Katherine Whitaker
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Naval Postgraduate School ORGANIZATION REPORT
Monterey, CA 93943-5000 NUMBER NPS-OC-08-004
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13. ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words)

The results of analyses of hydrographic, nutrient, and biological data collected in coastal ocean
waters off Central California in November 2007 aboard the NOAA Ship David Starr Jordan are
presented in both tabular and graphical form. The cruise departed from and returned to San
Francisco, California. After steaming to Monterey Bay, the ship proceeding from Moss
Landing, California, along CalCOFI line 67 to station 90, thence to CalCOFI line 60/station 90,
and finally along CalCOFI line 60 to Drake’s Bay, before returning to San Francisco. Marine
mammal observations taken during the cruise are also included.

14. SUBJECT TERMS hydrography, physical oceanography, biological oceanography, nutrients, 15. NUMBER OF
zooplankton, marine mammals, PaCOOS, CalCOFI PAGES
79
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Contents

List of Tables ii

List of Figures iii

Introduction 1

Standard Procedures 1

CTD/Rosette Data 1
Zooplankton Net Tows 5
Marine Mammal Observations 8
Ancillary Observations 8
Underway Data 8
Satellite Imagery 9
ADCP 9

Tabulated Data (in Appendix A) 10

Figures of Results (in Appendix B) 11

Cruise Participants 12

Literature Cited 13

Appendix A 15

Table A1 15
Table A2 16
Table A3 32
Table A4 64
Table A5 65

Appendix B 66

Figure 10 66
Figure 11 67
Figure 12 68

Initial Distribution List 69
i
List of Tables

Table 1: Transmissivity offsets applied to each CTD cast during the 4
PaCOOS cruise of November 2007.

Table 2: Zooplankton data. 6

Table A1: Meteorological and sea surface data collected during the PaCOOS 15
cruise of November 2007.

Table A2: List at standard pressures of hydrographic data collected during 16
the PaCOOS cruise of November 2007.

Table A3: Results of nutrient and primary productivity analyses of water 32
samples collected at each hydrographic station during the
PaCOOS cruise of November 2007.

Table A4: Marine mammal observations. 64

Table A5: Summary of marine mammal observations. 65

ii
List of Figures

Figure 1: Full CalCOFI hydrographic station grid. 2

Figure 2: Hydrographic stations occupied during the PaCOOS cruise 2
of November 2007.

Figure 3: Transmissivity maxima by CTD cast measured by the 3
SeaTech 25-cm transmissometer.

Figure 4: Corrected (red) and uncorrected (blue) transmissivities. 4

Figure 5: Biovolume displacement values for stations sampled along 6
CalCOFI lines 67 and 60 during the PaCOOS cruise of
November 2007.

Figure 6: Krill abundance for the three most common species collected 7
at stations sampled along CalCOFI lines 67 and 60 during
the PaCOOS cruise of November 2007.

Figure 7: Marine mammal sightings during the PaCOOS cruise of 8
November 2007.

Figure 8: Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 9
satellite image of sea surface temperature (oC) of the area of
operation during the PaCOOS cruise of November 2007.

Figure 9: ADCP results from the PaCOOS cruise of November 2007. 10

Figure 10: Contours of (a) temperature (oC), (b) salinity, (c) density 66
anomaly (kg m-3), and (d) oxygen (µmol kg-1) fields along
the line of hydrographic stations from Moss Landing (on the
left) to Drake’s Bay, California.

Figure 11: Contours of fluorescence (volts) [upper panel] and 67
transmissivity (percentage) [lower panel] in the upper 100
dbars of the water column along the line of hydrographic
stations from Moss Landing (on the left) to Drake’s Bay,
California.

Figure 12: Contours of (a) nitrate (µM), (b) nitrite (µM), (c) phosphate 68
(µM), and (d) silicate (µM) fields along the line of
hydrographic stations from Moss Landing (on the left) to
Drake’s Bay, California.

iii
Introduction

Following in a long tradition of hydrographic studies of the California Current system-- see, for
example, Steger et al. (2000) and Collins et al. (2003)-- the data in this report were collected during
the 6-10 November 2007 cruise of the Pacific Coast Ocean Observing System (PaCOOS) program
aboard the NOAA Ship David Starr Jordan. The PaCOOS program was organized in 2003/2004 as
the NOAA west coast contribution to the national Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), and
is charged with “providing the ocean information needed for the sustained use of fishery resources
and protection of marine species and their ecosystem under a changing climate.”1 PaCOOS cruises
generally subsample the standard California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations
(CalCOFI) grid of hydrographic stations (Figure 1). With a slight exception, this cruise did exactly
that, sampling along CalCOFI line 67 from Moss Landing, California, to station 90 (CTD casts 1-
19), northwest to CalCOFI line 60/station 90 (CTD cast 23), then shoreward to Drake’s Bay,
California, along CalCOFI line 60 (Figure 2). The exception was that, to increase the resolution of
the hydrographic data and to maintain the convention of similar recent PaCOOS cruises (Rago et
al., 2006, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c), eight CTD casts were inserted between the standard CalCOFI sites
along line 67. Primary productivity and zooplankton analyses were not performed at these added
sites. Participants on the cruise came from the Naval Postgraduate School (Physical Oceanography
and Marine Mammal Observations), the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (Nutrient
Analysis and Primary Productivity), the University of California at Santa Cruz (Zooplankton
Analysis), the University of California at San Diego (Physical Oceanography), and the Marine
Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Internship Program2.

Standard Procedures

CTD/Rosette Data:

At each site a Seabird Electronics, Inc., Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) instrument
fitted with a 12-place rosette was deployed. The rosette was equipped with 12 10-liter PVC Niskin
bottles for collection of water samples. The CTD was generally lowered to 1000 meters or the
bottom (whichever came first), except that casts were extended to the full length of cable available
for the CTD at stations 18 (2021 dbar) and 23 (2022 dbar). Where primary productivity sampling
was performed, water samples were taken at depths designed to maximize resolution of the
variables sampled throughout the thermocline. Where only nutrient sampling was performed3,
water samples were more or less evenly spaced throughout the water column. A water sample was
always obtained at or near the bottom of each CTD cast for later conductivity/salinity calibration of
the CTD conductivity sensors.
Besides temperature (dual sensors), conductivity (dual sensors), and pressure, the CTD also
measured fluorescence, transmissivity, dissolved oxygen content, and photosynthetically available
radiation (PAR) in the water column. Except for PAR and the secondary of the dual sensors, all
these parameters are reported here.

1 http://www.pacoos.org
2 http://www.marinetech.org
3 CTD stations 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 18.
1