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Life Sciences Commons

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Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology

Western Washington University

2014

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

From Boat To Beach: Using Drift Cards To Improve Our Knowledge Of Ocean Currents, Areas At Risk And Oil Spill Trajectories., Andrew Rosenberger, Alexandra Woodsworth, Ross Dixon May 2014

From Boat To Beach: Using Drift Cards To Improve Our Knowledge Of Ocean Currents, Areas At Risk And Oil Spill Trajectories., Andrew Rosenberger, Alexandra Woodsworth, Ross Dixon

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

In October 2013, Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Georgia Strait Alliance launched 1644 drift cards from 9 locations along the shipping route through the Salish Sea to Vancouver, British Columbia. Drift cards are 4x6” pieces of marine plywood painted bright yellow and numbered. Drift cards have historically been used to assess the way in which floating objects move in various contexts, including potential oil spills from underwater pipelines, marine park planning, sewage outflows and more. In this case, these drift cards were released in the context of Kinder Morgan’s plans to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline, which if approved would see …


Salmonid Early Response To Restored Freshwater Floodplain, Erin Morgan, Jeffery R. Cordell, Lauren Rich May 2014

Salmonid Early Response To Restored Freshwater Floodplain, Erin Morgan, Jeffery R. Cordell, Lauren Rich

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Shortly after the construction of the Hansen Creek floodplain restoration project in 2010-2011, we conducted a pilot study of the initial use of the site by juvenile salmonids and the early development of invertebrate communities. We found that juvenile Coho salmon collected from the restored floodplain during periodic inundation events had higher instantaneous rations (a measure of feeding intensity) than Coho collected during regular monthly sampling in the creek channels. The floodplain site also had consistently higher insect abundances. Applying the data and lessons learned from the pilot study, we undertook a more comprehensive 13-month study of Hansen creek and …