Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Long-Term Monitoring In Central Puget Sound: Are Local Climate Anomalies Impacting Phytoplankton Populations?, Gabriela Hannach, Lyndsey M. Swanson, Kimberle Stark

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Puget Sound is a large and productive estuarine system at the southern end of the Salish Sea. King County’s comprehensive, long-term marine monitoring program tracks water quality in Puget Sound’s Central Basin through year-round collection of data for a suite of physical, chemical and biological parameters. Phytoplankton monitoring began with traditional microscopy methods in 2008, and expanded to include a particle imaging system in 2014. These data are critical to assess how changes from climate, physical conditions and other stressors linked to anthropogenic activity from the region’s growing population may impact the Sound’s biodiversity and trophic structure. Currently, twice-monthly surface …

Seasonal Dynamics Of Oceanographic Conditions, Phytoplankton, And Zooplankton In The Malaspina Strait, Strait Of Georgia, Svetlana Esenkulova, Karyn Suchy, Richard Ian Perry, Kelly Young, Maycira Costa, Ryan Flagg, Moira Galbraith, Isobel Pearsall

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Plankton dynamics in the Salish Sea may directly impact resident and migratory fish populations that are of major economic importance in the region. The Malaspina Strait in the northern Salish Sea is of particular interest as it is an important migration route for juvenile salmon. Here, we present data collected at three stations in the Malaspina Strait as part of the Citizen Science initiative of the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project. Sampling was conducted at bi-monthly (or higher) frequency from February to October, 2015 to 2017. Relationships between the regional hydrography, environmental parameters (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, etc.), nutrient concentrations, …

Salish Sea Model Ecosystem - Lower Trophic: Episodic Nutrient Supply In The Northern Strait Of Georgia, Elise Olson, Susan E. Allen

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Salish Sea Model Ecosystem - Lower Trophic (SMELT) is a three-dimensional biogeochemical model coupled to a NEMO-based physical model of the Salish Sea, run operationally at UBC as part of the SalishSeaCast system. In this presentation, we will first establish the model's skill at reproducing nitrate concentrations by comparison with data from the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s citizen science program and Institute of Ocean Sciences repeat surveys. We will then discuss episodic nitrate supply to the surface waters of the northwest Strait of Georgia. This phenomenon is evident as a region of elevated mean (March-November) and standard deviation (April-September) of surface …

How Did Large Scale Climate Anomalies Impact 2015 Phytoplankton Blooms In Puget Sound?, Juhi Lafuente, Christopher Krembs, S. L. Albertson, Allison Brownlee, Julia Bos, Laura Hermanson, Mya Keyzers

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Washington State Department of Ecology has been routinely monitoring marine water quality throughout the Puget Sound since 1973. An established historic baseline from 1999 to 2008 allows us to examine how water quality varies year to year as a result of both natural and human influences. The recent large scale climate anomaly, the Blob, impacted this region when a mass of warm water entered Puget Sound in fall 2014. In conjunction with higher than normal air temperatures, patterns of estuarine circulation and stratification were regionally altered in Puget Sound. Changes to these physical patterns affect ecosystem functions starting at …

Soundtoxins: A Puget Sound Harmful Algae Monitoring Partnership, Teri King, Lyndsey Claassen, Jerry Borchert, Vera Trainer

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

SoundToxins is a diverse partnership of aquaculture businesses, federal, tribal, state, and local governments, education institutions, and Puget Sound residents that monitor for harmful algae in Puget Sound, managed by NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Washington Sea Grant. The intensively trained partners provide early warning of harmful algal bloom (HAB) events by evaluating water samples gathered weekly from 35 stations throughout Puget Sound looking specifically for Dinophysis, Alexandrium, Pseudo-nitschia and Azadinium and alerting health and natural resource agencies of their presence and concentration. The online database and mapping allows for near-real time viewing of data entered by SoundToxins partners …

Has Primary Productivity Declined In The Strait Of Georgia Since The 1970s?, Sophia Johannessen

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

A strong decline in phytoplankton productivity has been proposed as a principal cause of the decline in salmon survival in the Strait of Georgia over the last four decades. The best estimate of total annual primary productivity in the Strait in the 1970s was 280 gC m-2 yr-1 (Harrison et al., 1983). We tested whether or not primary productivity had declined since that time by calculating recent productivity from regional nitrogen budgets. We constructed the budgets using measurements (collected 2001-2011) of dissolved and particulate nitrogen and stable isotopes of nitrogen in seawater, river water, sinking particles, bottom sediments, atmospheric deposition, …

Harmful Algae In The Strait Of Georgia, Citizen Science Data, Svetlana Esenkulova, Isobel Pearsall

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Citizen Science Program was initiated by the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Ocean Networks Canada in 2015. This Program was designed to achieve oceanographic monitoring of the Strait of Georgia on temporal and spatial scale that had never been done before. Samples and measurements were taken at approximately 80 sites on a bi-monthly (or higher) frequency from February to October, 2015 to 2017. This presentation will be focused on the spatial and temporal distribution of harmful algae based on the analysis of about 5000 phytoplankton samples. Preliminary results indicate that during the sampling period in the …

Lake Mead Prefertilization Study: Preliminary Nutrient Enhancement Studies In Lake Mead, Richard P. Axler, Larry J. Paulson, Patrick J. Sollberger, Donald H. Baepler, U.S. Bureau Of Reclamation

Publications (WR)

Studies conducted by the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV), the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD), The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP), and the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) have identified decreased algal production as a major factor involved in the decline of the Lake Mead sport fishery. Phosphorus-laden silt particles in the Colorado River have been sedimenting out in Lake Powell since the completion of Glen Canyon Dam 286 miles upstream in 1963. This sharp decrease in phosphorus loading to Lake Mead (>5000 tons per year) has resulted in decreased …

A Proposal To Fertilize The Overton Arm And Gregg Basin Areas Of Lake Mead, Larry J. Paulson

Publications (WR)

Several limnological studies have been conducted in Lake Mead during the past decade. The recent studies clearly show that most of Lake Mead is deficient in nutrients, especially phosphorus, and very low in productivity. The reservoir-wide average total phosphorus concentration for 1981 - 1982 was only 9 mg/m³. This is below levels found In most oligotrophic lakes and reservoirs. Algal biomass, as measured by chlorophyll-a, averaged only 1.5 mg/m³. That also places Lake Mead in the oligotrophic range. Transparency, as measured by a Secchi disc, averaged 9-5 m in Lake Mead during 1981-1982. That far exceeds …

Historical Patterns Of Phytoplankton Productivity In Lake Mead, Richard T. Prentki, Larry J. Paulson

Publications (WR)

Lake Mead was impounded in 1935 by the construction of Hoover Dam. The Colorado River was unregulated prior to then and therefore was subjected to extreme variations in flows and suspended sediment loads. Hoover Dam stabilized flows and reduced suspended sediment loads downstream, but Lake Mead still received silt-laden inflows from the upper Colorado River Basin. The Colorado River contributed 97% of the suspended sediment inputs to Lake Mead, and up to 140 x 1O⁶ metric tons (t) entered the reservoir in years of high runoff. Most of the sediments were deposited in the river channel and formed an …

Effects Of Wastewater Discharges On Periphyton Growth In Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona, Marsha Korb Morris

Publications (WR)

A study of the effects of secondary-treated wastewater on periphyton growth in Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona was conducted from September 1979 to December 1980. Periphyton ash-free dry weight, chlorophyll-a, dominant species composition, and alkaline phosphatase activity were measured on fiberglass substrates. Substrates were incubated for two to four weeks in littoral and limnetic habitats. Physical and chemical variables and phytoplankton chlorophyll-a were measured concurrently.

Transparency increased with increasing distance from the discharge. Secchi depth ranged from 0.75 m at the discharge confluence (station 2) in August, to greater than 20 m at the most distant stations (stations 9 and 10) in …

Methods For Biological, Chemical, And Physical Analyses In Reservoirs, Penelope E. Kellar, Sherell A. Paulson, Larry J. Paulson

Publications (WR)

This manual contains detailed descriptions of biological, chemical and physical sampling and analytical procedures used at the Lake Mead Limnological Research Center. The manual was prepared in response to requests made by numerous individuals involved in the Las Vegas Valley Water Quality Program. This manual represents what we consider to be a reasonably complete compilation of methods useful in studying both general and specific limnological questions. While each section is sufficiently detailed to be of use to investigators with little experience in limnological methodology, the methods can be used on a wide variety of lakes and reservoirs, with relatively little …

Evaluation Of Impacts Associated With Reregulation Of Water Levels In Lake Mohave, Larry J. Paulson, John R. Baker, U.S. Water And Power Resources Service

Publications (WR)

The U.S. Water and Power Resources Service is considering reregulating Lake Mohave water levels to increase the net power benefit from Hoover Dam. Reregulation will not increase the generation capacity of the Hoover powerplant but it will enable the plant operation to be increased when the energy has greater monetary value. Energy generated at different times of the year has different market value, the highest being in January-March and July- September. By generating more power during these periods more net monetary benefit can be derived from Hoover Dam. The total volume of water released from Hoover Dam over an annual …

The Limnological Status Of Lake Mead And Lake Mohave Under Present And Future Powerplant Operations Of Hoover Dam, Larry J. Paulson, John R. Baker, James E. Deacon, U.S. Water And Power Resources Service

Publications (WR)

The ever-increasing demand for energy in the southwest has led to a search for additional sources of power generation. Coal-fired powerplants currently provide most of the baseline energy in the southwest, but this must be supplemented with hydroelectric power during periods of peak demand. In order to provide additional peaking power, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is considering a number of projects to modify existing hydroelectric facilities, or add new facilities in the Lake Mead Recreation Area.

The Hoover Powerplant Modification Feasibility Investigation was authorized by Congress on December 16, 1975 to determine the feasibility of: (i) adding one or …

Limnological Aspects Of Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona, John R. Baker, James E. Deacon, Thomas A. Burke, Samuel S. Egdorf, Larry J. Paulson, Richard W. Tew, Bureau Of Reclamation

Publications (WR)

Lake Mead is a deep, subtropical, moderately productive, desert impoundment with a negative heterograde oxygen profile occurring during; the summer stratification. investigations of the Boulder Basin of Lake Mead by the University of Nevada were initiated in November 1971. The primary objective of the study was to determine what effects industrial and sewage effluent from the Las Vegas metropolitan area, discharged into Las Vegas Bay, have had on the water quality and limnological conditions of Boulder Basin. Data from the 1975-76 period are presented in detail, with earlier data included in the summaries and discussions.

Measurements of water temperature, dissolved …

A Review Of The Limnology Of And Water Quality Standards For Lake Mead, Charles R. Goldman

Publications (WR)

1. The waters of Las Vegas Bay, a heavily utilized recreational resource, receive discharges from a variety of municipal and industrial waste sources. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined, on the basis of numerous studies, that the present water quality violates state and federal standards and constitutes a public nuisance. Consultants have advised the Sewage and Wastewater Advisory Committee that rapid abatement of the alleged pollution conditions can be achieved by an advanced wastewater treatment (AWT) plant.

2. The major problems in Las Vegas Bay are an objectionable water color, excessive turbidity, noxious odors, and oxygen depletion in certain …

Seasonal And Spatial Variation In Primary Productivity In Boulder Basin, Lake Mead, Clark County, Nevada, Isamu Aoki

Publications (WR)

The ¹⁴C light and dark bottle technique for measurement of primary production was utilized as a means of assessing the amount of inorganic carbon being converted Into organic form by the photosynthesis of phytoplankton populations In the Boulder Basin of Lake Mead.

Spatial and time series changes of productivity levels observed at eight sampling locations within Boulder Basin Indicate that the Influence of treated municipal arts' industrial effluent flowing into Les Vegas Bay is contributing high levels of available nutrients at Las Vegas Wash Inlet to cause productivity to approximate those levels associated with polluted waters.

Productivity levels at …