The Malaspina Dragon: A newly-discovered pattern of the early spring bloom in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada

Gower, J. F. R.; King, Stephanie; Statham, Sara; Fox, Robert; Young, Erika

doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2013.05.024

Cited by 27 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Shorter significant blooms occur intermittently over a few days in summer, in contrast to the typically larger fall bloom [ 33 ]. The onset of the spring bloom in the Strait of Georgia occurred around April 6–8 in 2011 [ 70 ], but settling of the bulk of fresh OM on the seafloor apparently occurred after our measurements in May 2011 and preceded our measurements in July 2011, as shown by increased in chl a :phaeo ratios (i.e. short time scale indicator of OM freshness) at DDL between May and July 2011 ( Fig 6 , Table 1 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Environmental Drivers of Benthic Flux Variation and Ecosystem Functioning in Salish Sea and Northeast Pacific Sediments

et al. 2016

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The upwelling of deep waters from the oxygen minimum zone in the Northeast Pacific from the continental slope to the shelf and into the Salish Sea during spring and summer offers a unique opportunity to study ecosystem functioning in the form of benthic fluxes along natural gradients. Using the ROV ROPOS we collected sediment cores from 10 sites in May and July 2011, and September 2013 to perform shipboard incubations and flux measurements. Specifically, we measured benthic fluxes of oxygen and nutrients to evaluate potential environmental drivers of benthic flux variation and ecosystem functioning along natural gradients of temperature and bottom water dissolved oxygen concentrations. The range of temperature and dissolved oxygen encountered across our study sites allowed us to apply a suite of multivariate analyses rarely used in flux studies to identify bottom water temperature as the primary environmental driver of benthic flux variation and organic matter remineralization. Redundancy analysis revealed that bottom water characteristics (temperature and dissolved oxygen), quality of organic matter (chl a:phaeo and C:N ratios) and sediment characteristics (mean grain size and porosity) explained 51.5% of benthic flux variation. Multivariate analyses identified significant spatial and temporal variation in benthic fluxes, demonstrating key differences between the Northeast Pacific and Salish Sea. Moreover, Northeast Pacific slope fluxes were generally lower than shelf fluxes. Spatial and temporal variation in benthic fluxes in the Salish Sea were driven primarily by differences in temperature and quality of organic matter on the seafloor following phytoplankton blooms. These results demonstrate the utility of multivariate approaches in differentiating among potential drivers of seafloor ecosystem functioning, and indicate that current and future predictive models of organic matter remineralization and ecosystem functioning of soft-muddy shelf and slope seafloor habitats should consider bottom water temperature variation. Bottom temperature has important implications for estimates of seasonal and spatial benthic flux variation, benthic–pelagic coupling, and impacts of predicted ocean warming at high latitudes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Environmental Drivers of Benthic Flux Variation and Ecosystem Functioning in Salish Sea and Northeast Pacific Sediments

et al. 2016

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“…In the Strait of Georgia (region BC3), surface chlorophyll values were so high that a transition threshold of 6 mg m −3 was specified, which is similar to the 5 mg m −3 value used for this region by Gower et al . []. For the waters west of Haida Gwaii (region BC6), surface chlorophyll values were so low that a transition threshold of 1 mg m −3 was applied.…”

Section: Observations and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite chlorophyll off the British Columbia Coast, 1997-2010

Jackson

Thomson

Brown

et al. 2015

J. Geophys. Res. Oceans

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We examine the spatial and temporal variability of satellite-sensed sea surface chlorophyll off the west coast of North America from 1997 to 2010, with focus on coastal British Columbia. The variability in surface chlorophyll is complex. Whereas the spring bloom generates the highest phytoplankton concentration for coastal Alaska, the north and east coasts of Haida Gwaii, Queen Charlotte Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and coastal Oregon and California, it is the fall bloom that normally generates the highest concentration for the west coast of Vancouver Island, Juan de Fuca Strait, and the west coast of Washington. The highest satellite-sensed chlorophyll concentrations occur in the Strait of Georgia, where mean values are at least 2 times higher than elsewhere in the northeast Pacific. Moreover, the annual average surface chlorophyll concentration increased significantly in the Strait of Georgia during this period, with highest concentration observed during the near neutral ENSO conditions of the spring of 2007. The next highest concentrations occur off southwest Vancouver Island but have no statistically significant trend. The lowest average peak chlorophyll concentration is observed off Southern California. The timing of the highest chlorophyll concentration is latest off the coast of Washington and earliest off the coast of Southern California. Small increasing concentration trends are observed off the Washington and California coasts.

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“…[20]. The timing of the spring bloom is observed to vary interannually [19,21,22], mediated by light availability [21], wind events controlling the mixed-layer depth, and timing of outflow from the spring freshet [19]. Dinoflagellates are the second most abundant group of phytoplankton, dominating the total biomass in the summer and early fall [23] when productivity is nitrate-limited [24].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These conditions are typical of coastal waters around the world, such as the Beaufort Sea, Chesapeake Bay, and the Baltic Sea, where standard OBPG chla algorithms fail [71,82,83]. To address some of the issues related to CDOM adsorption, methods using the chlorophyll fluorescence emission centred at 685nm for non-atmospheric corrected MERIS [84] and MODIS [22,85] imagery have been used in British Columbia coastal waters. Further analysis is required with a larger in situ dataset to explore this method, given that the fluorescence signal can vary not only with chla concentration, but also due to photo-inhibition, phytoplankton species, and cell physiology [85].…”

Section: Chlorophyll Retrievalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of MODIS-Aqua Atmospheric Correction and Chlorophyll Products of Western North American Coastal Waters Based on 13 Years of Data

et al. 2017

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Abstract:There is an increasing need for satellite-derived accurate chlorophyll-a concentration (chla) products to improve fisheries management in coastal regions. However, the methods used to derive these products have to be evaluated, so the associated uncertainties are known. The performance of three atmospheric correction methods, the near infrared (NIR), the shortwave infrared (SWIR), and the Management Unit of the North Seas Mathematical Models with an additional modification (MUMM + SWIR), and derived chla products based on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer AQUA (MODIS) images acquired from 2002 to 2014 over the west coast of Canada and the United States were evaluated. The atmospherically corrected products and above-water reflectance were compared with in situ AERONET (N~650) and above-water reflectance (N~34) data, and the Ocean Color 3 MODIS (OC3M)-derived chla were compared with in situ chla measurements (N~82). The statistical analysis indicated that the MUMM + SWIR method was the most appropriate for this region, with relatively good retrievals of the atmospheric products, improved retrieval of remote sensing reflectance with bias lower than 20% for the OC3M bands, and improved retrievals of chla (r = 0.83, slope = 0.89, log RMSE = 0.33 mg m −3 for ±1 h). The poorest chla retrievals were achieved with the SWIR and NIR methods. These results represent the most comprehensive satellite data analysis of MODIS retrievals for this region and provide a framework for the MUMM + SWIR method that can be further tested in other coastal regions of the world.

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The Malaspina Dragon: A newly-discovered pattern of the early spring bloom in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada

Cited by 27 publications

References 19 publications

Environmental Drivers of Benthic Flux Variation and Ecosystem Functioning in Salish Sea and Northeast Pacific Sediments

Environmental Drivers of Benthic Flux Variation and Ecosystem Functioning in Salish Sea and Northeast Pacific Sediments

Satellite chlorophyll off the British Columbia Coast, 1997-2010

Evaluation of MODIS-Aqua Atmospheric Correction and Chlorophyll Products of Western North American Coastal Waters Based on 13 Years of Data

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