Fine-scale temporal and spatial variability in the coastal waters of Clayoquot Sound

• Main Author: King, Stephanie
• Other Authors: Niemann, K. O.
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: coastal ocean; spatial variablity; temporal variability; buoy; UVic Subject Index::Humanities and Social Sciences::Social Sciences::Geography
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/3043

An oceanographic buoy with 10 atmospheric and oceanographic instruments was deployed in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Canada in 2007. The high-resolution time series was used to monitor the fine-scale variability in the coastal ocean. Over 700 CTD profiles measuring temperature, salinity and chlorophyll fluorescence made in the region of the buoy were used to relate the buoy data to spatial patterns. Analysis showed that large-scale upwelling in combination with the localized winds and tidal currents affect water properties at time scales of hours to days. At low tide the buoy represented inland water and at high tide the buoy represented offshore water. Both the buoy data and CTD profiles measured a strong offshore/onshore gradient. For temperature the gradient depended on the direction of the wind, salinity was always higher offshore compared to onshore, and the chlorophyll fluorescence was higher onshore in the early spring and higher offshore for the rest of the time series. The fine scale temporal resolution of the buoy was able to capture the variability measured by the CTD profiles in a 40km2 area. This work shows the importance of making high-resolution temporal measurements in the coastal ocean. However, these types of moorings also require frequent maintenance. In Clayoquot Sound, the optical sensors needed to be cleaned every 4-6 days.