Understanding how large-scale processes (>100 kms) influence ecological communities is currently a major focus in ecology. In marine systems, coastal upwelling, a large-scale oceanographic process in which surface water pushed offshore by winds is replaced by cold, nutrient-rich water from depth, appears to cause variation in rocky intertidal communities. Along the central Oregon coast upwelling occurs intermittently during the summer while on the southern coast it begins earlier in the spring and is less variable throughout the summer. Coastal upwelling can affect rocky intertidal communities by altering the delivery of nutrients, larvae, and phytoplankton. I conducted three studies on both the southern and central Oregon coast to understand how differences in upwelling affect rocky intertidal community structure and dynamics. In the first study, I examined the recruitment and growth rates of sessile invertebrates (mussels and barnacles). Recruitment of both mussels and barnacles, and growth of mussels were consistently higher on the central Oregon coast than the southern coast. Upwelled water is nutrient-rich, so differences in upwelling are likely to affect growth rates of macroalgae. In the second study, I tested this hypothesis by monitoring the growth of two species of intertidal kelp at both central and southern coast sites. During El Ni��o years, when upwelling is sharply reduced on the central Oregon coast, algae may fare better at sites on the southern coast where upwelling is less affected. However, during years when upwelling is strong all along the coast, nutrient limitation does not appear to differentially affect macroalgal growth rates. Finally, in the third study, I examined the influence of upwelling on the interactions between microalgal primary producers and herbivorous limpets. I conclude that this interaction is complex and varies both within and between upwelling regions. My research suggests that a transition in upwelling from weak and sporadic on the central Oregon coast to stronger and more persistent on the southern Oregon coast drives the striking differences in rocky intertidal community structure and dynamics between these areas. / Graduation date: 2003

The ocean reanalysis Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) 2.2.4 is used to explore the changes in upwelling from normal conditions to either El Nino or La Nina conditions. Physical and thermodynamic variables from the reanalysis are used to explore the structure and behavior of El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. The results of this analysis show that sea surface temperature (SST), entrainment velocity, wind stress, mixed layer depth, wind curl, and heat content anomalies are in general agreement with ENSO theory. Interestingly, the distribution of upwelling based on the entrainment velocity is very patchy, which led us to explore zonal and meridional sections of vertical velocity. We used three methods to compute changes in upwelling during ENSO events. The first method computes upwelling within the areas of SST anomalies during ENSO events. During El Nino events upwelling shows prominent decadal variability, while during La Nina the decadal variability is weaker. A new upwelling index is used for the second method, and upwelling is computed in the areas of strong upwelling anomalies. The variability of upwelling is higher in periods of reduced upwelling than in periods of strong upwelling. Despite the fact that the new index is computed independently, it agrees in the timing of the index used to define ENSO events for this research. The first and second methods show that the amplitude of SST anomalies and upwelling anomalies do not have a direct relationship, suggesting that upwelling does not explain all of the variance in SST. The last method used is to compute changes in upwelling in the Nino 1+2 region during ENSO events. In the east Pacific there is almost no correlation between upwelling and SST anomalies during ENSO, but this might be attributed to the fact that the Nino 1+2 region is a relatively small region compared to the Nino 3.4 region that is used to define ENSO events. In general, the time series of SST and upwelling anomalies agree well just in the cases when ENSO events are prominently in the eastern Pacific. A comparison between yearly fisheries data from Ecuador and Peru and monthly data of SST anomalies during ENSO years is presented showing that during El Nino events the fish catch decreases and during La Nina events the fish catch increases. We infer that the increase or decrease in fish catch is associated to changes in fish populations, and that these changes are mainly due to availability of nutrients and changes in temperature during ENSO events.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2003. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-152). Also available online.

In this study, an analysis of upwelling and biological activities impact on the seawater pCO2 variability was done to improve the knowledge about the pCO2 variability in seawater in the Baltic Sea. During upwelling activity, CO2 rich waters are upwelled to the surface. This influences air-sea CO2 flux and thus the net uptake/emission of CO2 by the sea. pCO2 and SST measurements from a SAMI sensor, located at the Östergarnsholm site in the Baltic Sea, and SST satellite data, was used to identify periods affected by upwelling activity. A strong variability due to upwelling activity was observed on the pCO2 concentration. The frequency of upwelling activity at the Östergarnsholm site was estimated to be around 20 % of the time from May-November. The relationship between pCO2 and SST during upwelling activity was found to depend of the month. In November, this relationship can be used to characterise the effect of upwelling, but for the other months there are no differences between the none- upwelling periods and the upwelling periods. Another type of period, characterized by a diurnal variability of pCO2 mainly driven by the biological effect, was also observed. / I denna studie undersöktes hur uppvällning och biologisk aktivitet påverkar koncentrationen av pCO2 i havet. Detta gjordes för att få ökad förståelse för korttidsvariationen av pCO2 i Östersjön. Under uppvällning pressas CO2-rikt vatten upp till ytan. Detta påverkar flödet av CO2 mellan hav och atmosfär och då även det totala upptaget/utsläppet av CO2 från havet. I studien användes pCO2 och SST mätningar från en SAMI-sensor, placerad vid Östergarnsholm i Östersjön, och en del satellitdata för att identifiera perioder påverkade av uppvällning. Det observerades att uppvällnings inverkan på koncentrationen av pCO2 varierar kraftigt. Frekvensen av uppvällning vid Östergarnsholm uppskattades vara ungefär 20 % av tiden under maj-november. Relationen mellan SST och pCO2 under perioder med uppvällning observerades variera från maj-november. I november kan denna relation användas till att uppskatta effekten av uppvällning men under de andra månaderna är relationen under uppvällning för lika relationen under icke- uppvällning. Även en annan slags perioder observerades; under dessa perioder observerades en dygnscykel av pCO2, driven av biologisk aktivitet.

No description available.

The main objective of this study was to describe the overflow of freshwater onto the sea ice surface in the Mackenzie Delta and to investigate the hydraulic behaviour of the upwelling and strudel events. This study was performed from the analysis of data collected during field investigations, from satellite images and from experimental laboratory studies. A forecasting method using the water level in the Mackenzie River was formulated to predict the overflow initiation about five days before its occurrence. The physical modelling of a strudel flow through a circular hole established a relation between the overflow depth and the discharge coefficient. Velocity measurements of the free-surface vortex using an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter found that velocities at the vortexs core were influenced by its vorticity. Finally, predictions of maximum strudel scour, which are of great importance for the determination of burial depth of pipelines, were predicted from published impinging jet experiments. / Water Resources Engineering

In this thesis, the phenomenon of flow-topography interaction is considered in the context of two dynamically distinct case studies. In the first study, tidally-driven upwelling is investigated usingfield data collected in Hydrographers Passage (20????S), a narrow, navigable channel in the dense outer reef matrix of the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. In the second study, island wake formations at Cato Island (155????32????E, 23????15????S) in the deep, Western Coral Sea are examined using a combination of field data and numerical experiments. The result of the Hydrographers Passage study are of considerable scientific interest since they apply to numerous smaller non-navigable reef-edge passages dotted throughout the southern Great Barrier Reef. Strong, semi-diurnal flood tides flowing through a gap in a distal patch reef system at the shelf break generate strong upwelling, providing a pulsed, semi-diurnal input of nutrients to the reefs offshore of the passage. If stable in the long term, this mechanism could have profound evolutionary implications for large reefal areas in the southern Great Barrier Reef. In the second study, two sets of field observations at Cato Island coincided with conditions of strong (~0.7m s-1), vertically sheared incident currents and weaker (~0.3m s-1), more variable incident flows. The combination of dynamically distinct flow regimes and a tall, steep-sided island penetrating oligotrophic surface waters provides a unique opportunity to investigate the impact of island wakes on hydrographic structure and biological enhancement. Field data indicate that flow disturbances downstream of Cato Island are likely to generate biological enhancement during conditions of eddy shedding and non-shedding wakes. A primitive equation numerical model configured on the basis of field observations faithfully reproduces the key features of both data sets; mechanisms responsible for producing these key features are proposed. Previous numerical studies of island wakes have concentrated primarily on eddy shedding flows. In this thesis, the sub-critical (non-shedding) flow scenario is also considered. It is demonstrated that particle retention in island wakes has a ????hair trigger???? characteristic controlled by incident flow speed. This observation leads to a new proposal to explain the long-standing recruitment problem of biological oceanography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. James J. O'Brien, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Oceanography. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 8, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 87 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 1980. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-111).

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 1975. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-75).