This project is intended to provide physical and biological measurements that may be used to assess bottom-up impacts on the marine ecosystems of Prince William Sound. Specifically, it will deploy an autonomous profiling mooring in central Prince William Sound that will provide high frequency (~daily) depth-specific measurements of physical (temperature, salinity, turbidity), biogeochemical (nitrate, phosphate and silicate) and biological (Chlorophyll-a concentration) parameters that will be telemetered out in near real-time. Several regular vessel surveys will also be conducted to provide ground-truth data for the mooring, and to attempt to capture some of the spatial variability in PWS. As well as the mooring site, the surveys will visit all four of the bays focused on by the SEA project in the 1990 to maintain ongoing time series measurements at those sites and to support herring research in the area. The major entrances (Hinchinbrook Entrance and Montague Strait) will also be visited. The surveys will make the same suite of measurements as the mooring, and will also collect water and plankton samples.
