Table of Contents

• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

Note: This dataset is identical to SECM_CTD_points, however, this version is configured so that the data can be plotted as a time series in the MapServer interface (data for individual cruises cannot be mapped). To map the data by cruise number, see SECM_CTD_points.

This coastal monitoring study in the northern region of southeastern Alaska, known as the Southeast Coastal Monitoring Project (SECM), was initiated in 1997 and repeated from 1998 to 2006 (Orsi et al. 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002) to develop our understanding of the relationships between annual time series of biophysical data and stock-specific information.

CTD data was collected in conjunction with juvenile salmon studies in the Gulf of Alaska from 1997-2006 by the Southeast Coastal Monitoring Project.

The CTD data were collected with a Sea-Bird1 SBE 19 Seacat profiler to 200 m or within 10 m of the bottom. Surface (3-m) temperature and salinity data were collected at 1-minute intervals with an onboard thermosalinograph (Sea-Bird SBE 21).

Surface (bucket) and 20-m (Niskin bottle) water samples were taken once at each station for later nutrient and chlorophyll analysis.

To quantify ambient light levels, light intensities (W * m-2) were recorded at each station with a Li-Cor Model 189 radiometer.

To quantify relative water clarity, the CTD was used in lieu of a Secchi disk; depth measurements (m) were made by observing the visual disappearance of the CTD following deployment.

Also see related SECM datasets:
station data
nutrients
zooplankton
fish catch data
fish length and stomach contents

Station Codes:

Use constraints: User must read and fully comprehend the metadata prior to use. User must acknowledge the Originator when using the data set as a source. User must share data products developed using the source data set with the Originator. Data should not be used beyond the limits of the source scale.

Program in a Nutshell

Goal: To understand the effects of climate variability and climate change on the distribution, abundance and production of marine animals (including commercially important living marine resources) in the eastern North Pacific. To embody this understanding in diagnostic and prognostic ecosystem models, capable of capturing the ecosystem response to major climatic fluctuations.

Approach: To study the effects of past and present climate variability on the population ecology and population dynamics of marine biota and living marine resources, and to use this information as a proxy for how the ecosystems of the eastern North Pacific may respond to future global climate change. The strong temporal variability in the physical and biological signals of the NEP will be used to examine the biophysical mechanisms through which zooplankton and salmon populations respond to physical forcing and biological interactions in the coastal regions of the two gyres. Annual and interannual variability will be studied directly through long-term observations and detailed process studies; variability at longer time scales will be examined through retrospective analysis of directly measured and proxy data. Coupled biophysical models of the ecosystems of these regions will be developed and tested using the process studies and data collected from the long-term observation programs, then further tested and improved by hindcasting selected retrospective data series.

U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea.

The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently had major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBEC was a major contributor to International GLOBEC efforts in the Southern Ocean and Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).