A compiled data product of profile, discrete biogeochemical measurements from 35 individual cruise data sets collected from a variety of ships in the southern Salish Sea and northern California Current System (Washington state marine waters) from 2008-02-04 to 2018-10-19

by Simone R. Alin¹, Jan Newton², Dana Greeley¹, Beth Curry², Julian Herndon³, Alex Kozyr⁴ and Richard A. Feely¹

¹Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, Washington, USA
²Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
³Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
⁴National Centers for Environmental Information, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

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Figure caption

Map of study area, with regions coded using different symbols and cruise station numbers included. “Puget Sound” cruises cover these areas of the southern Salish Sea: Admiralty Reach (red squares), Hood Canal (blue circles), Whidbey Basin (purple diamonds), and Main Basin and South Sound (green triangles, with South Sound stations being 34–38). “Sound-to-Sea” cruises occupied some or all of the stations along the red line (white circles). In some publications, these station numbers are given with a preceding “P”—the station numbers are identical, however (see the NANOOS Salish Cruise app Map tab for full station name information: http://nvs.nanoos.org/CruiseSalish).

Abstract

Acidification patterns in coastal and estuarine environments are challenging to characterize and attribute using moored time-series alone because lateral, depth, and time patterns are complex and have multiple drivers, including circulation, biology, regional weather, and large-scale climate oscillations. Cruise time-series can provide spatial context to data sets with higher temporal resolution, provide invaluable validation for numerical simulations, and frame biological experiments and observations with information about relevant environmental complexity. This time-series of 35 cruise data sets (See Table below) extending through the southern Salish Sea and into Washington’s northern coastal waters spans the years 2008–2018, including strong recent ocean condition anomalies, with sampling depths from the seawater surface to near-bottom water masses. Two predominant sampling patterns are present across the cruises: 1) Puget Sound stations, wherein all basins within the sound and across the sill at its inlet are sampled. These cruises have recurred regularly in April, July, and September since 2014. 2) “Sound-to-Sea” cruises, associated with servicing the Ćháʔba· ocean acidification mooring off La Push, Washington, include sampling at a suite of CTD stations located between Seattle and the mooring site off the coast, occurring most frequently in May and October. A subset of stations (7, 22, and 28) belong to both Puget Sound and Sound-to-Sea cruises. Biological sample collection has also been conducted regularly since 2014 at a subset of stations (in the Salish Sea: 4, 8, 12, 22, 28, 38, 402, and on the coast at station 381), although biological data are not included in the data sets described here. Observations include bottle sample analyses of total alkalinity; dissolved inorganic carbon, nutrient (nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, phosphate, silicate), and oxygen content concentrations (mg or µmol per L units) and (µmol per kg units); and CTD sensor measurements of temperature, salinity (via conductivity), and oxygen at bottle sample depths where Niskin bottles collected seawater. Within this data package, we see the long-lasting effects of the Northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2013–2015 and the El Niño of 2015–2016 on the temperature profiles of the southern Salish Sea, with contemporaneous changes in the inorganic carbon system. Further details on methods and findings from the Salish cruise time-series will be presented in upcoming publications that will be added to the page when available. This time-series from cruises in Washington’s estuarine and coastal waters is known collectively as “the Salish cruises,” and full-resolution CTD data corresponding for Salish cruises dating back to 1998 can be found at http://nvs.nanoos.org/CruiseSalish flux is then computed using a standard bulk formula.