Transcript Climate change effects on giant kelp forests Long-term

UCSB Marine Climate Observations
Dave Siegel, Libe Washburn, Dan Reed, Carter Ohlmann,
Melanie Fewings, Jenn Caselle, Mark Brzezinski
University of California, Santa Barbara
UCSB Marine Climate Obs
• Plumes & Blooms - bio-optics
– Siegel PI - 1996 to present
• Santa Barbara Coastal LTER - kelp forest
– Reed PI - 2000 to present
• PISCO - fish/invert recruitment
– Caselle/Gaines/Warner - 1999 to present
• PO Observatory - HF radar, shallow moorings
• F3 - Modeling of connectivity in SoCal Bight
– UCSB/UCLA collaboration
Stormwater Plumes
WiFS-LwN(555)
February 15, 1998 - El Niño Floods
Upwelling Control of Blooms
Plumes & Blooms Program
• Understand, predict & utilize changes in
ocean color in the Santa Barbara Channel
• Monthly day cruises
(7 stations)
• Field observations started in 1996 (future = ??)
• Measurements
– CTD/optics (LwN(l), a(l), b(l), bbb(l), PSD, etc.)
– NUTs, Chl, HPLC pigments, DOC, DIC, pSi, etc.
– Satellite acquisition & analysis
– Shortly glider observations…
PnB Sampling
Program
Cross-channel SST
(Station 1 off Campus Point)
Station 4 Profile
(channel center)
www.icess.ucsb.edu/PnB
The SBC-LTER Conceptual Framework
The SBC-LTER Conceptual Framework
From current SBC LTER proposal (sbc.lternet.edu)
Climate change effects on
giant kelp forests
Long-term measurements
Primary production:
• Giant kelp biomass, stoichometry, & net primary production
 monthly at 3 sites since 2002
Community structure and foodweb dynamics
• Abundance and diversity of algae, invertebrates and fish
 annually at 11 sites since 2001 & twice per season at 4 sites since 2009
Environmental variables measured
• Temperature, nutrients, salinity, bottom irradiance, swell ht. & period
 ranges from minutes to months since 2000 depending on variable
Notable findings
• Disturbance from waves overwhelms bottom-up and top-down forcing of net
primary production by giant kelp
• Increases in the frequency of intense wave disturbance simplifies kelp forest
food webs by preferentially removing foundation species
Regional Kelp Dynamics in the SB
Channel (1984-2009)
El Nino
CV = 87%
El Nino
Biomass (kg)
Regional Giant Kelp Biomass
Landsat 5 assessment of giant kelp canopy biomass
30 m spatial resolution
Validated with SBC LTER biomass (R2 = 0.65)
mean
AQUE Occupancy %
MOHK Occupancy %
Enables kelp forest assessments on range of scales
Landsat 5 is still operating…
West coast surface current mapping network
- nearly continuous coverage
along US west coast
- hourly observations
- 2-6 km spatial resolution
- time series length to ~10 yr
- coverage extends ~150 km offshore
- most data available online
Buoyant Poleward Flows
Physical Oceanographic Data Sets Collected at
UCSB
Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans/
NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary
1999-present, ~15-m isobath
Water velocity (ADCP), T, larval settlement
Santa Barbara Channel LTER
2001-present, 8-15-m isobath
Water velocity (ADCP), T, S, pressure,
nutrients, chl, +...
Plumes and Blooms
~Monthly CTD casts, optical profiles
Other PO Data Sets
Used at UCSB
PISCO Kelp Forest Monitoring
- SCUBA surveys of all dominant organisms in kelp forests
(fishes, inverts, algae & habitat)
- Annually since 1999
- Includes size structure and recruitment of fishes and select invertebrates
- Inside and outside of MPAs
www.piscoweb.org
PISCO Settlement and Recruitment monitoring
- SMURFs (Standardized Monitoring Units for Recruitment of Fishes), brushes,
tuffies and other artificial collectors: sample fishes, urchins, crabs, mussels
- Biweekly sampling since 2000
- April-November
- Other sites in So Cal & Cen Cal have been sampled over the years by partners
PISCO
www.piscoweb.org
Flow, Fish & Fishing Biocomplexity
• Examine interconnections among flow, fish stocks & fishing
in the SoCal Bight - Siegel, Costello, Kendall, Gaines & Warner
• Key: quantify nearshore connectivity
• Off-line Lagrangian experimentation for 1996 to 2008
• Collaboration with Dong & McWilliams [UCLA]
Flow, Fish & Fishing Biocomplexity
From Watson et al. MEPS [2010]
• Enables spatial fishery/conservation modeling, analysis of roles
of connectivity in community structure & pop genetics, etc.
• Integral part of the MPLA’s MPA assessment for SoCal Bight
Thanx…