NearPRISM: Addressing the 'missing' fringe

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NearPRISMAddressing the 'missing' fringe"

• Charles (Si) Simenstad
• Chair, PRISM Nearshore Working Group
  (NearPRISM)
• Wetland Ecosystem Team
• School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
• University of Washington

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NEARSHORE the critical, concentrated estuarine
and shoreline interface between watersheds and
Puget Sound
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MM5 Atmospheric Circulation Model Hydrometeorologi
cal Modeling and Forecast Working Group - AARM
Project Conducts research on issues related to
precipitation, snow, and stream flow modeling,
forecasting, and verification in the Puget Sound
region.
Puget Sound River History Project Developing an
environmental history of Puget Sound Rivers to
provide context and guidance for river
rehabilitation and restoration efforts in the
region.
Physical Template Working Group Constructing a
digital data framework that integrates the
various numeric models and serve as the backbone
of the PRISM integrated model.
UEM Urban Ecosystems Model Human Dimension
Working Group UrbanSim Project Developing an
integrated model of urban development and
environmental processes in the Puget Sound
Region.
DHSVM Distributed Hydrology Soils and Vegetation
Model Hydrological Working Group distributed
hydrological model developed as a collaborative
effort between hydrologists at the University of
Washington and Battelle Memorial Institute.
Nearshore Working Group - NearPRISM Developing
information on estuarine and nearshore processes
and environments that can be integrated into the
emerging PRISM synthesis of the Puget Sound
Basin.
POM Princeton Oceanographic Model Puget Sound
Dynamics Working Group Developing a better
scientific understanding of physical, chemical,
and biological processes in Puget Sound's marine
waters and their relationship to water quality,
food-webs, climate variation and human impact.
Water Resources Model Water Resources Management
Working Group - CRYSTAL Project Creating a
framework that facilitates the evaluation of
water resource alternatives based on their
ability to supply water for both people and the
natural environment (water for fish and folks).
Education Using this PRISM information and
understanding as the framework for an Education
Program.
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• What is this nearshore fringe?
• Why is it important?
• What are the issues concerning nearshore Puget
  Sound?
• How is NearPRISM approaching our gaps in
  knowledge and PRISM?
• NearPRISM initiatives

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Definition downstream from the upstream limits
of tidal influence of any river or stream
entering Puget Sound, to the western limit of the
Strait of Juan de Fuca, including those adjacent
uplands that directly affect nearshore processes,
and encompassing intertidal and subtidal areas,
extending to the depth limits of the photic zone
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THE ESTUARINE-NEARSHORE CONTINUUM OF PHYSICS,
CHEMISTRY AND ECOLOGYMOSAIC
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ITS A SYSTEM

• Puget Sound estuarine-nearshore ecosystems
  function as continuum of interacting ecoscapes
  that are regulated or mediated to a large degree
  by physical processes
• functions are sustained by naturally dynamic
  hydrologic and geologic processes, that in turn
  influence biological, geochemical and ecological
  processes
• physiographic setting and geologic legacy
  delimits processes and ecosystem elements
• function is inappropriately ascribed to habitats
  important processes and biota encompass
  broad-scale ecoscapes

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If the integrating theme of PRISM is the movement
of water, the nearshore is the filter through
which all those upstream processes must interact
with Puget Sound
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WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR THE ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS OF
PUGET SOUND SHORELINES?

• climate?strong fluvial input
• macrotidal exchange
• dynamic mixing of fluvial-marine
• physical and chemical heterogeneity at multiple
  scales geologic legacy ? geomorphic mosaic
• sediment complexes, various sorting
• disturbance regime
• strong geochemical gradients, both horizontal
  and vertical
• connectivity to uplands
• diverse primary productivity (light, nutrients)

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ITS THE GEOPHYSICS, STUPID
Initial NearPRISM Conceptual Model
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IMPORTANT ESTUARINE AND NEARSHORE PROCESSES

• freshwater inflow
• estuarine/nearshore circulation
• sediment, detritus, and nutrient delivery
• primary and secondary productivity / food web
• organic production-direct consumption
• detritus source
• prey resources
• refuge structure
• organic matter and nutrient transformation and
  cycling
• bioactive particle formation
• nitrification/denitrification
• detritus processing
• physical disintegration
• microbial and biological decomposition
• drift cell sediment sources, transports and
  sinks
• substrate composition
• heat budget?

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THINGS WE KNOW

• biological communities strongly structured by
  interrelated physicochemical factors
• tidal inundation regime (elevation if youre
  stuck there!)
• salinity
• substrate structure
• grain size
• sorting
• geochemistry (oxygen, sulfide)
• sedimentation rate
• wave/current energy
• macrophytic structure
• certain valued species, such as salmon, utilize
  the nearshore extensively
• food web highly dependent upon detritus (dead,
  decaying organic material), mediated by microbial
  loop, in estuarine end of continuum, more by
  autotrophic processes at nearshore marine end
• detritus trapping, retention and (physical and
  biogeochemical) processing features
• peripheral sources of organic matter and direct
  food input

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NORTH FA-3
Thorndyke Bay
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PUGET SOUND PRIMARY PRODUCER BIOMASS AND
PRODUCTIVITY RATES
NEARSHORE
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(No Transcript)
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NEARSHORE FOOD WEBS
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FOR PACIFIC SALMON, LIFE IS JUST A CONTIMUUM OF
BOTTLENECKS!
(Simenstad and Fresh, unpubl.)
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• Eelgrass (Zostera marina) as fundamental
  nearshore segment in habitat continuum
  (ecoscape) of juvenile chum salmon in Hood
  Canal
• migratory corridor
• refuge from predation
• foraging habitat

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Forage Fish
Surf SmeltSand Lance
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STRESSORS ON NEARSHORE PUGET SOUND

• Wetland diking and filling
• Shoreline armoring
• Dredging
• Water regulation (dams)
• Nutrient loading / eutrophication
• Fish migration (barriers)
• Exotic species
• Extraction/Harvest
• Contaminants
• Sea level rise
• Boat wakes
• Sediment loading?

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SHORELINE ARMORING
One critical question is whether, and under what
circumstances, bulkheaded shorelines starve
beaches of sand, and alter the biological
community structure utilized by juvenile salmon.
From Confluence (Winter 2001 Vol. 51)
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(JUST SOME OF THE) THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW

• What is the level of physical dynamics that
  determines a stable benthic biological
  community? What is a natural mosaic?
• How sensitive are mixed sediment beach profiles
  to variations in sediment distributions, and
  frequency of inputs?
• How do we predict long- and offshore changes in
  sediment recharge material over time?
• What is the role of nearshore biological
  structure, such as eelgrass and macroalgae?
  Conversely, what are the energy-sediment
  requirements for them to persist?
• What are the bio-physical responses of beaches
  to coastal structures? Under what circumstances?
• How strongly is the nearshore coupled to the
  pelagic zone?...to the upland?
• What long-term, natural variability in nearshore
  processes and structure?
• What is the function of large woody debris
  (LWD), in place or via disturbance?
• What is the importance of seepage through
  barrier beaches?
• How do nekton, especially migrating salmon,
  respond to varying ecoscape structure, e.g.,
  connectivity?
• How do intertidal forage fishes select spawning
  beaches? Does it matter?
• What are the tidal geometry relationships for
  dendritic channel systems in emergent marshes?

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MOST IMPORTANT.
we need a process understanding of a highly
integrated system
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NEARSHORE PRISM WORKING GROUP The Nearshore PRISM
Working Group (NearPRISM) is composed of
University of Washington scientists and technical
personnel from local, state and federal
government resource management agencies and
private research laboratories. (see
http//www.prism.washington.edu/lc/PSNEAR/) Ultima
tely, NearPRISM seeks to better understand and
predict the consequences of human activity and
long-term change on the estuarine-nearshore
ecosystems of Puget Sound.
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• WORKING GROUP MEMBERS
• Chair Charles (Si) Simenstad
• Wetland Ecosystem Team
• School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
• University of Washington
• Primary Working Group Members
• Jeff Cordell, Alan Devol, Miles Logsdon, Linda
• Maxson, Chuck Nittrouer, Jan Newton University
  of Washington
• Hugh Shipman, Cinde Donoghue Washington
  Department Of Ecology
• Tom Mumford Washington Department of Natural
  Resources
• Kurt Fresh National Oceanic and Atmospheric
  Administration
• Doug Bulthuis Padilla Bay National Estuarine
  Research Reserve
• Randy Shuman, Jim Brennan METRO King County
• Ron Thom Battelle Marine Science Laboratory

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• APPROACH TO PROBLEM
• address critical geochemical and ecological
  interface presently under-represented in PRISM
• capture important sedimentological and
  hydrological influences on nearshore functions
  and processes
• key to understanding of anthropogenic influences
  on nearshore physical and biological processes
• prominent role in integrity of ESA-listed Puget
  Sound salmon stocks

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GOALS Develop a technical understanding of
estuarine and nearshore processes and
environments that can be integrated into the
emerging PRISM synthesis of the Puget Sound
Basin. Comprehensive to develop a functionally
discrete nearshore module to PRISM that
represents the unique attributes and processes
that constitute the dynamic land-margin
interface between Puget Sound and its
watersheds Short-term design scientifically-soun
d management tools to assess cumulative impact of
anthropogenic actions on integrity of nearshore
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NearPRISM Objectives

• formulate an estuarine/nearshore conceptual model
  for PRISM
• geochemical processing of nutrients and organic
  matter, primary production, fish and wildlife
  habitat, etc. at the Puget Sound land margin
• explore an ecosystem-based assessment methodology
  for nearshore processes
• takes into account physical (e.g.,
  geomorphological, sedimentological and
  hydrological controls on nearshore ecological and
  geochemical processes that occur on landscape
  scales rather than property line or other
  artificial/jurisdictional scales
• promote acquisition of high-resolution nearshore
  spatial data
• needed for PRISM nearshore model, the nearshore
  functional assessment, and evaluation of critical
  habitat for Puget Sound resources
• provide coordination focus for UW research
  projects that are at the moment independently
  addressing many of these issues

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Initial NearPRISM Conceptual Model
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NearPRISM Sediment Transport
                 
 
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CURRENT RESEARCH FUNDING AND INITIATIVES

• 2001-2003 Washington Sea Grant support of
  numerical model development
• Ph.D. student to develop general numerical model
  of shoreline sediment dynamics
• Dedicated on-campus time involvement of state
  resource managers
• 2002-2003 CASI image analyses
• Analyze hyperspectral (CASI) mapping of Hood
  Canal intertidal landscape structure for
  correspondence with wind/wave energy and other
  shoreline characteristics
• 2001-2002 PSNERP-NST support
• Participation in PSNERP Nearshore Science Team
• Assist in providing critical data and analyses
• 2002 USGS collaboration
• Assist in planning USGS research initiative
• 2003-2005 Washington Sea Grant support of
  eelgrass landscape research
• Investigate juvenile chum salmon response to
  variable intertidal eelgrass landscapes in Hood
  Canal

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Beach Monitoring Program David Finlayson, Ocean
Ph.D graduate student
West Point Fetch
A comprehensive monitoring program at Cama beach
was begun in the Spring of 2002 when a 5 km
stretch of beach was surveyed by specially
equipped jet skis. In the Summer of 2002 low
altitude color air phtotographs were taken
followed two weeks later by a high-resolution
bathymetric LIDAR flight (SHOALS). Wave, tide and
weather instrumentation have been in place since
September 2002 and regular beach and sediment
monitoring is ongoing.
Annual Wind Direction
North
Both classic wave hindcasting (SMB) and modern
3rd generation wave models (SWAN) coupled to the
MM5 atmospheric forecasting model are planed.
These models will be used for assessing the
impact of annual and decadal climate on sediment
transport and beach erosion.
E
W
South
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2004-2006 WSG Research On Behavioral Response
of Juvenile Salmon to Eelgrass Landscape Structure
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The Gaps, and the Problems, Remain at the Fringe!