RESEARCH SUMMARIES

RESEARCH SUMMARIES

Contracts and Grants Administered

July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2008

Andrew Ballantine 1/3/2006 - 1/2/2008 $58,778

Oliver Chadwick 1/25/2007-1/26/2008 $59,895

US Geological Survey, 06CRSA0068 (BAP01)

US Geological Survey, 07CRSA0146 (BAP02)

Inventory of North American Dust Sources

This project will focus on the synthesis of data bearing on North American dust-source areas and will provide documentation of major dust storms that have occurred within the past decade. The data synthesis includes collaborations on interpretations of conditions that promote or suppress dust emission. The end result will be a database that can be searched by a range of key variables such as date of event, location, geographic region, likely source landform, etc. As an essential component of this work, each source type will be classified by landform (e.g., playa, loess deposit, outwash plain, etc.) to help identify the role of geomorphology and soils in dust emissions at the regional scale. The type of weather event generating the dust storm will also be identified to aid in the prediction of dust events based on their atmospheric drivers.

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Oliver Chadwick 9/15/2004-9/14/2007 $72,000

Nina Kilham

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG04GQ81H (MLN04)

Fellowship: Quantifying Connectivity Between Floodplain Overbank Sedimentation and Patterns of Inundation Hydrology, Implications for Contaminant Transport on Large Rivers

Spatially distributed datasets of sediment deposition on floodplains are limited, constraining numerical modeling of this process. I am using two remotely derived datasets to model floodplain deposition from three recent floods on the Feather River, Northern California. LiDAR topographic data provides the base for the floodplain flow and sediment transport model (TELEMAC), and maps of surface suspended sediment concentration (mg/L) derived from Landsat and SPOT reflectance data are being used as inputs to and for verification of the model. These two datasets are expected to improve the numerical model predictions by specifically accounting for the known influence of floodplain microtopography, and the spatially varying patterns of sediment in transport. Model results will also be compared to rates and patterns of floodplain deposition measured from a ²¹⁰Pb analysis of cores collected at several locations on the floodplain. The fate of contaminants associated with fine sediment mirrors the patterns of sediment deposition, and thus methods such as these can be used to identify locations of contaminant deposition in sensitive riparian ecosystems.

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Chris Costello 9/1/2004-8/31/2009 $181,357

Stanford University, 13260830-30242-E (CCJP02)

Linking human and biophysical processes in coastal marine ecosystems of Baja California

The objective of this research is to understand the factors primarily responsible for the success or failure of small-scale fisheries off Baja California, Mexico. Two prototypical fisheries that will be examined are the lobster and abalone. The lobster fishery has seen record, seemingly sustainable catches in recent years, while abalone seem to be on a trajectory towards economic extinction. UCSB will focus on the modeling efforts for this research, including developing simulation-based bioeconomic models as well as econometric (statistical) empirical models.

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Christopher Costello 2/1/2008-1/31/2009 $80,000

Charles Kolstad

University of California, 500-07-017-01 (CCJP03)

An Estimate of Market and Non-Market Impacts of Climate Change on the Forest Ecosystems in California

Climate change will alter the productivity of California’s timberlands by changing species composition and growth. How these changes will impact the state depend on multiple factors, including climate change impacts within the state, changes in timber prices due to climate change, and impacts of land use change on private timber lands. This study will incorporate a multi-faceted biological and economic model to capture the most important drivers of this change.

The methods used in this study will build on the approach taken by Mendelsohn (2003), with improvements through incorporating information from multiple biological models, particularly a species-based model of biological effects of climate change. We will use estimates of land use change available within the biological model to improve on the previous assumption of no changes in land use. Both public and private timberlands will be encompassed in the study.

The biological model will generate information on species composition at a site, with volume being estimated from age class and net primary productivity. The economic model takes this information and develops estimates of economic change in a multi-stepped process. First, timber harvests and net revenues are calculated under a baseline case of no climate change as a reference. In the baseline case we assume that forest productivity in each region of the state will remain constant. In calculating the impact of climate change on timber markets, we look at species with the highest timber value and volume across private and public timberlands as reported by the State Board of Equalization and other sources. These include ponderosa pine, hemlock and fir, and miscellaneous conifer. Where multiple species are aggregated under a general name, other sources will be used to estimate actual contribution of individual biological species. We then calculate average productivity of each species in each county by dividing harvests by acreage, and use those yield functions to estimate a rotation age for each species using timber harvest and value statistics also provided by the State.

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Chris Costello 9/1/2004-8/31/2009 $126,458

University of Washington, 892006 (CCJP01)

Developing Sustainable Fisheries by Coupling Natural and Human Components of Biocomplexity

The objective of this research is to better understand how heterogeneity in the life strategies of fish, coupled with heterogeneity in the strategies and dynamics of processors and fishermen, combine to affect the sustainability and long-run success of the Bristol Bay Alaska Salmon fisheries. Both analytical and simulation-based models of fishery management under uncertainty with heterogeneous actors will be developed, and will extend current work using dynamic stochastic programming to solve these kinds of problems. In addition, the team will run models of human (fisherman) behavior and the dynamics of fish processors. A key innovation of this research is the integration of uncertainty, optimal harvesting, and individual dynamics of the agents involved.

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Frank Davis 5/1/2004-3/31/2008 $146,976

Cal Conservation Development, MGC-04-02B (DFP37)

Dynamic Ecosystem Modeling for California

This project is one component of a PIER-funded effort to model biotic response to climate change in California. This work will complement and integrate with work being performed by other parts of the PIER-funded team, including the South African team responsible for the development of the model itself. The overall goal of the effort is the development of the BioMove model to a fully operational, fully tested and parameterized model for impact prediction in six target ecosystems in California. The work to be performed at UCSB will focus on data gathering and parameterization of the BioMove model and working closely with the South African team to iteratively test the model with the parameterization data.

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Frank Davis 11/1/2006-Fixed Price $67,119

National Council for Science and the Environment, SB070067 (DFP41)

A distributed graduate seminar to analyze the priorities, obstacles and opportunities that exist for the implementation of U.S. State wildlife action plans

In Fall 2007 we conducted a graduate seminar distributed across eight universities (Duke, Michigan, Indiana, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Idaho, Northern Arizona, UCSB, and Alaska-Fairbanks) to analyze State Wildlife Action Plans, or Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategies, and their initial implementation.

For most states, the Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy represents the first statewide synthesis of information on wildlife species, habitats, threats, conservation priorities and opportunities. Differences in approach, information quality, habitat classification and threat analysis make it impossible to amalgamate state plans to gain consistent regional or national views of conservation needs and priorities. Such views could be attained in the next planning cycle with a modest increase in standardization of information and multistate planning processes such as those that have already commenced in some regions.

Inadequate funding and a shortage of personnel severely limit the ability of state wildlife diversity programs to achieve the conservation goal of the State Wildlife Grants (SWG) program. Still, many states have creatively leveraged limited resources by using the planning process, published strategies, and SWG funds to strengthen partnerships and align conservation priorities with other agencies and NGOs. In doing so, these states have built political support for nongame and habitat-based conservation and have attracted new public and private conservation funding. The Nature Conservancy, Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in particular have been key partners in planning and implementation. The Doris Duke Conservation Fund has energized the implementation process and provided much needed additional funding.

Habitat loss to development is identified as a leading threat to wildlife in nearly all plans, but most states have had limited success engaging local governments or private land owners in wildlife action planning or implementation. Some states are undertaking innovative efforts to engage county and local governments or associations of county planners that may serve as models for other states. Some states, especially those states with little public land, have expanded incentive programs to engage private landowners.

Diverse constituencies look to the state wildlife agencies for leadership in addressing urgent conservation needs. Unless State Wildlife Grant or related funding is increased significantly, state wildlife diversity programs will maximize their impact in wildlife biodiversity conservation by exploiting overlap in game and nongame conservation and by catalyzing and coordinating conservation investments made by other organizations. To more effectively play this role, state programs would benefit from concerted training and capacity building in areas such as data integration, analysis and synthesis, conservation effectiveness monitoring, spatial planning support systems, grant writing, education and outreach.

Products from this project, including a final report and 3-6 page summaries of implementation in the 50 states and District of Columbia, are available via a project website at http://www.biogeog.ucsb.edu/SWAP/SWAP-home2.html.

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Frank Davis 1/15/2006-6/30/2008 $138,970

National Science Foundation, 0527286 (DFF02)

DHB - Collaborative Research: Modeling the Spatial Dynamics and Environmental and Resource Impacts of U.S. Metropolitan Growth and Change

Between now and 2050, the population of the United States will likely grow by 120 million people according to the middle-series projections published by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Census Bureau periodically expends significant time and effort projecting how many Americans there will be in the future and what demographic and ethnic groups they may belong to – and for the most part, it does so with enviable transparency and accuracy. What the Census Bureau does not do, indeed cannot do, is figure out where and how these future Americans will live, work and play.

In many ways, the where and how side of the future may be more important than the how many side. To the extent that future spatial development patterns mirror those of the recent past, most of the increase in the U.S. population will occur at the edges of existing metropolitan areas, and at densities that are substantially below those of older cities and regions. This decentralized, suburban form of population and job growth will put ever greater pressure on existing infrastructure systems, on the natural ecology, on existing governance structures, and on existing urban communities – just as it has for the last 100 years. Should the spatial pattern of population growth instead favor existing metropolitan centers, the issues will be different, though no less pressing.

Understanding and projecting future development locations and forms has never been a major national priority in the U.S. It has generally been left to city, county, and now, in some instances, metropolitan governments to figure out where and how they are likely to grow. A few states have tried to address issues of spatial development, either as a matter of resource conservation or infrastructure planning, but such inquiries are usually occasional, are rarely enduring, and even more rarely, are informed by social science. Except for a very few cases (Fulton, Pendall, Nguyen, and Harrison 2001; Galster 2001), there have been no national studies of the spatial extent, patterns and impacts of population growth in America. Popular discussions to the contrary, the spatial drivers and dimensions of sprawl, neighborhood change, resource loss, and urban revitalization – and the degree to which such patterns and drivers are common across different regions and metropolitan areas – remain poorly understood. This project seeks to remedy this situation by: (i) Building a comprehensive national spatial database for measuring the extent, patterns, and environmental and resource impacts of metropolitan population growth in America; (ii) Using that database to statistically identifying key and common drivers of metropolitan growth across all continental U.S. regions and metropolitan areas; (iii) Building a series of GIS-based models for projecting and simulating alternative future patterns and densities of U.S. population growth; and, (iv) Exploring the impacts of at least three alternative development scenarios on the natural landscape and ecology, on urban energy and water use, and on vehicle miles of travel – a major correlate with urban air pollution.

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Frank Davis 8/1/2005-7/31/2008 $57,758

University of California, MCA-016796-01 (DFP40)

Adaptive management of Phytophthora ramorum in the Big Sur Ecoregion

This project will focus on the impacts of sudden oak death on ecosystem composition and dynamics by examining changes in forest cover and recruitment over the Big Sur area due to P. ramorum-associated tree mortality and other processes. This will be accomplished using the plot network established to meet other project objectives. Additionally, changes in forest composition due to cascading effects of P. ramorum establishment will also be documented and other researchers will be encouraged to utilize the plot/monitoring network to examine additional ecological hypotheses with a range of organisms.

To document landscape change, archival panchromatic aerial photographs held by UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara map libraries will be digitally scanned, geo-referenced to match USGS digital ortho-rectified photos, and integrated into a GIS for mapping and spatial analysis. Within the GIS, we will measure the area and spatial arrangement (e.g. density, patchiness, connectivity) of forest cover and different land uses as will be done for the recent aerial imagery. From these datasets, we will statistically examine the nature and degree to which historical forest cover and land use contrast current conditions.

Impacts caused by P. ramorum must be put into context with other historical and current agents that influence the dynamics of these forests. To do so we will expand plot sampling for plant community structure and composition into areas with and without P. ramorum in a hierarchical chronosequence design across topoclimatic gradients (local scale) and vegetation mosaics (landscape scale). The sampling will include mixed evergreen forests of the Los Padres National Forest from the southern limit in the Santa Ynez Mountains to the Carmel area. Stratified samples will be allocated based on fire history records, archival photography, and GIS information on geology, soils, land cover and topography (elevation, modeled radiation and water flow accumulation paths). Plot sampling will include cover of all vascular species and will follow USFS procedures for ecosystem analysis and classification. Community composition will be quantified and contrasted using multivariate ordination and classification methods. Community composition and dynamics will also be evaluated in terms of the landscape metrics described previously.

Changes in SOD-affected sites have the potential to affect subsequent disturbance dynamics in adjacent undisturbed areas as well. To explore these ideas, plant community and tree population dynamics in SOD-affected and SOD-free areas will be modeled using plot and photo data, markov transition models and stage-based leslie matrices. These quantitative models will help in conceptualizing the forest ecosystem for devising and comparing alternative adaptive management strategies.

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Frank Davis 12/15/2004-12/14/2007 $390,000

David Stoms

US Department of Agriculture, 2005-35401-15320 (DFP39)

Cost-effective Farmland Preservation: A Framework for Collaborative Planning in Rural Communities

Many rural communities facing the loss of their agricultural heritage use market interventions such as conservation easements. Simple scoring methods are often used to rank farms for conservation action. These methods generally do not consider all the benefits that farmland provides nor do they appropriately measure the expected benefit of conservation action to achieve social goals cost-effectively. They also tend to be rigid in applying scientific information so that it is difficult to address competing social values in a collaborative planning process. The specific objective of this mission-related proposal is to refine and evaluate a conceptual framework we had developed previously that addresses multifunctional benefits of agricultural. We are developing GIS-based methodology for all criteria for farmland conservation value and improving the multicriteria evaluation methods for combining criteria scores. The project addresses two USDA issues 1) Agricultural Opportunity and Rural Prosperity (threats to rural communities and opportunities to preserve their character) and 2) Natural Resources and Environmental Quality (maintaining ecosystem values provided by agricultural lands). With guidance from an advisory group, we will synthesize current understanding of the criteria important to society and develop GIS-based procedures for converting spatial data into criteria scores that represent that social value and how it varies over the landscape. We implemented these procedures in a case study with the Central Valley Farmland Trust in California. The advisory group will ensure that the methodology balances best available science with practicality for implementation.

Early in the project, we published two papers outlining the conceptual framework (Davis et al. 2006, Machado et al. 2006). We have submitted a manuscript to Land Use Policy that examines one particular criteria of farmland preservation, namely its role in augmenting urban growth management policies. In that paper, we quantify how strategically 157 agricultural conservation easements in the San Francisco Bay Area were located with respect to zoning, urban growth boundaries, and other public open space. Using the case study in California’s Central Valley, we have evaluated the relative cost-effectiveness of targeting strategies based on variations in the types and quality of information used to implement the framework. Our final analysis will model the relationship of agricultural conservation easements funded in part by the federal Farm and Ranchland Preservation Program and historical data on socio-economic variables of the counties in which they are located. We also intend to apply the statistical model to current socio-economic data to predict where farmland preservation may spread in the next decade. Papers published or in preparation are listed below:

Davis, F. W., C. J. Costello and D. M. Stoms. 2006. Efficient conservation in a utility-maximization framework. Ecology and Society 11: 33. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art33/.

Machado, E. A., D. M. Stoms, F. W. Davis, and J. Kreitler. 2006. Prioritizing farmland preservation cost-effectively for multiple objectives. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 61: 250-258.

Stoms, D. M., P. A. Jantz and F. W. Davis. Strategic targeting of agricultural conservation easements as a growth management tool. Submitted to Land Use Policy.

Stoms, D. M., J. Kreitler and F. W. Davis. In preparation. The power of information for cost-effective conservation.

Stoms, D. M., G. DeAngelo, and F. W. Davis. In preparation. Socio-economic patterns and predictions of farmland preservation.

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Frank Davis 7/1/2007-12/31/2008 $60,000

US Geological Survey, 07HQAG0148 (DFU01)

A Distributed Graduate Seminar to Analyze the Priorities, Obstacles and Opportunities that Exist for the Implementation of U.S. State Wildlife Action Plans.

Products from this project, including a final report, 3-6 page summaries of implementation in the 50 states and District of Columbia, are available via a project website at http://www.biogeog.ucsb.edu/SWAP/SWAP-home2.html. We also intend to deliver a series of presentations to managers and practitioners and perhaps one or more easy-to-read pamphlets or briefs on specific topics. We were funded for about half the costs of the project through the National Council for Science and the Environment’s Wildlife Habitat Policy Research Program to operate the distributed graduate seminar. These additional funds from the Gap Analysis Program will primarily cover the expenses of the outreach portion of the project.

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Jeff Dozier 5/1/2008-7/31/2008 $33,359

Drexel University, 20081369 (DJP10)

Tasks to Support the WATERS Network.

Professor Dozier and his student, Annelen Kahl, will help produce a shorter, crisper version of the SEDDS document and help design a strategy for selecting the types of measurements and their locations for the eventual Network. The selection will require integration with geographic information systems, remote sensing, and surface data, with a need to categorize the types of drainage basins needed for a stratified sampling design.

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Jeff Dozier 2/1/2004-7/31/2009 $3,429,501

James Frew

Jiancheng Shi

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG04GC52A (DJN09)

Multi-Resolution Snow Products for the Hydrologic Sciences

For three decades satellite remote sensing instruments operating at visible, near-infrared, and microwave wavelengths have measured snow properties. In all snow products, and in remote sensing in general, there is a tradeoff between spatial resolution and swath width (and thus frequency of observations). Because most hydrologic applications require regular, frequent measurements, the instruments that provide the bulk of the data used have been AVHRR and MODIS in the optical part of the spectrum, with spatial resolutions of 1.1km and 500m at nadir, and the passive microwave sensors, with spatial resolutions of tens of kilometers. Because snow-covered area usually varies at a spatial scale finer than that of the resolution of the remote sensing instrument (i.e., the ground instantaneous field-of-view), this subpixel heterogeneity introduces artifacts into the measurements. The sensors usually measure radiation reflected or emitted from a mixture of snow, rock, soil, and vegetation. We contend that the errors introduced by subpixel heterogeneity can be systematic, and therefore they are not always eliminated by integrating over many pixels. We propose to develop a new set of products—snowcovered area, albedo, and snow-water equivalence—that fuse optical (MODIS, AVHRR) and microwave data (SSM/R, SSM/I, AMSR-E, and AMSR) and that incorporate spatial heterogeneity into the analysis. Data product creation and distribution will be provided through a local infrastructure for Earth science product management: a technology suite we call the Earth System Science Server (ES-cubed), an environment for managing the creation, maintenance, updating, and dissemination of Earth science data products.

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Jeff Dozier 4/1/2006-3/31/2009 $150,000

National Science Foundation, EAR-0537327 (DJF01)

Sintering in Snow and the Possible Role of Soluble Impurities

We examined well-sintered, mid-winter snow from Mammoth Mountain, California using an environmental scanning electron microscope equipped with cold stage. Ring-like filaments were observed at all grain boundaries in a highly sublimated, sputter-coated sample two days after collection, through filaments were much harder to find in uncoated samples. Filaments appeared in uncoated specimens from the same snow sample five months later, through x-ray microanalysis failed to detect soluble impurities in the filaments, grain boundary grooves or on ice grain surfaces above background noise levels. After eight months in storage and under forced sublimation in high vacuum, the same sample produced not only grain boundary filaments but complex, web-like structures, nodules and films that, in extreme cases, formed castings of completely sublimated snow grains. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry reveals that the filaments and webs are composed of the same set of light elements typical of the soluble impurities in Sierra snow. The spectra also reveal significant spatial variability in element ratios. Impurities probably concentrate in a quasi-liquid layer at the air/ice interface and in the disordered grain boundary region where crystal lattices are disoriented. If concentrated at grain boundaries these light elements could act as dopants, reducing grain boundary energy, reducing melting temperatures and promoting the sintering process.

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Jeff Dozier 9/1/2007-8/31/2008 $150,000

Office of Naval Research, N00244-07-1-0013 (DJO01)

Mountain Snow Cover, Albedo, and Space-Time Interpolation from Multispectral Sensors.

This project will improve mapping of snow cover and its albedo using multispectral sensors. The fundamental product is the fractional snow cover (i.e. the fraction of each pixel covered by snow) and its broadband albedo, derived from the grain size and contaminant amount. The main source of unclassified data is MODIS, NASA’s Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, but the methods would apply to any multispectral sensor with wavelength bands in the visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared. The technique we use is spectral unmixing, choosing a snow endmember that results in the smallest RMS error.

In addition to the snow cover and albedo mapped from a single image, we will also develop methods for space-time interpolation when we have a time series of images, for example daily MODIS data. Such interpolation is necessary because snow is dynamic, changing at a slower time scale than atmospheric phenomena but faster than other surface covers. Sensor noise, cloud cover, and viewing geometry all affect a single image, so a best estimate based on the time series is a more useful product. We use a combination of smoothing splines in the time dimension with q-hull interpolation in the spatial dimension.

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Jeff Dozier 9/1/2006-8/31/2008 $20,000

University of California, Merced, EAR-0326064 UCSB (DJP09)

Observation design in the mountain west: Scaling measurements and modeling in the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Nevada.

The primary tasks in this project involves the preparation of datasets, as follows:

Elevation map of the whole Sierra Nevada. Mainly, we will use data from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Data are available from the U.S. Geological Survey. Where there are shadows or gaps, we fill from NED 1983 data. For specific small-basin studies, we will include finer-resolution data available from the National Park Service or U.S. Forest Service.
Drainage basin delineations from best source, which currently appears to be the NHD Plus available from EPA/USGS. We will compare and calibrate these to the USGS EDNA data and will also incorporate finer-resolution delineations from NPS and USFS.
Snow course and snow pillow data from California Cooperative Survey for the full period of record through July 31, 2006. These will be cleaned to eliminate spikes, dips, and spurious zeroes.
Daily MODIS snow-covered area and albedo maps of the Sierra Nevada for the period October 1, 2003 through July 31, 2006.
Daily MODIS snow-covered area and albedo maps of the Sierra Nevada for the period October 1, 2003 through July 31, 2007.
Snow course and snow pillow data from California Cooperative Survey for the full period of record through July 31, 2007. These will be cleaned to eliminate spikes, dips, and spurious zeroes.
Snow-covered area from Landsat for about 30 scenes available for the period of record (since 1982) representing years from dry through wet.
Time-series analysis of MODIS snow-covered area, by elevation band and drainage basin (draft).
Time-series analysis of snow pillow data and annual intercomparisons (draft).
Snow-covered area from Landsat for about 60 scenes available for the period of record (since 1982) representing years from dry through wet.
Daily MODIS snow-covered area and albedo maps of the Sierra Nevada for the period October 1, 2003 through July 31, 2008.
Snow course and snow pillow data from California Cooperative Survey for the full period of record through July 31, 2008. These will be cleaned to eliminate spikes, dips, and spurious zeroes.
Time-series analysis of MODIS snow-covered area, by elevation band and drainage basin.
Time-series analysis of snow pillow data and annual intercomparisons.

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Tom Dunne 6/1/2006-5/31/2009 $1,400,000

Frank Davis

Hunter Lenihan

Bruce Kendall

CalFed Bay-Delta Program, U-05-SC-058 (TDW02/DFW05/LHW01/KBW01)

How Abiotic Processes, Biotic Processes, and Their Interactions Sustain Habitat Characteristics and Functions in River Channels and their Floodplains: An Investigation of the Response of a Gravel-Bed Reach of the Merced River to Restoration

Understanding how conservation and restoration interventions influence biological resources in California rivers is a key objective of state and federal resource agencies. The prevailing paradigm for river restoration within central California, and specifically within the California Bay-Delta Restoration Program, is that establishment of a naturalized, self-regulating, alluvial river channel, connected to its floodplain, will produce a cascade of benefits through the re-establishment of spawning and rearing conditions, initially for salmon, and coincidentally for the successful development of a number of other native aquatic, riparian, and floodplain organisms. Based upon decades of study by the community of aquatic ecologists and river restoration professionals in California, summarized in both the scientific literature and in various resource assessments and baseline survey reports [e.g. Stillwater Sciences, 2001, 2002; Trush et al., 2000], it has been proposed that a self-regulating alluvial river, supporting a diversity and abundance of native species including salmonids, has the following components:

• Unconstrained banks that allow the river channel to migrate laterally to create, maintain, and rejuvenate pools (rearing habitat), point bars (shallow margin rearing habitat), riffles (spawning habitat), and floodplains (riparian and terrestrial habitat).

• A gravel-bottomed river that is mobilized and redeposited frequently enough to destroy, create, and maintain sufficient spawning and rearing habitat.

• Temporal patterns of flow conditions, sediment loads, water quality, and water temperatures that favor the long-term survival of numerous native species whose life cycles are adjusted to these variations.

This conceptual framework constitutes the richest and most thoroughly elaborated paradigm available to river restoration professionals for re-establishing the linkages between what was formerly a dynamic physical environment and the biogeochemical and biological processes that yielded the biodiversity and productivity which are now diminished. However, it is essentially a qualitative model, conceptualized through comparative studies and informal observations in several rivers. We are not aware of any published quantitative study of the process linkages underlying this broad conceptual model. a fact that hinders its application to planning, design, and assessment of restoration projects. Now that some examples of the paradigm have been implemented, it is possible to use them to:

• refine and elaborate some of the original design concepts,

• answer questions about the desired biological responses by expanding studies of fish, invertebrates, and plants,

• quantify the strengths of the hypothesized linkages between abiotic and biotic processes as the river systems evolve after restoration,

• quantify how the reach-scale changes operate within the larger river systems in which they are nested.

The project utilizes a ~5 km long reach of the Merced River as an outdoor, natural-scale laboratory in which to observe, model, and test hypotheses about the linkages between geomorphic and hydrologic conditions and processes and the creation and maintenance of biological habitat.

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Thomas Dunne 11/15/2007-11/30/2011 $299,835

California Department of Water Resources, 4600007708 (TDW03)

San Joaquin River Restoration Program.

The California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) has responsibility for planning and executing restoration of channel habitat for fish along the San Joaquin River during the next several years. They anticipate needing to resolve a number of uncertainties about the sediment supply to the river, sediment transport, and channel form and mobility under a new, imposed flow regime. Our group is conducting research on these topics along a restored reach and an un-restored reach of the Merced River; the research is partly designed to yield useful concepts and models for application to other restored rivers. We will conduct a number of research projects including predicting and monitoring the response of the gravel reach and one sand-bed reach of the San Joaquin to planned alterations of the flow regime through releases of water from a reservoir. The projects will be conducted by UCSB graduate students and postdocs, who therefore will gain a variety of research experiences, including material useful for dissertations and publications, under Dunne’s guidance. The studies will concern only physical aspects of the river (flow and sediment).

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Tom Dunne 08/01/2005-10/31/2007 $49,643

John Melack

Ohio State University, 60003833 (TDP04)

Hydrologic Modeling of the Central Amazon Basin Using Remotely Sensed Data

This project includes selection and interferometric processing of archived JERS-1 data and a field campaign to measure floodplain water level changes. Selection of interferometric pairs will depend on interferometric temporal and physical baselines with a preference for the smallest physical baselines to help reduce any topographic phase signal and temporal baselines covering inundation and recessional periods. The field campaign will be conducted by a Brazilian colleague and will focus on key floodplain reaches, such as the Cabaliana region, and will include bi-weekly to monthly measurements of h/t at dozens of locations extending from the main channel to the backwater floodplain areas. Measurements will be recorded during four months of inundation and four months of recession. Together, these data sets will provide the temporal and spatial sequence of Qsv, for comparison to the spatially broader interferometric JERS-1 measurements of Qsv. The research involves: assembly in a GIS the layers for the vegetation classification map, SRTM DEM, flow paths, inundation area, TRMM precipitation maps, and GRACE measurements of gravity field changes.

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Michael Freeston 5/1/2006-6/30/2008 $171,767

INDECS, SB070043 (FMP01)

Assessment of Biometric Identification Techniques

As part of the world-wide effort to improve travel security, the next generation of identity documents – whether passports or identity cards – are required to be ‘biometrically enhanced’. Under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), international standards for these documents have been defined. In particular, facial feature comparison and recognition has been selected as the primary and mandatory biometric, with contactless ‘smart card’ chips as the storage and communication medium for the biometric information.

This presents numerous technical challenges, despite the fact that there has been considerable commercial and academic research effort in this area for a number of years. Major progress was stimulated by a Department of Defense initiative (FERET) as early as 1993 and, during the past two years, a ‘Face Recognition Grand Challenge’ sponsored by several US federal agencies. However, despite these on-going efforts, and the claims of the commercial vendors, the performance of biometric recognition systems still leaves much to be desired. This is evidenced by the series of comparative performance tests conducted over the past ten years by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to evaluate progress in the field. In this project, UCSB will begin focusing on this challenge by analysis of the current state of the art in facial verification and identification technologies, followed by an assessment of the most promising approaches to advancing the state of the art. Of particular interest is the problem of obtaining an accurate identification match in a database with a size of the order of national populations i.e. up to 1 billion people.

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James Frew 3/1/2004-8/31/2008 $1,350,000

Stéphane Maritorena

David Siegel

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG04GE66G (FJN03/SMN02)

Creating, Updating, and Distributing Merged Ocean Color Products

The purpose of this project is to develop a product-centric framework for creating global, unified data products from heterogeneous ocean color missions and sensors such as SeaWiFS, MODIS-Terra and MODIS-Aqua. Building on experiences gained through participation in the SIMBIOS project, we will merge individual mission determinations of daily level-3 water-leaving radiance in a semi-analytical model and produce a suite of unified ocean color data products. This approach takes advantage of spectral information provided by each satellite sensor and simultaneously produces three distinct science products (chlorophyll and coefficients for colored detrital material absorption and particulate backscatter). This will also account for uncertainty in the input mission data as well as producing uncertainty indices for the merged data products. The data products generated by the merging procedure will be validated against in situ data and by comparisons with single mission products. Science applications of the merged products will also serve to validate these new merged products and to demonstrate their utility. All aspects of model development, data sets comparison and validation will be documented and available to NASA/GSFC for implementation and the production of merged products for the complete EOS/NPP era. UCSB will interact and work with the GSFC group on merged products comparisons and the identification and fixing of incompatibilities between merged products from different approaches. This work will leverage technology developed by the Earth System Science Workbench ESIP and Snow REASoN projects. Specifically, our local algorithm development and testing will use the namespace, storage, workflow, and lineage (forward and backward traceability between original, intermediate, and final products and processes) management components of the Snow REASoN Earth System Science Server (ES3). We will interact and work with the GSFC group towards the deployment of these technologies, where appropriate, in the GSFC product generation systems.

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James Frew 10/1/2004-9/30/2009 $672,651

Greg Janée

National Science Foundation, IIS-0431166 (FJF02)

Collaborative Research: II: Integrating Digital Libraries and Earth Science Data Systems

Although two different protocols for content-based access to Earth science data, OPeNDAP and OGIS’ web services suite, now exist, there is no comprehensive data discovery capability associated with either; this despite the fact that OPeNDAP, the more heavily used of the two, is in broad use in Earth science communities associated with seasonal-to-interannual variability, land cover studies, meteorology, oceanography and sun-earth connections. Nor, to the best of our knowledge, does an integrated data location and access capability exist outside of the Earth sciences for highly distributed, heavily populated systems of data products based on voluntary participation. To address this problem, we propose integrating the Alexandria Digital Library (ADL), the world’s leading digital library for geospatial and georeferenced information, with OPeNDAP. Together, these technologies will allow a distributed network of independent information providers to support a single uniform interface for information discovery, evaluation, verification, and retrieval. In addition to addressing a specific problem that exists within the Earth sciences, the proposed research will address the more general problem of interpreting the same query according to each of these modalities - digital libraries and content-based access to data - so that a user (human or programmatic) will not have to make any conceptual leaps between them.

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Catherine Gautier 6/1/2004-5/31/2008 $678,000

Joel Michaelsen

Zhengming Wan

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG04GL20G (GCN15)

Properties and Diurnal Radiative Forcing of Mineral Aerosols over Deserts Using combined AIRS and MODIS and Ground-based Observations

Mineral aerosol’s impact on climate is believed to be significant, however the magnitude of the radiative forcing of mineral aerosols (dust) is not currently well known. Ground-based observations are recent and limited in coverage, and past satellite observations have a limited detection power for dust over the deserts where they are produced. Simulation studies with AIRS combined with observations from MODIS suggest that data from these two instruments have sufficient information to provide reliable dust properties over deserts. We shall determine the properties and diurnal radiative forcing of dust over deserts and the infrared emissivity of those desert surfaces using new retrieval algorithms applied to infrared radiance data from AIRS and MODIS on AQUA. The high spectral resolution of AIRS offers the ability to simultaneously solve for the surface temperature and surface emissivity in the infrared when the dust concentration is low. With the surface emissivity mapped, radiance observations at these same wavelengths will be used in a simultaneous retrieval of the surface temperature, and dust optical thickness, effective radius, and effective temperature. We will also retrieve dust properties and vertical profiles using a dust transport model (MATCH) from which we will compute AIRS and MODIS radiances and derive the dust refractive index that minimizes the difference between observed and computed radiances. Using this derived refractive index, we will compute the dust single scattering albedo and extinction efficiency. The retrieved dust properties will be validated using ground-based AERONET sunphotometers and an infrared solar and sky spectrometer (FTIR). The FTIR will be used during an experiment near the Sahara in a solar occultation mode to record the infrared optical thickness of the dust and will measure the scattered sky radiance to determine the dust asymmetry parameter and single scattering albedo. Nocturnal measurements will provide the basis for computing the dust’s temperature, optical thickness and co-albedo. Based on these retrieved and validated dust parameters, we will compute the diurnal infrared and visible dust forcing over deserts.

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Roland Geyer 7/1/2007-6/30/2009 $28,600

David Stoms

Frank Davis

University of California, SB080040 (GRW01)

Biodiversity and Biofuels: A Winning Combination in the San Joaquin Valley?

Rising environmental, economic, and political concerns about fossil fuels have renewed interest in biofuels for vehicles, which can reduce some environmental impacts, especially greenhouse gas emissions. For California, this interest provides an opportunity both to help achieve GHG reduction targets as well as boosting economic opportunities for farmers. Potential impacts on habitat and biodiversity, however, have been largely neglected in the dialog in California and globally. Impacts could be substantial (though not necessarily negative) at the level of production needed to significantly supplant fossil fuels. In fact, some energy crops such as perennial grasses have the potential to restore degraded agricultural landscapes and improve its habitat value for imperiled species. We are addressing this Environmental Issue in Energy Supply and Use through an investigation of the impacts of biofuel feedstock production on habitat and species diversity in the southern San Joaquin Valley. This research program is developing a formal assessment methodology based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This approach will be capable of evaluating the suite of environmental impacts of biofuel production and use among feedstock sources. Developing an impact indicator for biodiversity and associated characterization models are critical requirements for understanding trade-offs with other environmental impacts, particularly global warming potential. For this project, we are defining several candidate indicators and developing the associated models of impact for energy crops suitable for the study area in California’s San Joaquin Valley. In addition to the value of developing impact indicators for biodiversity, the project is creating new methods for linking geographic information systems with non-spatial LCA techniques.

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Patricia Holden 2/1/2008-11/30/2008 $49,992

City of Santa Barbara (HPP08)

DMA-Based Microbial Source Tracking in Laguna Channel, Santa Barbara

The City of Santa Barbara has previously identified ozone disinfection at the outlet of Laguna Channel (near the existing pump station) as an appropriate project for reducing beach warnings. Prior to moving forward with such a project, the City seeks to better understand the watershed, for example, in terms of inputs of polluted runoff vs. uncontaminated groundwater. Additional study may identify project(s) that provide more treatment per unit cost and/or have lower maintenance costs over the lifetime of the project.

The Holden lab at UCSB has been conducting research in lower Mission Creek and Arroyo Burro Creek with the City Creeks Division for several years. The Mission Creek study included some sampling in the lower Laguna watershed, specifically in the Channel just upstream of Chase Palm Park and in the Laguna Lagoon. Research by the Holden lab to date supports that DNA-based markers of human fecal contamination can be found in the lower Laguna watershed. However, sampling to date has been limited and the samples thus far demonstrate significant temporal variability. Before investments are made in treatment infrastructure or other remedial activities towards improving creek and coastal water quality in the Laguna Channel watershed area, a more comprehensive study is needed at the watershed scale to define the spatial extent and temporal patterns of fecal contamination and sources.

This project will allow research within the Laguna watershed at points including those already studied as well as several other (up to 10 additional) upstream. The research is towards identifying human contamination sources, their temporal (diurnal and other) variability and potentially determining other host sources of fecal bacterial contamination in water samples collected for this study.

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Patricia Holden 10/4/2006-10/3/2007 $49,583

ENVIRON International Corporation, SB070053 (HPP04)

Assessing microbial communities in permangante-treated aquifer materials.

The UCSB side of this collaboration is for microbiological analysis of porous media and outplanted retriculated vitrified carbon samples acquired from a chlorinated solvent-contaminated (mainly TCE) site prior to, and at multiple time points after, in situ permanganate treatment for chemical TCE oxidation. The overarching concerns are the extent to which permanganate oxidation of TCE changes indigenous microbial communities and the longevity of observed community shifts. The specific questions being addressed are: 1) What are the indigenous microorganisms?; 2) Are they effective dechlorinators?; 3) What changes in population diversity are observed immediately after dosing with permanganate?; and 4) How do the populations recover after treatment? Fully answering Question 1 would involve clone library development and clone sequencing which is extremely time consuming and thus costly. However, the results of such an effort could also enable answering Question 2. Questions 3 and 4 are more easily addressed via molecular fingerprinting methods, as described below. Thus, this focus on Questions 3 and 4, and suggest an alternative approach for addressing the concerns motivating Questions 1 and 2, i.e. whether dechlorinating populations are present before and after treatment.

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Patricia Holden 4/1/2007-9/30/2007 $4,431

Heal the Ocean, SB080005 (HPF06)

Microbial Community Profiles in Ocean and Freshwater Environments: A Proposal to Heal the Ocean.

This is a continuation of a project initiated with Heal the Ocean (HTO) by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is a follow-on to work performed by the Holden lab on behalf of the original project. By way of explanation, the Holden lab has been researching water quality in Santa Barbara with support through a contract with the City of Santa Barbara. Simultaneously, the USGS has been performing related research with the City and with HTO. The City requested that our respective projects be coordinated, and thus we have performed some research on USGS samples. In the Summer of 2006, the Holden lab agreed to perform research on some of the samples acquired by the USGS. The research costs were compensated to the University by the City of Santa Barbara.

Scope: Twenty (20) water samples will be collected by the USGS between April 15 and April 23 and delivered to the University (Holden lab) for analysis by T-RFLP using HhaI and MspI enzymes. The USGS will give advance (at least 48 hours) notice to the Holden lab by phone and email regarding the anticipated delivery time of samples to the University. Once at the Holden lab, sample handling, sample preparation and analyses will be performed consistently with previous analyses (1-3). Samples are expected to range from fresh to seawater salinities. TRFLP will be unreplicated, except for the use of two restriction enzymes. Data will be delivered to HTO in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. Alignment of TRFLP data will be performed by the USGS. Laboratory analyses of the samples also will include IDEXX analyses (Colilert and Enterolert) for bacterial concentrations. TRFLP sequencing is done through Michigan State University.

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Patricia Holden 3/1/2005-2/28/2009 $400,000

Joshua Schimel

National Science Foundation, DEB-0444712 (HPF02)

Resource and Stress Interactions in Regulating Microbial Communities in a California Grassland Soil

Most soil microbiology studies examine only the top 10-20 cm of soil, and do not evaluate communities and their functioning through the whole profile. A whole soil perspective is important: 1) while surface soils are more active per gram, the massive deeper horizons contribute significantly to overall soil activity, and 2) there are strong gradients of resource availability and stress through the soil profile. Understanding how interactive effects of resource and stress on soil microbes is key to understanding all microbial life in soil. Our research to date has addressed microbial diversity and function through the profile by evaluating whether the hypothesis from macroecology that diversity should be “greatest at intermediate levels of resource availability and/or disturbance” applies in soil microbial ecology.

This project will evaluate how resource availability and stress regulate microbial communities, populations, and functional groups through the profile. We will experimentally manipulate resource and stress regimes and evaluate microbial responses. Specific populations to study will be either characteristic of particular environments in the soil (i.e. surface or deep) or particularly sensitive to environmental variation. Examples we have identified so far include Variovorax (a “vadose zone specialist”) several pseudomonads, an unusually high GC gram positive, and Streptomyces lividans. The project will use terminally labeled restriction fragment length polymorphisms (T-RFLPs) to evaluate community-level diversity and composition. A combination of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) and probing using group-level primers and probes will be used to quantitatively analyze microbial communities at a range of taxonomic levels. Specific probes, based on sequences of keystone clones that are found to be most responsive to imposed stress and resource conditions, will be used to analyze individual populations and how they respond to the interactions of stress and varying resource availability. We will analyze microbial function and specific substrate use by tracing 13C flow from labeled compounds (monomers and polymers) into different forms, including individual CO2, microbial PLFAs and specific extracellular polysaccharides.

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Patricia Holden 4/1/2007-3/30/2008 $39,662

University of California, 2007-1887-1 (HPP07)

Fecal Indicator Bacteria Source in the Middle Santa Ana River.

1. Overview

The project is part of the Middle Santa Ana River Fecal Indicator Bacteria Source Tracking Study conducted by UC Irvine (UCI). There are three elements of this study: (1) quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays for Bacteroides on selected samples collected as part of the Field Transect Study; (2) qPCR assays for enterococci bacteria in select microcosm studies; and (3) assays for propranolol enantiomer and conservative wastewater tracers on select samples collected during the Field Transect Study. These three elements are described in more detail below.

The goal of the qPCR assays for Bacteroides and Enterococcus faecalis study element is to assay for gene markers associated with a human Bacteroides bacteria and also to quantify enterococci using a culture-independent method. The human waste marker, as described by others, is specific to human waste including fecal material, sewage, and septage. The Bacteroides group of bacteria, while originally thought to be labile in the extraintestinal environment, can grow under nanomolar concentrations of oxygen and can survive under aerobic conditions for long periods (24 hours); i. e. within the residence time for sewage in a typical POTW. While the effluent from the POTW here has not been assayed yet for this Bacteroides marker, it is reasonable to assume that it would be present, and its presence would signify the presence of human-specific waste which is mainly of concern when FIB are used for water quality monitoring.

Additionally, culture-independent enumeration of Enterococcus faecalis, while not human-specific, will allow for comparatively tracking total (growing and non-growing) enterococci against cultivated enterococci thus allowing better evaluation of regrowth in the proposed microcosm studies. For example, if total Enterococcus faecalis by qPCR are constant or increasing at a slower rate as compared to culturable enterococci, then both regrowth and resuscitation could be inferred.

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Patricia Holden 5/15/2007-5/14/2010 $399,986

Galen Stucky

US Environmental Protection Agency, RD-83332301 (HPE02)

Bioavailability and Fate of CdSe and TiO2 Nanoparticles in Eukaryotes and Bacteria

Semiconductor nanocrystals differ in important ways from bulk semiconductor materials. Their increased band gap means that they function as strong oxidizing and/or reducing agents, and their small size allows them to pass into living cells. Conjugation of biomolecules to the crystal surface can alter any or all of these properties. In preliminary experiments, we observed that only bioconjugated CdSe quantum dots are taken up by bacteria and eukaryotic cells. Intracellular fluorescence varies, apparently by electron transfer-mediated quenching and nanoparticle breakdown. Bare quantum dots are as toxic to growing bacteria as Cd2+, implying possible extracellular breakdown, but subsequent fates and toxicity relationships are unknown. Particle size dependencies are implied, but insufficiently understood for use in risk analysis. A systematic inquiry into size- and chemistry-dependent uptake and fate processes is needed. We propose to quantify cellular-scale processes that affect nanoparticle entry, stability, and toxicity for a variety of bacterial and eukaryotic cells. We will focus on two nanoparticles, CdSe whose metals are toxic, and TiO2 whose toxicity arises solely from its size and electron transfer activity. Both short term ‘labeling’ and longer term growth experiments will be performed to quantify particle entry into cells and toxicity; we will also study energy transfer between nanoparticles and energized membranes as a mechanism. The relative importance of near-cell breakdown, whole-particle electron scavenging, and intracellular particle reformation as fates will be quantified. This project will show how nanoparticles and cells may cooperate in transmembrane transport as well as toxicity. This research will be used to predict cellular-scale exposure and toxicity for bacteria and eukaryotes in soil and water. Supplemental Keywords: bioavailability, cadmium, selenium, selenite heavy metals, titanium, biofilm, endocytosis

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Charles Jones 07/01/2006-09/30/2008 $35,000

Dar Roberts

Department of Agriculture, 06-JV-11272165-057 (CJP06)

Analysis of Santa Ana Climatology for Southern California

The specific research problem addressed by the study is the development of high resolution weather modeling tools for fire management applications. The work also includes a science delivery task to pipeline weather model outputs to fire managers to aid in fire management planning for incidents and prescribed fire operations.

The occurrence of Santa Ana wind events in Southern California significantly enhances the damage potential of wildfires under such conditions. Santa Ana winds register higher than average speeds and drier than normal humidities, either one of which creates favorable burning conditions. This research will develop greater spatial and temporal details of Santa Ana events than currently available climatologies for Southern California. It will also explore new methods to model Santa Anas for fire management applications through: 1) Investigation of spatial and temporal variability of Santa Ana events over southern California; 2) Development of downscaling methods to increase spatial resolution of existing models; 3) Comparing simulations as described with an improved version of RAMS developed in Brazil; and 4) Providing assistance to unit's other cooperators engaged in extracting MM5 forecasts for FARSITE.

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Charles Jones 8/1/2005-7/31/2009 $312,000

Leila Carvalho

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NA05OAR4311129 (CJB04)

An Investigation of Intraseasonal Oscillations in the Atmosphere and their Interannual Variation

One of the major goals of the CLIVAR Pacific program is to investigate intraseasonal-to-decadal climate variability in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system, especially processes that can lead to improvements in the simulations and predictions of ENSO and ENSO-like decadal variations. This proposal contributes to this effort by investigating the relationships between intraseasonal variations associated with the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO), non-MJO variability and air-sea interaction processes that are relevant to the theory of stochastic forcing of ENSO. The research is based on a comprehensive observational analysis and focuses on the influence of intraseasonal oscillations on synoptic-to-intraseasonal anomalies in surface wind stress and heat fluxes, their coupled and uncoupled (stochastic) structures. The specific objectives of this research are to: 1) Characterize periods of MJO and non-MJO intraseasonal variations including their interannual variability; 2) Examine the associations between the variability of the MJO and synoptic and intraseasonal variations in surface wind stress and heat fluxes in the tropical Pacific; 3) Determine the relative importance of non-MJO intraseasonal variability on the modulation of surface wind stress and heat fluxes; and 4) Investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics of coupled and uncoupled (stochastic) components of surface wind stress and heat fluxes. Develop statistical parameterizations that can be used in coupled ocean-atmosphere models of ENSO. The project is divided in four objectives that will systematically address the relationships between intraseasonal atmospheric variations and air-sea interaction processes in the tropical Pacific. The observational analysis will use reanalysis fields from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) and European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts ERA-40 and will focus on the period 1979-present.

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Charles Jones 8/1/2007-7/31/2009 $203,000

Leila Carvalho

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NA07OAR4310211 (CJB05)

Understanding the mechanisms of onset and demise of the South American Monsoon system.

Intense convective activity and heavy precipitation begins in northwestern South America in late August and marches progressively southeastward until it reaches the Brazilian highland. The wet season peaks in the core of the Amazon in austral summer, while deep convection begins to weaken over the Amazon in early March and the dry season persists throughout most of the austral winter. It has been increasingly common to refer to this strong summertime convective activity, intense precipitation, and large-scale atmospheric circulation features as the South American monsoon system (SAMS).

One of the main goals of the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas (CPPA) is “to improve operational monitoring and prediction of intraseasonal to interannual climate and hydrologic variations in the Americas through improved physical process understanding and modeling”. SAMS has been extensively investigated over the years and its variability is recognized to play a major role in the climate of tropical and subtropical South America. While some mechanisms for the onset and demise of SAMS have been proposed, a thorough understanding of the dominant dynamical processes determining the migration of SAMS still elude the research community. This proposal will develop extensive observational and diagnostic analyses to improve and unify our current understanding and monitoring of the onset and demise of SAMS. The specific objectives include:

I. Development of metrics to characterize onset/demise of SAMS

II. Investigation of mechanisms associated with precursors of early/late onsets of SAMS

III. Analysis of regional impacts on rivers basins in the Cerrado regions

IV. Examine the ability of climate models participating in the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) realistically simulate SAMS variability

The research specifically contributes to the goals of the CPPA program by investigating important dynamical mechanisms associated with the variability of the South American Monsoon System (SAMS). The project focuses on intraseasonal-to-interannual variations and their modulation in the onset and demise, hydrological aspects of SAMS. Moreover, the proposal will examine coupled climate model simulations participating in the IPCC AS4 and their ability to realistically represent SAMS variability in the present climate and assess future changes in climate scenarios associated with increased CO2 concentrations.

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Matthew Kay 8/23/2007-12/31/2009 $407,855

Jennifer Caselle

Hunter Lenihan

State Coastal Conservancy, 07-021 (KMW01/KMW02)

Monitoring and Assessment of Marine Reserves at the Northern Channel Islands: A Multi-Species, Collaborative Trapping Program

In 2003, California’s first network of no-take marine protected areas (MPA’s) was established in the northern Channel Islands to address stakeholder goals of conservation and fishery management. Conservation benefits of marine reserves are well documented. The effects of MPA’s on fisheries remain hotly debated. The potential for MPA's at the Channel Islands, and throughout CA, to achieve the goals of the MLPA can be assessed only through monitoring of reserves.

The primary technique used for reserve monitoring at the Channel Islands is visual SCUBA survey. This survey technique, while essential and informative, is inadequate for a number of important fishery species that are nocturnal, cryptic, and/or live at great depth (spiny lobster and some fishes). The use of traps is a more efficient sampling approach for these species, especially when conducted collaboratively by biologists and commercial fishermen. An additional advantage of trap surveys is that they facilitate tag-recapture studies of growth, stock size, movement, and fishery/MPA interactions. We have used traps successfully in preliminary, collaborative monitoring studies in the Channel Islands. PISCO and NPS researchers using SCUBA surveys show great interest in partnering with us to improve overall monitoring of Channel Island and other MLPA reserves.

This project will focus on conducting trap surveys to assess the performance of northern Channel Island MPA’s for CA spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus), cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus), CA sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher), grass rockfish (Sebastes restrilleger) and other fishes targeted by California’s live-fish fishery. Our research will build off two successful collaborative trapping programs begun in 2001 (live fish, Caselle) and 2005 (Kay and Lenihan, lobster) with fishers from Santa Barbara Harbor and CDF&G biologists. C

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Matthew Kay 7/15/2007-2/29/2008 $7,820

Hunter Lenihan

The Nature Conservancy, SB080022 (KMP01)

Global Survey of Abundance Data for Native Reef-Building Bivalves: A Proposal in Support of the Shellfish at Risk Working Group.

Background

Localized depletions of native bivalves in estuaries and coastal seas are common and often well documented. Trends and causes of local decline can be strikingly similar across regional, continental or global scales. Despite this, management and conservation efforts proceed at highly localized scales that are less responsive to regional phenomena. A key factor in this paradigm is the lack of a geographically-based synthesis of native bivalve population abundance. Such a database could help elucidate regional trends and drivers of population decline.

This work will produce a dataset that traces changes through time in the abundance of native reef-building bivalves (oysters and mussels) from estuaries and coastal seas throughout the world. This dataset will directly support the mission of the Shellfish at Risk working group, which will use the data to describe global population patterns and to model causes and restoration strategies.

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Arturo Keller 8/8/2006-8/7/2007 $102,921

Department of Interior, 1435-01-06-CT-39846 (KAM01)

Oil recovery with novel skimmer surfaces under cold climate conditions

Increasing oil exploration, production and transport in Arctic waters will increase the risk of an oil spill occurring in cold and ice-infested waters. The mechanical oil spill recovery equipment currently used in warmer waters was not designed to collect much more viscous oils, or oil-ice mixtures. Spill responders were not designed to collect very viscous oils and oil-ice mixtures. The presence of ice crystals in oil emulsions affects the adhesion processes between an oil slick and the surface of an oleophilic skimmer and prevents oil from being efficiently recovered. Novel drum skimmer surface geometry and materials, tailored to the conditions present under cold climates, are expected to significantly increase the rate of oil recovery, reducing cost and risk.

The objective of this project is to perform a comprehensive analysis of the adhesion between oil or ice-in-oil mixtures and various surface patterns and materials, under cold climate conditions. This knowledge will help develop and/or improve existing mechanical response equipment that can be more efficiently used under these conditions. The novel recovery surfaces that have recently proven to increase the recovery efficiency of a drum skimmer up to 2 times in warm waters should be successfully used in the cold climate conditions, with some optimization of the geometry and materials, and lead to a significant increase in oil recovery efficiency.

In the first phase of the project, laboratory bench-scale tests of different surface materials and patterns will be conducted to determine contact angle and amount of oil adhered at sub-freezing conditions, with and without ice. The equipment for these tests is available and was successfully used to develop optimized drum skimmer recovery surfaces for warmer temperatures (10-30 oC). These tests were validated with field-scale tests at Ohmsett for this higher temperature range.

Based on the results of the proposed laboratory tests at subfreezing conditions, we will select the materials and surface patterns with the highest oil recovery potential under cold climate conditions and perform field scale oil spill recovery test at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory with three different oils. This will provide us with valuable information about the correlation between the laboratory tests and full scale experiments, as well as demonstrate the potential of the proposed skimmer modifications under conditions similar to response operations.

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Arturo Keller 5/8/2006-9/30/2007 $29,462

Electric Power Research Institute, EP-P21512/C10527 (KAP10)

Energy and Water Sustainability Conference

The research program on Energy and Water Sustainability is a partnership between the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara (Bren School) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). These institutions have been involved in research on various aspects of the energy-water nexus for several years. The main objectives of the Research Program on Energy and Water Sustainability are:

1) Focused research on the energy and water intensity use of major industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential activities in California. Clearly, the nexus is bi-directional: Energy requires water and water requires energy. Improvements in water or energy efficiency should positively influence the other.

2) Study constraints and opportunities that may affect anticipated California energy supply

3) Analyze internal and external factors that might increase California energy requirements, affecting water demand.

4) Evaluate the implications of global change on California’s energy and water supply and demand.

5) Evaluate the implications of increases in energy demand, including ramifications on water supply & quality on habitat and recreational uses of water.

6) Develop and test technologies and water management approaches that result in a decrease in the water intensity of electrical energy generation.

As part of the program, an initial conference will be held to initiate a western regional forum on the issue of energy and water linkages and sustainability and the role that the Center can play in clarifying and addressing this issue. Special attention will be placed on interdependencies among individual western States. Participants will be drawn from all major stakeholder groups throughout the western U.S. The Conference will address the following key questions:

• Are there opportunities in terms of energy and/or water use efficiency that need to be explored and implemented jointly?

• What are California’s electricity-related vulnerabilities with respect to potential limitations in water supply? How can these vulnerabilities be reduced?

• What are California’s water-related vulnerabilities with respect to potential limitations in electricity supply? How can these vulnerabilities be reduced?

• How should western regional electricity and water infrastructures be organized and managed to address increasing electricity/water demands?

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Arturo Keller 5/21/2007-10/1/2008 $71,000

Electric Power Research Institute, EP-P24938/C12065 (KAP16)

Modeling Nutrient Loads for a Nitrogen Trading Program.

To successfully design and implement a nitrogen (N) trading program, it is necessary to have a solid understanding of the watershed characteristics, land use, meteorology, hydrology, nutrient processes, and point and non-point sources of nutrients. It is also important to characterize those facilities, such as electric power generating plants, that can influence flow and/or temperature in the river, since either one of these variables can affect the overall assimilation of N in the river.

Due to excess nutrient loading, flow reductions or temperature increases, localized “hotspots” can occur, where water quality objectives are not met, leading to undesirable ecological outcomes. Understanding the conditions that lead to these hotspots is important for developing a successful trading program.

One of the key issues is assessing whether the trades will influence ecological outcomes. It is not clear whether the occurrence of hot spots is minimized or propagated as a result of the trading activity, or whether overall water quality objectives goals are, or will be, achieved. There is significant opportunity to improve the ecological outcome of trading programs given a more rigorous assessment of watershed structure, program boundaries, location of trading partners, potential of hot spots, and other geographic elements.

Despite the potential to improve performance of WQ trading, tools are lacking for agencies and practitioners to determine the most appropriate program design elements. As a result, programs continue to be instituted prior to the necessary location specific analysis needed to ensure their economic and ecological success. The proposed project intends to fill these gaps.

This project will develop a “Proof of Concept”, by setting up the WARMF watershed model for a specific basin, determine the magnitude and temporal nature of nutrient loads in the watershed for a specific time frame, prepare sample trading scenarios, and provide recommendations for a larger project which will involve stakeholders and additional sources of information or constraints.

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Arturo Keller 4/1/2006-3/01/09 $110,968

Friends of the Santa Clara River, SB060112 (KAP08)

Water Quality Improvement in the Santa Clara River (Nutrient and Pesticide Contamination): Treatment of Agricultural Runoff

This program will involve design of the monitoring and quality assurance plans for the treatment systems, including decisions on instrumentation, method of collection of samples, analysis, frequency and location. UCSB will provide:

1. Project monitoring – working with Friends of the Santa Clara River to train a group of volunteers to collect the samples according to the monitoring plan, and following the quality assurance plan.

2. Modeling of system – development of a simple model of the effectiveness of the different treatment systems, based on the physical and biogeochemical characteristics of the systems as well as the driving functions (e.g. climate, vegetation type, pesticide type, etc.).

3. Reporting – participation in the preparation quarterly and final project reports that Friends of the Santa Clara River will provide to the State Water Resources Control Board, providing scientific and technical advice, as well as the data generated from the monitoring program, and the results of the modeling effort.

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Arturo Keller 3/1/2007-2/28/2009 $100,000

Friends of the Santa Clara River, SB070098 (KAP15)

Water Quality Assessment of Wetland Restoration in HRNA

This project will focus on specific phases of water quality assessment and wetland restoration, as follows:

1) Development of the Project Assessment Evaluation Plan (PAEP), the Monitoring Plan (MP) and the Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) for the treatment systems, including decisions on instrumentation, method of collection of samples, analysis, frequency and location.

2. Project monitoring – working with Friends of the Santa Clara River to train a group of volunteers to collect the samples according to the monitoring plan, and follow the quality assurance plan.

3. Modeling of system – development of a simple model of the effectiveness of wetland, based on the physical and biogeochemical characteristics of the systems as well as the driving functions (e.g. climate, vegetation type, pesticide type, etc.).

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Arturo Keller 7/1/2005-9/30/2007 $50,000

University of California, SB060031 (KAP04)

Uncertainty analysis for complex watershed models: Determining science-based Margin of Safety for Pesticide TMDLs

The progress of the Federal TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) program, a watershed scale water quality management policy, has been hindered by the lack of systematic approaches. California’s response to the TMDL program has also been slow, and the results may not be reliable due to the uncertainty associated with the quantitative allocation of pollutant loads and its impact on water quality. Although complex watershed models are potentially powerful tools for allocating these loads among different pollutant sources in TMDL development, it is unclear how to determine the uncertainty associated with model output. In general, there is no scientific basis for a Margin of Safety (MOS) within the allocation of pollutant loads. In this study, a framework for analyzing the uncertainty of watershed models will be developed, modeling pesticides in two southern California watersheds as examples. A systematic approach of MOS determination will then be developed, integrating the results of the uncertainty analysis with specific management concerns. Pesticides are chosen since they present potentially high ecological and health risks and are significant non-point sources at the watershed scale. This study is expected to significantly improve the applicability of complex watershed models to toxics management under uncertainty. The results will help to inform decision-makers and stakeholders involved in the TMDL program, by providing a better assessment of the uncertainty and a MOS which considers both model and management uncertainties.

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Arturo Keller 7/1/2006-10/31/2007 $14,975

University of California, SB070005 (KAP12)

Implementing a Sustainable Watershed Strategy in San Cristobal de las Casas

The city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the central highlands of Chiapas, Mexico is the cultural and economic center for a predominantly rural population of descendents of the Mayan culture. The city has experienced major population expansion, caused in part by the sociopolitical upheaval of the last two decades. In addition to population growth pressures, the future water supply to San Cristóbal is being compromised by changing land use and an insufficient understanding of sustainable water resource management. An analysis of the situation in San Cristóbal led to a number of specific recommendations. This new project seeks to go from the recommendations in paper to implementation in the field. This phase will evaluate the performance of the recommendations in the context of the biogeophysical and socioeconomic conditions in San Cristóbal. We propose to implement several best management practices as pilot projects for improving water quality and quantity, and protecting supply. These practices will be evaluated under a water monitoring program developed for the San Cristobal watershed, which will track both chemical and microbiological parameters. A third goal will be to create and implement an educational campaign to increase awareness of the link between water and health, and the benefits of protecting water resources. These measures will be designed to enhance the sustainable utilization of water resources while improving access to safe water for local communities. This project will also serve as a model to extend to other communities. Main project partners include faculty and graduate students at UCSB, researchers at ECOSUR, and community groups in San Cristobal.

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Arturo Keller 11/1/2006-3/31/2008 $26,000

University of California, SB070094 (KAP14)

Fate and transport of nanoparticles: Sorption and role as carriers of chemicals of concern

Nanoparticles have the potential for traveling far in the atmosphere, in aquatic systems, and in soils. Previous work has shown that under certain circumstances nanoparticles can move faster through porous media than dissolved solutes; early breakthrough has been attributed to the ‘size and path exclusion’ effects (e.g., Keller and Sirivithayapakorn, 2004; Auset and Keller, 2004). These nanoparticles may come from three major sources: (1) engineered nanomaterials; (2) unintended anthropogenic generation (e.g. via industrial or combustion processes); and (3) natural nanoparticles. Engineered nanomaterials are likely to be surface-activated, to promote specific processes (e.g. catalysis, adsorption, reflection, etc.), and may be manufactured from trace elements that are usually only present at very low concentrations. Unintended nanoparticles are likely to be carriers for large organic molecules (e.g. PAHs) which are toxic at certain threshold dosage. Natural nanoparticles consist mostly of very fine clays, which are usually high in both Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), thus are great carriers for either organic molecules (e.g. pesticides, PAHs, PCBs) or metal ions. There are many questions regarding the interaction of nanoparticles with environmental interfaces, their role as carriers of trace elements, organic molecules and/or metals, and the ability of the nanoparticles to actually deliver these elements or molecules at the interfaces (Lead and Wilkinson, 2006). Understanding the fate and transport of nanoparticles in the environment is a key component of exposure assessment, which is an integral component of a risk assessment. Understanding the risks can lead to better management.

To understand the interactions between the nanoparticles and the interfaces, and the role of nanoparticles as carriers and delivery mechanisms for other molecules (whether toxic or not), studies at various scales need to be conducted (Sen and Khilar, 2006). This project will focus on batch and column studies, to understand these processes from an equilibrium (batch) and kinetic (column) perspective (McCarthy and McKay, 2004; de Jonge, et al., 2004; Deshiikan et al., 1998). We expect that the results of this study will significantly improve our understanding of the sorption of the nanoparticles in soils and their effect on the HOCs sorption/desorption onto natural solids. The findings of this research will add to the current knowledge the fate and transport of the nanoparticles.

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Bruce Kendall 9/15/2006-8/31/2009 $201,944

National Science Foundation, 0615024 (KBF01)

Collaborative Research: Demographic heterogeneity within populations and its consequences

This project will address some major questions in demography. We propose two broad categories of theoretical research. One will extend recent work on the consequences of among-individual demographic heterogeneity for demographic stochasticity and extinction risk. Some of this recent work has shown that treating populations as though they are monomorphic can have severe consequences; research proposed here aims to generalize this analysis and examine how genetic and environmental variation each affect extinction risk. The second area of theoretical research will be developing general models for the growth of heterogeneous populations (with a special focus on heterogeneity in individual growth), and analyzing them to understand issues like the nature of the biases generated by incorrectly modeling heterogeneous populations as homogeneous. In other words, we will ask what the circumstances are that make it necessary to account for heterogeneity, and will ask how one does this statistically. To ask how much demographic heterogeneity there is in natural populations of plants, we will review the literature and query as many researchers as possible about using parts of their data that can shed light on this question. The work in developing a database and reviewing our knowledge of heterogeneity is intended to derive as broad a picture as possible of what we know about demographic heterogeneity.

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Hunter Lenihan 7/1/2005-8/31/2007 $340,182

Chris Costello

University of California, SB060020 (LHP01)

Community-based collaborative fishery research: Assessing fishery impacts of CA marine reserves

Marine reserves provide a promising alternative to conventional, single-species fishery management that bares a history of biological and economic failure. While reserves ensure ecosystem benefits, such as biodiversity and habitat conservation, ecological theories of how reserves enhance fishery production are supported by relatively little empirical data. Consequently, there is strong resistance to reserves within the fishing community. The research addressed here proposes an adaptive learning process based on scientific inquiry that will lead to more informed policy decisions regarding reserves as fishery management tools. Specifically, we propose to (1) examine whether spill-over of the CA spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus) influences yield (catch-per-unit-effort) and economic performance of individual fishermen; (2) initiate a monitoring program that exploits reserves to generate lobster population data for advancing both conventional and reserve-based stock assessments; (3) map the habitat, biological, and fishery economic properties of an ecosystem containing reserves to create the template for ecosystem-based management; and (4) use the information gained from steps 1-3 to develop dynamical decision-theoretic models that will guide adaptive fishery management and promote learning in management.

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Sally MacIntyre 9/1/2004-8/31/2009 $147,996

National Science Foundation, DEB-0414659 (MSF04)

Collaborative Research: Aquatic Plant Beds as Biogeochemical Hot Spots in a Large River Ecosystem

Aquatic plant beds can act as biogeochemical hot spots in aquatic ecosystems and, through hydrologic exchange, influence both the average chemistry of the entire ecosystem and spatial and temporal variation within it. Dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in these plant beds can regulate the degree and even direction of important biogeochemical reactions (e.g. dentrification, methanogensis) and, thus, the entire ecosystem may also be influenced indirectly by DO within beds. Previous work by the PI’s suggests that species-specific plant morphometry may be a critical factor determining DO levels. In plant beds dominated by the completely submerged aquatic plant Vallisneria americana, DO is on average higher than DO in the main river channel and hypoxia never occurs. In contrast, in beds dominated by Trapa natans, an introduced species with floating as well as submerged leaves, DO is on average lower than open water values; in some beds hypoxia is frequent, and complete anoxia may even occur. Considerable variation exists, however, in the dynamics and average concentration of DO between beds of a given species and spatially and temporally within some large beds. The objectives of this work are: 1) To understand the variation in DO between and within beds which vary in species composition, size, shape and hydrologic exchange. 2) To measure other biogeochemical transformations in beds including change in N forms and net retention and net trace gas formation and to relate these reactions to bed characteristics including oxygen dynamics. 3) To estimate the hydrologic exchanges within beds and between beds and surrounding open channels. 4) To use these exchanges along with estimates of gas exchange to develop an ecosystem model that predicts spatial-temporal variation within beds and in the main channel of the river. These objectives will be met via a combination of field measurements including use of continuously recording instruments, modeling which combines biogeochemistry and hydrodynamics, and a field manipulation of a Trapa bed in the Hudson to reveal mechanisms that control DO and hydrologic exchange.

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Sally MacIntyre 9/15/2007-8/31/2009 $262,415

National Science Foundation, ARC-0714085 (MSF05)

Arctic lakes are sieves: Will global warming close the pores?

The hydrodynamics of lakes have major impacts on lacustrine productivity and the rate at which toxins enter aquatic foodwebs. Over the last eight years we have collected a unique time series of temperature and meteorological data from arctic lakes of different sizes in which ecosystem processes are currently being studied by the Arctic LTER. This data set, when analyzed in conjunction LTER data and data on distributions of elemental mercury and methyl mercury collected by William Fitzerald and his colleagues via NSF OPP 0425562, provides an unprecedented opportunity to quantify how the thermal structure of arctic lakes changes with meteorological forcing and thereby understand the coupled physical-chemical-biological processes which govern production in these ultra-oligotrophic systems and the fate of atmospherically derived pollutants.

Remarkable differences in thermal structure and mixing dynamics occur in warm versus cold summers in the Arctic. During warm years, nutrients added to the upper water column are sequestered within it. In contrast, during cold summers, the flux of nutrients between the upper and lower regions of small lakes occurs on time scales of days. These differences in time scales will determine whether nutrients originating from the landscape and atmospheric deposition will support benthic or pelagic production. As the energy to support higher trophic levels in arctic lakes is primarily supported by benthic food webs, shifts in thermal structure which support pelagic productivity will have major ecological consequences for energy flow in the Arctic.

The mixing dynamics in arctic lakes are unique in comparison to temperate lakes of similar size. During windy periods, coefficients of eddy diffusivity become high in the metalimnion (10-6 m2 s-1) and hypolimnion (10-5m2s-1). These high values occur because wind forcing results in nonlinear waves whose breaking induces turbulence. In contrast, wind forcing produces linear waves in similarly sized temperate lakes and transfers between hypolimnetic and epilimnetic waters occur at molecular rates. This difference arises because of the stronger temperature gradient between the upper and lower layers of temperate lakes compared to arctic lakes. Understanding how the climate in the Arctic leads to within season and year to year variations in thermal structure and mixing dynamics is crucial for predicting how these lakes will change over time. Changes will affect not only primary production but also the percentage of lakes which remain anoxic after ice off, again with implications for benthic food webs, and budgets of mercury.

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Stéphane Maritorena 11/15/2005-12/31/2008 $ 55,400

David Siegel

ACRI-ST, ST/079-496/ACR/SC/05 (SDP06)

Global Ocean Colour for Carbon Cycle Research.

The Ocean Color group at ICESS is a pioneer in Ocean Colour spectral data merging (Maritorena & Siegel, 2005) and has considerable knowledge in various ocean color data merging techniques. The UCSB component of this research includes recommending merging techniques to be tested based on their ability to deal with random noise or bias in the input data; their applicability for near-real time processing; their suitability for generating uncertainty estimates for the output products; and the inherent characteristics of each technique. The ICESS group is also involved in the comparison with other merged data sets such as the ones it develops and distribute as part of a NASA ReaSON-CAN project.

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Stéphane Maritorena 2/1/2008-1/31/2009 $125,313

David Siegel

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNX08AF99A (SMN04)

Algorithm refinement for ocean color ESDR's

This project will allow for the maintenance and refinement of the current MODIS-Aqua chlorophyll (OC3M) and K490 algorithms and for the development of spectral inherent optical property (IOP) products. Chlorophyll (Chl) alone is not sufficient to monitor how the global ocean ecosystem is changing or how it responds to or affects global environmental change and the carbon cycle. To address these questions, other ocean color products are necessary. Specifically, we will develop and test a model that will accurately predict spectral values of the absorption coefficient of the combined dissolved and detrital material, acdm(), spectral values of the phytoplankton absorption coefficient, aph() and spectral values of the particulate backscattering coefficient, bbp(). The Chl, K490 and IOP products now have all the necessary characteristics to qualify as Earth System Data Records (ESDR). These IOP products will be generated using an updated version of our in-house semi-analytical ocean color model, GSM, with improved parameterizations. In addition, we will test methods to generate new products such as the spectral slope of backscattering, the spectral slope of dissolved and detrital absorption, the diffuse attenuation coefficient for ultraviolet (UV) radiation which will better describe the state and function of the ocean ecosystems than observations of Chl alone. We will also test recently published techniques to identify phytoplankton functional groups from ocean color satellite data. The results from the GSM model will also be compared to those of other models. Statistical and errors analyses using the in situ measurements, matchup data and global imagery will be used to assess and validate all products.

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Stéphane Maritorena 5/19/2004-5/18/2008 $516,051

David Siegel

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG04HZ34C (SMN03)

Chlorophyll a Algorithms for MODIS

The accurate determination of ocean chlorophyll a concentration is one of the central goals of the MODIS instrument on the Terra and Aqua platforms. Currently, two empirical (band-ratio; MODIS ATBD-18 and OC3M, SeaWiFS-analog, O’Reilly et al. 2000) and one theoretical (semi-analytical; MODIS ATBD-19) bio-optical algorithms are used to determine chlorophyll a from MODIS data. Both redundancies and inconsistencies exist in the three MODIS chl a products mostly because of the algorithms design and differences in the data sets used to develop them. The data sets and procedures used to develop bio-optical algorithms have improved dramatically since the designation of the original MODIS instrument team and the approaches first laid out more than 10 years ago. We propose to refine and maintain the derived product quality for the empirical (MODIS ATBD-18) and theoretical (MODIS ATBD-19) bio-optical algorithms used to produce chlorophyll a concentrations from MODIS water-leaving radiance determinations. Our approach to make these refinements will be done along several fronts. First, we use the extensive data set of chlorophyll a concentration, remote sensing reflectance, component absorption and backscattering spectra collected as part of SIMBIOS and other programs to affect end-to-end adjustments to the empirical and semi-analytical algorithms. Second, we will modify the existing semi-analytical algorithm so its design matches that of the UCSB model (Maritorena et al. 2002). An added benefit of the UCSB model is that its design enables it to be used in coupled atmosphere-ocean retrieval models (Chomko et al. 2003) which the present model cannot. These approaches are the future of ocean color remote sensing science and the bio-optical models used need to keep pace with this. The UCSB model is also suited to perform ocean color data merging (Maritorena et al., 2003) and can generate merged products from the Terra and Aqua sensors right away. Present and refined algorithms will be evaluated and compared using a variety of analyses. Third, we will assess the need for multiple chl a algorithms and evaluate ways to have a unified MODIS chl a product. All data, analyses, metrics and ATBDs will be public and documented on the World Wide Web to improve the transparency of this process for the end user.

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John Melack 4/1/2006-3/31/2009 $424,781

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG06GF71G (MJN11)

Linking remote sensing of variations in inundation and aquatic vegetation with regional analyses of carbon dynamics in Amazon wetlands

In our prior LBA-ECO studies, we developed active and passive microwave and optical remote sensing approaches to provide validated analyses of inundation and aquatic vegetation for the central Amazon and for subregions of other parts of the basin. Our results included a synthesis of data on the inputs and processing of carbon within the central Amazon floodplain, calculations of evasion of methane and carbon dioxide from rivers and wetlands and investigations of the relationships between aquatic habitats and fish and fisheries.

As the final phase of our LBA-ECO investigation, this project will complete our multi-temporal, multi-scale analyses of inundation and aquatic vegetation dynamics based on our accumulated multi-year set of Radarsat, Envisat and MODIS data complemented by JERS-1 and Landsat data. This work will connect directly to measurements and modeling of carbon dynamics of wetland systems throughout the Amazon with particular emphasis on the floodplains of the central basin, the interfluvial wetlands of the Negro basin and reservoirs. Field studies of methane and carbon dioxide emissions and aquatic macrophyte phenology and biomass, completed in 2005 by our research team and other groups with whom we collaborate, will be combined with our remote sensing results to calculate regional fluxes.

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John Melack 9/26/2005-6/30/08 $29,602

National Park Service, J8CO7050020 (MJP06)

Development of a Stream Monitoring Program for Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park

Past grazing and road management practices that occurred during the ranching era on Santa Rosa Island resulted in degradation of water quality on Santa Rosa Island. Water quality has steadily improved since removal of cattle from the island and this project will focus on the development of a water quality monitoring program based on sampling and analyses of selected sites over the course of a year.

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John Melack 6/1/2007-5/31/2009 $9,000

Craig Nelson

National Science Foundation, 0709975 (MJF03)

Dissertation Research: Linking successional dynamics of bacterioplankton communities to biogeochemical processes at the landscape scale

The fundamental ecology and identity of prokaryotic microorganisms in the natural environment is an area of scientific inquiry hampered until recently by methodological constraints, such that determining the factors regulating microbial community assembly and linking these patterns with both ecological theory and biogeochemical processes has emerged as a central goal in environmental biology. The conceptual basis of the research proposed here is to develop insight into the relationship between bacterial diversity and biogeochemical processes by exploring the mechanistic basis of ecological succession in a natural bacterioplankton community. This study will build on the doctoral candidate’s previous dissertation work demonstrating how predictable bacterioplankton succession in high-elevation lakes is linked to landscape-scale snowmelt-driven changes in the composition and source of dissolved organic matter. Here we aim to illustrate how specific taxa within the pelagic bacterial community respond to changes in the rate and character of inputs of catchment-derived dissolved organic matter and bacteria in order to understand the landscape drivers of bacterioplankton succession. First the exact taxonomic identity of predefined successional communities will be defined via nucleic acid cloning, permitting modeling of the rates and vectors of change of specific taxa in relation to observed temporal shifts in specific organic compounds. Factorial experimental manipulation of organic matter sources and bacterioplankton community types within in situ mesocosm growth cultures will determine how changes in taxonomic composition are coupled to the metabolism of specific dissolved organic compounds. Finally, using quantitative-PCR, the role of inflowing catchment-derived bacterial taxa in the successional progression will be examined under various hydrological regimes, providing insight into the rates of assembly of microbial communities. Together the results of these studies will be analyzed to determine how taxonomic composition in bacterial communities is linked to the metabolism of specific dissolved organic compounds, and how ecological theories of community assembly, succession, and ecosystem metabolism may be applied to explaining microbial diversity in time and space.

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John Melack 3/15/2007-2/29/2009 $131,468

National Science Foundation, DEB-0614207 (MJF02)

Responses of high elevation, aquatic ecosystems to interannual climate variability and trends in nutrient inputs (LTREB Program)

Aquatic ecosystems integrate environmental conditions and can provide indications of how montane regions are responding to warming climate, changing snow regime and altered atmospheric composition. Twenty-three years of research at the Emerald Lake watershed (Sequoia National Park) has shown that runoff patterns and the timing of snowmelt alter nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) biogeochemistry with concomitant changes in lake trophic conditions. Recent evidence indicates that Sierran lakes are undergoing eutrophication while shifting from P to N limitation; altered rates of atmospheric deposition of N and P and changes in P biogeochemistry of soils and lake sediments are likely causes. Observing and understanding the causes and consequences of these multi-year trends and variations in ecological conditions, requires appropriately designed long-term measurements complemented by experiments and modeling. The project investigators propose to continue long-term study of the Emerald Lake watershed and nearby catchments in order to test conceptual hypotheses regarding drivers of environmental change in high-elevation aquatic ecosystems. The primary foci of the proposed study are: i) continued assessment of the response of lake phytoplankton to changing inputs of N and P and ii) continued study of the coupling between climate variability and N and P biogeochemistry. To further examine the effects of ongoing eutrophication, the proposed study also seeks to answer the following questions:

a) At what rate is phosphorus being atmospherically deposited in the Sierra Nevada from anthropogenic and natural sources like fire?

b) How do modern input rates of P to Emerald Lake and similar sites differ from those over the last two hundred years?

c) How is P in the soils mobilized and transformed and how are these processes modified by variation in climate and hydrology?

d) How much P is released from lacustrine sediments and how do the rates of release change as a function of variations in stratification, pH, dissolved oxygen and dissolved metals?

These questions will be answered through the continuation of ongoing watershed measurements; additional study of P pools, transformation and fluxes in soils and sediments; enhanced measurements of atmospheric deposition; and paleolimnological study of lake sediments. Climate conditions have a strong influence on potential P source areas, on the incidence of fires, on transport and deposition, and on ecological impacts. Hence, as a consequence of the considerable interannual variability in California’s Mediterranean climate, it is essential to conduct these studies for at least five to ten years.

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Norm Nelson 1/26/2001-11/30/2010 $729,130

David Siegel

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NAS5-00200 (NNN02)

The Bermuda BioOptics Project (BBOP) Years 9 - 11

This project continues the field and laboratory activities conducted as part of the Bermuda Bio-Optics Project (BBOP). For the past eight years, BBOP has conducted profile observations of apparent and inherent optical properties (AOP and IOP) in collaboration with the U.S. JGOFS Bermuda Atlantic Time series Study (BATS), at a deep-ocean site 65 miles SE of the Bermuda islands. The close association between BBOP and BATS has led to new discoveries regarding the relationships between optical properties and physical, biological, and chemical processes in relation to the carbon cycle. The four areas of focus are: 1) continuation of the profile observations of apparent and inherent optical parameters on BATS cruises (including in situ spectroradiometric observations and measurements of CDOM and particulate absorption spectra from bottle samples), 2) the acquisition of near real-time distribution of remotely sensed reflectance spectra and chlorophyll a concentrations, 3) in situ data processing, database maintenance and distribution, and 4) instrument calibration and maintenance of the UCSB ocean optics calibration facility.

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Norm Nelson 6/15/2004-6/14/2008 $692,901

David Siegel

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG04GM15G (NNN04)

Ocean optical properties, MODIS ocean products, and atmospheric dust: The Bermuda Bio-Optics Project

This project continues the time series of calibrated, high quality, in situ measurements of spectroradiometric quantities, chlorophyll a, and inherent optical properties (including CDOM, phytoplankton, and particulate detritus absorption spectra) collected at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site in the northwestern Sargasso Sea (http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/bbop/bbop.html). This time series now extends back 10 years for in situ radiometric and chlorophyll data, and 8 ½ years for the absorption data. Our experience with SeaWiFS products has suggested a linkage between sporadic, interannually variable trans-Atlantic dust transport and the accuracy of ocean color chlorophyll retrievals. We would like to continue this analysis using MODIS ocean and atmospheric products, and extend the analysis to CDOM, including both MODIS products and the UCSB Ocean Color model (Garver-Siegel-Maritorena). We will take advantage of our in situ time series, enhanced with sun photometer data from the AERONET station in Bermuda and collected by Microtops in the field, to quantify the relationships between spectral atmospheric transparency and the retrieved products. Our scientific collaborators working on atmospheric dust transport will help us to assess the nature of the transported dust as well as its large scale distribution. Colocating the time-series with the existing BATS program will allow us simultaneous access to ocean physical and biological data that will help us place the measurements in oceanographic context. Understanding the atmospheric factors impacting the accuracy of ocean color algorithms will help us to confidently retrieve the impact (if any) of dust input to the subtropical North Atlantic gyre on the phytoplankton biomass and productivity, as well as improve the quality of the retrieved products. All in situ collected data will be made available to interested researchers as it has in the past, via our web site (listed above) and the SeaBASS system or its successors.

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Norm Nelson 1/30/2008-1/29/2009 $287,500

David Siegel

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNX08AH17G (NNN05)

The Bermuda Bio-Optics Project: Biological and biogeochemical responses to decade-scale climate forcing.

Many of NASA's Earth Science research questions address issues related to the biological and biogeochemical responses to climate forcing. Our research relates to NASA research questions: How are global ecosystems changing, and: How do ecosystems respond to and affect global environmental change and the carbon cycle? Time-series observations are required tools for answering these questions. Our satellite and in situ time-series measurements of optical, biological and biogeochemical properties in the Sargasso Sea have reached the point where responses to medium-term climate oscillators such as ENSO and NAO can be assessed. We propose to continue our decade-plus series of high-quality in situ optical observations made at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series site southeast of Bermuda in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. These observations, which include in-water light fluxes, water leaving radiances, and abundances of chlorophyll, CDOM, and particulate (phytoplankton) absorption spectra, provide information on community structure and biogeochemical cycling in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, particularly when combined with concurrent measurements made by the BATS program which include primary production, nutrients, phytoplankton pigments, and particulate flux. Our prior results have shown fluctuations in these properties that imply non-local influences (such as the formation of subtropical mode water several hundred miles north of the site), and possible teleconnections to climate oscillators such as the NAO. Thus we propose to combine the in situ observations with remotely sensed observations from EOS platforms, in particular Terra and Aqua MODIS ocean color and aerosol, CERES surface energy flux products, and other EOS atmospheric products to diagnose decade-scale changes in CDOM abundance, the phytoplankton community, and related ocean properties at the BATS site in the context of regional variability and climate-related forcing including factors controlling mixing and stratification and solar radiation fluxes. Understanding the medium-term responses to climate oscillators will provide us with insight as to the possible changes in the ecosystem driven by longer-term climate change in the future.

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Norm Nelson 4/1/2007-3/31/2009 $297,529

Craig Carlson

David Siegel

National Science Foundation, OCE-0648541 (NNF03)

Chromophoric DOM - A photoactive tracer of biogeochemical process

Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM), the colored fraction of the dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool, plays an important role in and affects our interpretation of the biogeochemistry of the open sea. Light absorption by CDOM drives photochemical reactions and its light absorption often obscures our ability to diagnose biogeochemical processes from satellite ocean color imagery. CDOM is an optical property; hence, its concentration can be quantified synoptically over large spatial scales using satellite sensors or in situ from a host of autonomous platforms. Although land-ocean exchanges are well known sources of ocean CDOM, recent observations have shown that open ocean CDOM is created through in situ biogeochemical processes.

Despite the importance of CDOM to ocean biogeochemistry, little is known about the chemical nature of CDOM in the open ocean in relation to its global distribution. In this continuation work, we will take the next step towards the first systematic global survey of CDOM in the world ocean and to use these observations in conjunction with data from the CLIVAR-Repeat Hydrography program to characterize CDOM and DOM in the open ocean. Specifically, we will:

Continue our global surveying of CDOM and DOM quality indices on CLIVAR- Repeat Hydrography cruises in the Pacific, Southern and Indian Ocean
Assess the connections among global CDOM stocks and its diagenetic state as measured using amino acid content and spectrofluorometric analysis (using newly collected and archived samples from the previous period of performance),
Develop and test our predictive understanding of the open ocean CDOM cycle through data analyses and numerical modeling.

It is through our continued coupled investigation of CDOM stocks, chemical and spectral characterization, and analysis and modeling that we hope to synthesize a new understanding of its sources, sinks and distributions within the global oceans. CDOM characterization will also give us a new dimension with which to assess the changes in chemical nature and lability of DOM as it cycles through the global ocean.

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William O'Hirok 2/15/2004-2/14/2008 $249,849

Catherine Gautier

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG04GE25G (OWN01)

The Impact of Spatial Scale on the Remote Sensing and Radiative Forcing of Clouds on the Climate

This project builds upon our expertise in 3-D radiative transfer and our participation in the Intercomparison of 3D Radiation Codes (I3RC). The I3RC successfully demonstrated a general community agreement on ‘exact’ theoretical solutions to 3-D radiative transfer. The next step is to ascertain how well theory matches reality and in what context 3-D computations are important. We will examine such issues using a state-of-the art 3-D Monte Carlo radiative transfer model that we partially developed through our involvement with the NASA Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) program. Cloud fields will be derived from radar imagery representative of a variety of climatic regimes. Three-dimensional computations will be conducted systematically at various resolutions over many cloud realizations to evaluate the importance of scale on radiative fluxes in the shortwave and longwave spectral regions. Our research involves: (i) determining at what spatial resolution and for what type of cloud fields 3-D effects are important for simulating the radiative environment in cloud resolving models; (ii) how the resolution of satellite sensors impacts the retrieval of remotely sensed cloud properties and the conversion of TOA radiance to irradiance; (iii) and to validate radiative transfer models using 3-D computations and surface observations and to assess the role clouds have on the direct radiative forcing of absorbing aerosols.

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J. Carter Ohlmann 9/23/2004-3/22/2008 $259,685

Department of Interior, 1435-01-04-CA-36650 (OCP04)

Relationship between Inner-Shelf Surface Currents and Large-Scale Characteristic Flow patterns in the Santa Barbara Channel

Predicting the path, or trajectory, of spilled oil in the ocean is of primary importance to the United States Mineral Management Service’s (MMS) goal of predicting the fate of the spilled oil. Accurate knowledge of the ocean surface current field is necessary for predicting the path of spilled oil. The MMS has thus been actively funding ocean circulation studies in the Santa Barbara Channel since at least the historical 1969 oil spill to understand how wind and pressure driven currents combine with transient mesoscale eddies and other motions to comprise the local circulation patterns. Although the number of oil/gas leases in the Santa Barbara channel is presently being reduced, an understanding of current patterns is still necessary for spill risk assessment, for monitoring natural seepage, and for determining how nutrients, larvae, and contaminants move to marine habitat around obsolete structures as part of the MMS Rigs-to-Reefs program (http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/regulate/environ/rigs-to-reefs/information.html). During the last 10 years, the MMS has sponsored the Santa Barbara Channel – Santa Maria Basin Coastal Circulation Study (SBC-SMB CCS), a large observational program aimed at improving the understanding and predictability of large-scale circulation patterns within the study region. The ARGOS-CODE drifters used in the SBC-SMB study give position data with 1 km spatial accuracy every few hours and are not appropriate for resolving inner-shelf flow patterns. Thus, circulation patterns defined for the SBC hold only for basin-scale currents, and may not be indicative of flows over the inner-shelf. Dever et al. (1998) ultimately report that drifters over the inner-shelf “exhibited behavior quite different from drifters found in the open channel.” This leads to the questions: 1) What are the characteristic patterns of circulation over the inner-shelf? 2) How do the inner-shelf patterns relate to the basin-scale patterns reported by Winant et al. (2003)? 3) What are the dominant forcing mechanisms? This research seeks answers to these questions.

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J. Ohlmann 7/1/2007-6/30/2009 $337,026

Patricia Holden

Libe Washburn

Heal the Ocean, SB080078 (OCP08/HPP05)

Monitoring the Montecito Outflow Wastewater Plume

An oceanographic study will be conducted (Washburn and Ohlmann, UCSB) to quantify the horizontal advection and diffusion of surface waters in the vicinity of the Montecito wastewater outflow. Microbiological measurements of water samples collected within the plume will allow for characterizing bacterial indicators, indicator DNA, bacterial communities, and bacterial pathogens indicative of contamination (Holden, UCSB). While drifters provide a direct measure of transport pathways taken by surface water parcels, microbiological measurements provide direct measures of microbial contaminant concentrations, as well as indigenous microbes, associated with the plume. Microbial communities associated with wastewater effluent discharged from the Montecito outfall are likely to be complex and distinct from the indigenous ocean microbial ecology, with subgroups and populations changing at varying rates due to multiple loss mechanisms occurring along the plume trajectory. While dispersion and eddy diffusion values (i.e. mixing rates) are accurately obtained from drifter data by considering the relative motion of drifter pairs, the application of these values to dynamic analyses, such as organisms, cannot be used to directly and completely predict the movement of organisms within the plume. Rather, a coupled fate and transport model of microbes within the plume trajectory will be developed based on measured concentrations of microbial constituents in space and time, advection and dispersion characteristics of the water, and nominated loss coefficients for individual groups of microbes. Loss coefficients will be estimated within the plume model by performing sensitivity analyses and discovering appropriately conservative bounds for estimated values. Overall, measurements of water properties, including microbiological contaminants, and subsurface current velocities will characterize the ambient ocean conditions, as well as the effects of effluent discharge on water quality around the outfall.

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J. Carter Ohlmann 3/1/2004-2/28/2009 $459,874

Libe Washburn

National Science Foundation, OCE-0352187 (OCF02)

Collaborative Research: Stochastic Transport Models for the Coastal Ocean

This research seeks to determine optimal stochastic particle transport (i.e. Lagrangian) models for use in the coastal ocean. Circulation observations for the coastal ocean exist primarily in the form of time-averaged Eulerian fields. Many applied problems in coastal oceanography are concerned with how things are transported and where they go. Accurate Lagrangian stochastic transport models for the near-shore region are a necessary link between the copious Eulerian coastal circulation data from high frequency (HF) radar systems, and transport information required by coastal resource managers tasked with identifying the fate of pollutants, larvae, and objects lost-at-sea. Specific research objectives are to: 1. Observe surface flow fields in two coastal regions using HF radar and high-resolution drifters; 2. Develop accurate Lagrangian transport models to predict trajectories from the HF radar fields; 3. Model trajectories and quantify their skill through comparisons with in-situ drifter tracks; and 4. Compute redistribution kernel functions (RKFs), or connectivity matrices, and demonstrate their utility as simple probabilistic near-shore transport models. Existing trajectory models will be modified for consideration of flow patterns characteristic to the coastal ocean. A model with a large-scale mean component (U), a periodic component representing tidal and (near-) inertial motions (Up), and a Lagrangian stochastic component (model; LSM) for subgrid-scale motions (u) will be developed. The LSM will initially be based on high resolution drifter data. An LSM parameterization based on large-scale velocity information (e.g. integral time scales, eddy variance.) and coastal geomorphology will then be developed. This enables the trajectory models to be applied in all coastal regions with sufficient large-scale flow information. Model skill over a wide range of dynamic parameters (e.g. velocity, vorticity, eddy energy) will be quantified in the Santa Barbara (CA) and Miami (FL) coastal regions through comparisons with in-situ drifter tracks. RKFs, giving the probability that a particle released at some location x0 at time t0 will reach location x1 at t1, will be computed with modeled trajectories and evaluated as tools for predicting transport, or connectivity in the coastal ocean. An improved understanding of coastal circulation will result from subsequent identification of how and why RKFs vary spatially and temporally.

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J. Carter Ohlmann 7/1/2006-2/29/2008 $177,788

Office of Naval Research, ONR N00014-06-01-0794 (OCO03)

Acquisition of GPS-Located, Reusable Drifters for Naval Research.

This support allows for the purchase of a 50 unit, high resolution, surface drifter system that will provide the Navy with instrumentation for observing regional ocean circulation patterns on scales which are poorly sampled, poorly understood, and not adequately resolved in ocean models. Drifters will use GPS to determine their position to within a few meters accuracy every 10 minutes. The position data will be transmitted to a web based host computer in near realtime over the Iridium satellite communications network allowing global use of the system. The spatial accuracy and near realtime data availability make the drifters recoverable, allowing multiple uses in Navy research and operations. The scales are smaller than those explicitly resolved in regional numerical circulation models, but larger than isotropic turbulence, and are thus particularly interesting. The drifters will initially be used to map highly energetic coastal currents in Indonesian Straits as part of the ONR-DRI entitled Characterization and Modeling of Archipelago Strait Dynamics. Understanding how energetic through-flows interact with local bathymetry and give rise to complex mesoscale and sub-mesoscale patterns is necessary for improving region ocean circulation models. Observing local transport pathways in near realtime with an autonomous system is key for successful naval operations. The drifter system will subsequently be available for similar applications in other regions of Navy interest.

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J. Carter Ohlmann 4/26/2006-9/30/2009 $127,000

Office of Naval Research, N00014-06-1-0722 (OCO02)

Submeso-scale Dynamics of the Lombok Trait

Sea straits are generally small but significant bodies of water which facilitate water-mass exchange between ocean basins, and provide vital transport routes for maritime shipping operations. Ocean circulation within straits is typically characterized by highly energetic throughflows that interact with local bathymetry and give rise to complex meso- and submeso-scale patterns. Existing circulation studies in major straits focus on the overall transport between connected basins and address variations in transport on seasonal to inter-annual timescales. The submeso-scale flow within ocean straits is scarcely sampled, poorly understood, and not adequately resolved in ocean models.

This project will observe the surface circulation in the Lombok Strait on spatial scales ranging from 10’s of meters to a few km, and time scales ranging from 10’s of minutes to a day, with GPS-located, reusable drifters. The overall objective of the research is an observational understanding of meso- and submeso-scale transient features that occur in the Lombok Strait circulation. This will ultimately facilitate development of an accurate regional modeling system for use in Navy (and related) operations. Surface circulation observations will indicate the important processes and scales that must be resolved in models, provide a means for model validation, and furnish data for assimilation.

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J. Carter Ohlmann 1/1/2007-12/31/2008 $38,595

San Francisco State University, C7-94344 (OCP07)

Delivery and Quality Assurance of Short-Term Trajectory Forecasts from HF Radar Observations.

This collaborative project will develop, assess, and document the use of real-time ocean surface current maps from high frequency (HF) radar installations. Specifically, we will evaluate the use of these data in support of oil spill response activities. An extensive test of these capabilities was conducted in connection with the NOAA Safe Seas 2006 oil spill exercise offshore San Francisco in August, 2006. We intend to conduct a systematic post-exercise evaluation and to document lessons learned. We also intend to quantitatively assess the performance of the short-term (24-hour) surface current prediction methodology that was developed for the Safe Seas 2006 exercise by comparing observed and predicted currents under a wide range of environmental conditions. To aid that assessment, we will conduct a multi-day, multi-deployment field experiment using an array of GPS-tracked surface drifters. Finally, we intend to document our results in the form of a package of recommendations and procedures for the integration of HF radar-derived products into real-time spill response protocols.

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J. Carter Ohlmann 2/1/2005-1/15/09 $100,308

University of California, 04-078.02SB (OCP06)

SCCOOS: The Southern California Coastal Current Observing System, State Conservancy Grant Proposal

Drifters will provide surface current observations in the nearshore transition zone which is not sampled with HF radar. Fifteen drifters will be deployed in a grid extending 2 km offshore and 10 km alongshore. Five deployments will be carried out during a single month in year 2 at the San Pedro “nearshore” study site. A deployment involves initial seeding, and continual reseeding, of the study grid for a period of 3 days. The reseeding will occur through monitoring drifter position in near-realtime, and retrieving and redeploying as drifters they leave the study grid. Drifter trajectories and surface current maps will be generated every three hours during deployment times and provided to SCCOOS data management. These data will be integrated with HF radar data to provide near-realtime monitoring, and will be used for model validation.

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J. Carter Ohlmann 6/1/2004-12/31/2008 $89,612

University of California, NA17RJ1231/O (OCP05)

SCCOOS: Shelf to Shoreline Observatory Development

This drifter study involves a single drifter experiment requiring preparation of the drifters, deployment of the drifters from a small boat, near real-time monitoring of the drifter fleet for a period of a few days (dependent on the flow field), and subsequent retrieval of the drifters. Six drifter releases per year are to be performed. The drifters will provide position data that will be processed to remove erroneous position information, to compute instantaneous velocities, and to compute spatially and temporally averaged velocity fields. The processed data will be made available to others (collaborators, scientists, agency representatives, etc.) via the World Wide Web. The drifter data will be analyzed to provide validation of long-range H.F. radar velocities and for a simple statistical view of the flow field. This includes quantification of measurement discrepancies and sub-grid-scale motions aliased in the H.F. radar data. Additionally, differences between trajectories determined from Eulerian H.F. radar fields and measured with drifters will be quantified to assess the role of the long range H.F. radar data in monitoring movement of pollutants, larvae, and objects lost-at-sea through the coastal ocean.

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J. Carter Ohlmann 9/1/2003-8/31/2008 $123,545

University of Washington, 759405 (OCP03)

Revised Mixed Layer Restratification

Solar radiation, through it’s roughly exponential flux divergence in the upper ocean, can be a significant stratifying process in the upper ocean. As part of an observational study focused on mixing and restratification near the Pacific Sub-Tropical Front, repetitive profiles of in-water solar radiation were collected and processed to determine upper ocean heating rate profiles. These data were supplied to the University of Washington (UW) investigators who coincidently measured upper ocean buoyancy and mixing parameters. The combined data resulted in a manuscript (presently in preparation) by the UW investigators describing the physics associated with the slumping of a mostly horizontal density front. The abstract describing the role of solar restratification is given below.

A depth-cycling towed CTD and vessel-mounted ADCP were used to obtain four-dimensional measurements of the restratification of the surface mixed layer (SML) at a submesoscale lateral density gradient near the Sub-Tropical Front. With the objective of studying the role of horizontal processes on restratification, the thermohaline and velocity fields were monitored for 33 hours by 16 small-scale (≤15 km²) surveys centered on a drogued float. Daytime warming by solar insolation caused a unidirectional displacement of the initially vertical isopycnals towards increasing density. Across the entire SML (50 m vertical scale), solar insolation accounted for 60% of observed restratification, but over 10 m scales the percentage decreased with depth from 80% at 25-35 m to ≤25% at 55-65 m. Below 35 m, stratification was enhanced by the vertically-sheared horizontal advection of the lateral density gradient due to a near inertial wave of ∼100 m vertical wavelength that rotated anticyclonically at the inertial frequency. The phase and similar period (25.4 hours) of the local inertial period to the diurnal cycle ensured constructive interference with isopycnal displacements due to insolation. Restratification by sheared advection matched that predicted due to vertically sheared inertial oscillations generated during the geostrophic adjustment of a density front. Direct wind forcing may also have generated the wave, which was subsequently modified by interaction with the mesoscale vorticity associated with a nearby large-scale front. By further including the effects of lateral uncompensated thermohaline inhomogeneity, 100±20% of the observed N² during daytime restratification.

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Jiancheng Shi 4/3/2007-3/31/2008 data only

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Estimate Snow Properties Using ALOS Measurements. (JAXA data only)

This research effort concentrates on algorithm development for monitoring snow properties by using ALOS image data and on the spatially-distributed, physical-based modeling of snow cover on a mountain watershed. For remote sensing components, we will use ALOS measurements from a diverse array of sensors – from visible to microwave – in a synergistic way to interpret snow properties to monitor and model snow processes. For hydrological components, we will develop methods and strategies to drive and update physically based snow models from the variables obtained from ALOS sensor systems: snow extent, temperature, grain size, wetness and spectral albedo.

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Jiancheng Shi 3/20/2008-9/13/2008 $20,000

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1334931 (JSP03)

Soil Moisture Algorithms and Product Development

Soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state are primary controls on land-atmosphere exchanges of water, energy and carbon over continental areas. Satellite microwave missions will provide new data for estimating soil moisture and freeze/thaw state from space. This project will allow for the development of algorithms to estimate soil moisture from spaceborne microwave observations.

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Jiancheng Shi 6/15/2006-6/14/2009 $460,845

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNX06AC90G (JSN06)

Snow Retrieval Algorithm Development for a Satellite-Based Snow Processes Mission

Seasonal snow cover is one of the most important components in NASA’s goal of predicting global water- and energy-cycle consequences of Earth-system variability and change. However, the prospects are much more deficient: currently existing satellite systems do not offer methods to estimate snow water equivalence (density depth) or snow wetness over the range of Earth’s environments.

The proposed study will identify the suitable microwave sensor parameters and develop the corresponding quantitative retrieval algorithms for monitoring spatial and temporal distributions of snow water equivalence and snow wetness of the seasonal snow cover on land. The components of this investigation are:

(1) completion of the database simulation for the algorithm development under the sensor configurations identified by NASA Cold Land Processes Working Group;

(2) development of a physically-based algorithm to estimate snow water equivalence from dual-frequency and dual-polarization radar measurements;

(3) development of a physically-based algorithm to estimate snow wetness with dual-frequency radar measurements;

(4) development of a combined (active/passive) physically-based algorithm to estimate snow water equivalence using dual-polarization Ku-band radar and dual-frequency radiometer measurements.

We will use a state-of-the-art, physically-based microwave model to generate a simulated backscatter and emissivity database that covers a variety of the most possible snow and underlying ground properties for different sensor parameters (frequency and polarization). These data will be used to evaluate and characterize of the frequency and polarization dependences of each scattering and emission component. Quantitative retrieval algorithms under the various sensor configurations will be developed by either iterative, physical, or statistical techniques. We will validate our algorithms using CLPX’02, CLPX’03, and future CLPX experiments as well as other available ground scatterometer and radiometer measurements. We will engage the CLPX data set to examine the robustness of these retrieval techniques of a variety of topographic and land cover conditions

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David Siegel 4/1/2003-12/31/2008 $388,758

Norm Nelson

Craig Carlson

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NAG5-13277 (SDN19)

NASA Portion of "Chromophoric DOM: An Ignored Photoactive Tracer of Geochemical Processes"

Chromophoric dissolved organic material (CDOM), the colored fraction of the dissolved organic material (DOM) pool, is a highly dynamic property found throughout the open ocean. CDOM is an optical property; hence, its concentration can be quantified synoptically over large spatial scales using satellite-borne sensors or in situ from a host of autonomous platforms. Recent work demonstrates that net CDOM production is related to heterotrophic bacterial cycling processes while its losses are due to photobleaching. Vertical distributions of CDOM and in particular its surface signature are therefore regulated by how vertical mixing processes redistribute the basic processes of CDOM cycling. This suggests that CDOM may be an excellent tracer of upper ocean exchanges. We propose to apply a process-level description of CDOM cycling to test its utility as a geochemical tracer. To make this assessment and to test our hypotheses, we propose to: 1) Elucidate CDOM distributions over a range of oceanic regimes on several meridional sections of the CO2/CLIVAR Repeat Hydrography survey; 2) Quantify and parameterize CDOM production & destruction processes with the goal of mathematically constraining the cycling of CDOM; 3) Evaluate the utility of CDOM as an upper ocean age tracer by comparing with coincident tracer distributions from the Repeat Hydrography survey; and 4) Develop a 1-D model of CDOM dynamics for use across a wide range of oceanic regimes with the goal of diagnosing mixed layer - thermocline exchanges. If our scientific hypotheses prove correct, this research will lead to the remote estimation of water mass exchanges between the mixed layer and underlying waters from satellite orbit. A predictive understanding of these exchanges is critical for understanding the oceanic fate of anthropogenic compounds discharged to the atmosphere.

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David Siegel 1/1/2007-12/31/2008 $280,000

Craig Carlson

Norm Nelson

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NAG5-13277 (SDN24)

Augmentation of NASA NAG5-13277: Chromophoric DOM: An ignored photoactive tracer of geochemical process.

This augmentation will continue the work we have been doing concerned with global CDOM distribution and dynamics. Specifically, it allows for participation in the CLIVAR Repeat Hydrography Indian Ocean expedition in early 2007 (WOCE lines I8S and I9N). These will be the first systematic basin-scale measurements of CDOM in the Indian Ocean on this project and the first since JGOFS. Our results will contribute to our growing understanding of CDOM cycling and transport in the global ocean and will extend our existing work in this area. We will send personnel on each leg of the expedition, and will conduct the following measurements, at a rate of once daily, near noon to come close to Terra/SeaWiFS/Aqua passes (ca. 35 stations per leg):

1) In water light fluxes using Satlantic MicroProII free fall profiler and SMSR surface reference (top 200 m)

2) CDOM distribution surface to bottom (UltraPath liquid waveguide spectrophotometer, analysis at sea).

3) Chlorophyll a distribution in upper 250m (fluorometric method, at sea)

4) Surface samples for HPLC analysis of phytoplankton pigments

5) Surface samples for particulate and detrital absorption (filter pad method)

6) Samples for DOM quality characterization (upper 1000m)

7) Microbial abundance (surface-bottom) and productivity (upper 250 m)

Collected AOP, IOP, and pigment data (along with ancillary measurements and metadata) will be contributed to SeaBASS after the completion of the cruise.

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David Siegel 1/26/2001-Fixed Price $618,198

Stéphane Maritorena

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NAS5-00201 (SDN16)

Plumes and Blooms: Observations, Analysis & Modeling for SIMBIOS

This project continues the coordinated time series program of field observations, ocean color analysis and modeling and satellite image analysis aimed at understanding the spatial and temporal structure of sediment plumes and phytoplankton blooms in the Santa Barbara Channel. A primary goal of the Plumes and Blooms (PnB) project is to develop, validate and apply to imagery state-of-the-art ocean color algorithms for quantifying concentrations of suspended sediments, phytoplankton pigments and dissolved organic materials for this Case II environment. The research includes the collection of a complete biogeooptical data set. Included in this data set are redundant measures of apparent optical properties (remote sensing reflectance and diffuse attenuation spectra), as well as in situ profiles of spectral absorption, beam attenuation and backscattering coefficients. We will use the PnB data set to objectively tune semi-analytical models of ocean color for this site and apply them using available satellite imagery (SeaWiFS and MODIS). These data will also be used to test the applicability of global algorithms for this Case II environment.

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David Siegel 9/1/2006-8/31/2009 $78,000

Kyle Cavanaugh

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNX06AF79H (SDN22)

Remote sensing of kelp habitats in the Santa Barbara Channel using SPOT imagery

Forests of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), found along the shallow rocky areas of the Santa Barbara Channel, are some of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world. The structure of kelp lends itself to aerial mapping; however, very few recent studies have used satellite mapping to calculate kelp coverage and none have done this with high spatial and temporal resolution. Through a partnership with Terra Image USA, UC Santa Barbara had a unique opportunity to access multiple dates of imagery of the Santa Barbara Channel from May of 2004 to the May of 2008. Using this imagery, we can create maps of kelp canopy coverage on a monthly basis and use them to understand the forcing of the kelp ecosystem by oceanographic and biotic processes on various spatial and temporal scales. We will parameterize predictive statistical and demographic models of kelp dynamics to predict changes in regional populations resulting from environmental forcing such as long term climate change. This work builds on existing projects at UCSB including the Santa Barbara Coastal LTER and the NASA supported Plumes and Blooms ocean color study.

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David Siegel 9/1/2006-8/31/2009 $78,000

Chantal Swan

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNX06AF90H (SDN23)

Cycling of colored dissolved organic matter in the open ocean: Application of photolysis measurements to global satellite observations

This work is an integration of laboratory process studies with global remote-sensing data concerning open-ocean colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM). UVR photolysis of CDOM drives the global ocean surface distribution of CDOM seen from satellite. Light absorption by CDOM dominates UVR flux in the upper ocean, moderating photobiological processes and photochemistry of trace gases. Characteristics of CDOM relating to light exposure are observed in the ocean interior, and a quantitative understanding of photolysis will advance the potential utility of CDOM as a remotely-sensed ocean tracer. I propose experimental determinations of apparent quantum yield of CDOM photolysis on open-ocean samples and immediate application of these measurements to global CDOM data derived from NASA ocean color. Through this method, rates of photolytic loss, net production by bioremineralization, and seasonal entrainment of CDOM will be quantified such that an annual mixed layer budget for open-ocean CDOM is established.

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David Siegel 5/1/2007-4/30/2010 $454,841

Steven Gaines

Phaedon Kyriakidis

Stéphane Maritorena

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNX07AF08G (SDN25)

Remote Assessment of Giant Kelp Dynamics - The Engineer of California's Nearshore Ecosystems

Forests of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), found on shallow subtidal reefs along much of coastal California, are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world. Kelp forests have great economic value and are harvested for use in products ranging from pharmaceuticals and cosmetics to food products and aquaculture feed. Perhaps more importantly, giant kelp is an “ecosystem engineer” providing both food and habitat to a diverse array of biologically and commercially important species of algae, invertebrates, fish, and marine mammals while exporting large quantities of organic matter to adjacent littoral and continental shelf ecosystems. Economic analyses show California kelp forests create at least $250 million in revenue each year.

This research will develop a predictive understanding of giant kelp forests in the nearshore waters of California using a combination of remote sensing, numerical modeling and the analysis of available field data. We will take advantage of high resolution, multi-spectral SPOT imagery to map kelp cover dynamics on spatial scales of >10 m and monthly time scales. We will develop new measures of kelp productivity and kelp canopy condition that can be assayed using available remote sensing imagery as well as to guide future mission planning. We will examine the role of disturbance and other environmental factors such as surface wave stress (using regional wave models), coastal currents (using HF radar remote sensing), sediment plumes (using MODIS & SeaWiFS ocean color imagery) and nutrient availability (using field and remote sensing proxies) on our high resolution observations of kelp canopy cover. Our goal is to use these data to develop a predictive understanding of kelp forest metapopulation dynamics (e.g., persistence, colonization, disturbance, etc.) that can be applied to the California coast. This work has a multitude of real-world applications including the ecological assessment of marine resources in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary as well as the state-mandated implementation of marine reserves along the California coast.

This work will be conducted in collaboration with the NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (http://www.cinms.nos.noaa.gov/), the Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research project (http://sbc.lternet.edu/; NSF support), and the Coastal Data Information Project (http://cdip.ucsd.edu/; USGS & State of California support).

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David Siegel 1/29/2008-1/28/2009 $300,000

Stéphane Maritorena

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNX08AG82G (SDN26)

Ocean color study of plumes and blooms in the Santa Barbara Channel.

This project continues a coordinated time series program of ocean color and oceanographic observations, satellite ocean color imagery analysis and ocean color modeling aimed at understanding the spatial and temporal structure of sediment plumes and phytoplankton blooms in the Santa Barbara Channel. The Plumes and Blooms (PnB) optical, phytoplankton pigment and hydrographic data sets illustrate spatial-temporal patterns driven by the switching among a few bio-optical states (cf., diatom blooms, sediment plumes, etc.) rather than varying smoothly across a limited continuum of oceanic conditions. We believe that our poor accounting for this state switching is fundamentally limiting the performance of ocean color models particularly in Case II ocean waters. In this project, we will:

develop a predictive understanding of ocean color variability in a Case II ocean through the regional development of satellite algorithms that account for switching among bio-optical states,
work towards the improvement of MODIS ocean color products in productive ocean waters and develop new approaches to extending the utility of existing MODIS data products,
implement new means for quantifying phytoplankton carbon dynamics, colored DOM and DOC cycling and phytoplankton community structure using MODIS imagery, and
apply this knowledge to help understand the impacts of phytoplankton blooms and sediment plumes in the Santa Barbara Channel and its surrounding waters.

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David Siegel 6/1/2004-5/31/2008 $611,024

Paul Ricchiazzi

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG04GL53G (SDN21)

Rigorous Application of MODIS Ocean Color Imagery to a Case II Ocean: Case Study of Plumes and Blooms in the Santa Barbara Channel

This undertaking will continue our coordinated program of field observations, ocean color modeling, and satellite data analysis in the Case II waters of the Santa Barbara Channel (SBC). The goals of the Plumes and Blooms (PnB) project are to develop and validate state-of-the-art ocean color algorithms for quantifying concentrations of suspended sediments, phytoplankton pigments and dissolved organic materials and to apply these approaches to develop an understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of sediment plumes and phytoplankton blooms in the SBC and their implications. We propose to continue our twice-monthly transect observations across the Santa Barbara Channel and to use these data to develop and implement novel, coupled ocean color and atmospheric correction algorithms for demanding, Case-II, coastal environments. At each of the seven PnB stations, a complete verification bio-geo-optical data set is collected including water-leaving radiance from profiling spectroradiometry as well as in situ profiles of spectral absorption, beam attenuation and backscattering coefficients. Water samples are analyzed to determine particulate and dissolved organic carbon concentrations, component absorption spectra, chlorophyll a, phytoplankton pigment, inorganic nutrient and biogenic and lithogenic silica concentrations. We show that the techniques used for removing the atmospheric path radiance in ocean color imagery are often inadequate for the SBC (and this has been found for many other coastal sites). We believe that this is a major short-coming for ocean color remote sensing. Hence, we will initiate observations of relevant aerosol optical properties along with the PnB field program. These include observations of aerosol optical thickness from sun photometry and estimates of aerosol single scatter albedo using a multi-filter rotating shadowband radiometer. We will use the expanded PnB data set to 1) assess the role of atmospheric aerosol variability has on present correction procedures, 2) provide regionally tuned, semi-analytical models of ocean color, 3) link these ocean color models to novel optimization methods for accounting for the atmosphere and 4) apply these techniques to available ocean color imagery to assess variability in ocean optical properties and carbon cycle parameters and their implications. We believe that improvements are essential in the methods used to separate ocean and atmospheric signals in the coastal ocean. As always, all data and model codes will be available to all interested investigators (www.icess.ucsb.edu/PnB).

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David Siegel 9/15/2006-8/31/2010 $199,410

National Science Foundation, 0628389 (SDF09)

Collaborative Research: Carbon Flux through the twilight zone - new tools to measure change

The UCSB group proposes to conduct a combination of remote sensing, numerical modeling and data analysis tasks to assess the role of time/space variability of export around the trap deployments on the monthly inferences of C export. During the time series operations, the UCSB group will help in at-field sampling by forecasting where the deployed TZEX and NBST traps will go and where they collected sinking particles (as done in VERTIGO). This requires some at-sea work measuring and analyzing currents from the R/V Ocean Explorer’s ADCP system and combining them with satellite altimetry maps of surface currents. We will also assess the sampling scales of the NBST and tethered traps deployed here and will analyze available merged ocean color imagery to assess the time/space variability of Chl and NPP surrounding each trap deployment enabling us to assess the importance of episodic blooms. (e.g., Siegel et al 2006).

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David Siegel 7/1/2003-6/30/2009 $265,732

National Science Foundation, OCE-0241011 (SDF06)

Collaborative Research: Impacts of Eddies and Mixing on Plankton Community Structure and Biogeochemical Cycling in the Sargasso Sea

Impacts of Eddies and Mixing on Plankton Community Structure and Biogeochemical Cycling in the Sargasso Sea The currents, fronts and eddies that comprise the oceanic mesoscale, sometimes referred to as the “internal weather of the sea,” are highly energetic and ubiquitous features of ocean circulation. Dynamical consequences of these phenomena include perturbation of the chemical and biological environment that can dramatically impact biogeochemical cycling in the ocean. The processes that regulate this response are extraordinarily complex, challenging us to understand how the physical, biological and chemical processes are functionally related. Recent evidence suggests that mesoscale eddies are an important nutrient transport mechanism in the oligotrophic waters of the main subtropical gyres. Numerical simulations and satellite based statistical estimates indicate that the magnitude of the eddy-driven nutrient flux could be sufficient to balance geochemical estimates of new production, which far exceed that which can be sustained by traditional mechanisms of nutrient supply. Relatively few direct observations of this process are available, owing to the spatial and temporal intermittency of the events which drive it. Available data demonstrate that isopycnal displacements associated with certain types of eddies can transport nutrients into the euphotic zone, resulting in the accumulation of chlorophyll in the overlying waters. However, the nature of the biological response and its impact on coupled biogeochemical cycles and export has yet to be elucidated. Furthermore, the relationship between eddy-induced upwelling and diapycnal mixing in and below the mixed layer remains obscure; the strength of this interaction determines the degree to which the eddy-driven effects are irreversible and thereby effect a net biogeochemical flux. Our team of investigators proposes to collect a set of measurements that will document phytoplankton physiological response, changes in community structure, export and the biogeochemical ramifications of eddy induced upwelling and mixing in the Sargasso Sea. Target features will be identified prior to field deployment via remote sensing. High resolution surveys will be undertaken with an undulating towed instrument that includes a Video Plankton Recorder and a Fast Repetition Rate Fluorometer. This suite of instruments will facilitate simultaneous assessment of photosynthetic parameters and the species assemblage of phytoplankton and zooplankton. These measurements will be accompanied by discrete water sampling of biogeochemical properties in sets of stations along cross sections of the chosen features. Export will be measured at selected locations within the mesoscale structure. Rates of mixing between the surface mixed layer (order 10m) and waters at the base of the euphotic zone (order 100m) will be inferred from the Helium flux gauge and measured directly with an SF6 tracer release. Taken together, these observations will be sufficient to test the hypothesis that eddy-induced upwelling increases photosynthetic rates, changes community structure and increases export from the euphotic zone, thereby playing an important role in biogeochemical cycling of the subtropical oceans. In essence, what is suggested herein is a mechanism by which a highly nonlinear biological response regulates the impact of a physical disturbance on biogeochemical cycling. We plan to incorporate what we learn about the nature of this regulation into basin-scale eddy-resolving models of the North Atlantic in order to investigate the impacts of this coupled physical/biological/chemical dynamic on large-scale biogeochemical distributions. We hypothesize that geophysical turbulence causes a net acceleration of elemental cycling that plays a fundamental role in maintaining the mean biogeochemical state of the ocean. The proposed research is to be carried out in a collaborative effort amongst ten principal investigators from five institutions: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, Rutgers University, University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Miami. The work consists of two years of field observations followed by a final year of synthesis.

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David Siegel 9/1/2003-8/31/2009 $1,745,951

Bruce Kendall

Chris Costello

Steven Gaines

Robert Warner

National Science Foundation, OCE-0308440 (SDF07)

BE/CNH: Disparate Scales of Process and Nearshore Fishery Management

Public confidence in our abilities to manage nearshore fisheries is at an all time low. Along the U.S. West Coast, nearly all waters deeper than 20 fathoms (~36 m) are closed to all bottom fishing to protect several species of rockfish from local extinction. Similar, though actually unrelated, management actions have created no-take marine reserves around the northern Channel Islands as a means of protecting biodiversity and fish abundances. The phrase "the oceans are in crisis" once used only by is now being used with increasing regularity by fishery managers and fishers themselves. The decline of fisheries and ecological diversity of nearshore waters is driving the "crisis-mode" nature by which nearshore fish resources are presently being managed. Clearly, it is time to examine the complexity of nearshore communities and the fisheries that depend upon them. Nearshore fisheries couple natural (ecological) and human (fishery management) processes resulting in an emergent dynamic system, rich in complexity. The goal of this proposal is to develop a process-level description of nearshore fisheries and their management patterned after California coastal environments. Specifically, we propose to examine the emergent complexity that arises due to interactions among chaotic coastal circulations, fished organism life cycles, the productivity and suitability of nearshore habitats, the intensity and nature of fish harvesting, the economics governing fisheries, fishers and fishery regulations and the bureaucratic system which implements regulations. Our aim is to assess the balance points among costs, profits, uncertainties, stock viability and ecological values of nearshore fished environments. Central to developing a predictive understanding of the interactions between flow, fish and fishing (F3) is the notion of time/space scales. The physics, biology, and socio-economic processes governing this coupled natural/human system operate on inherently different spatial and temporal scales. Without considering the mismatch in scales explicitly, mismanagement of fisheries is likely to continue unabated. Fortunately, the components of a solution to this problem are at hand. Recent advances in modeling coastal ocean circulations, marine life cycle dynamics, the values of information to fishery management, and the consequences of management choices in the face of uncertainty have independently created the pieces necessary to assemble a synthetic approach to nearshore fisheries management. Moreover, large-scale programs monitoring the dynamics of coastal ecosystems are finally providing the empirical data necessary to parameterize and test these models. The individual investigators in this project are leaders in these component efforts. Collectively, they will link these components into new computational and conceptual models that examine optimal management choices in the face of unavoidable physical and biological uncertainty. Although this project uses the Southern California Bight as a focal ecosystem, the issues addressed and conceptual frameworks that arise will have broader, global impacts. Declines in fish stocks and yields are not restricted to any nation or biogeographical region. Indeed, the core problems from mismatches in spatial and temporal scales are characteristic of nearly all marine fisheries. In addition, although fisheries management commonly stops at political borders, ocean flows and fish do not. The ecological scales of coastal ecosystems are inherently international in scope. The international partnerships between this proposed effort and ongoing ecological programs in Mexico, Chile, New Zealand and Australia will expand the regional focus of this effort to global dimensions. Finally, this project links efforts by physical, natural and social scientists in a system where understanding all three components and, more importantly, their interactions are critical to success. The interdisciplinarity of the effort is not just buzzword. Approaches that do not link across these disciplines are doomed to fail. Hence, this project has rich educational opportunities across a range of ages. Since most have at one time been a part of a fishery, either as a harvester or a consumer, the key issues should be appreciated at their core by nearly everyone. This program integrates several opportunities for interdisciplinary education from K-12, through undergraduate, graduate and adult programs.

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David Siegel 8/1/2003-7/31/2007 $99,998

National Science Foundation, OCE-0327318 (SDF08)

VERtical Transport in the Global Ocean

In this study, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, University of California - Santa Cruz, University of California - Santa Barbara, University of Tasmania, and NIWA-Australia are working collaboratively to answer a difficult question in marine biogeochemistry: What controls the efficiency of particle transport between the surface and deep ocean? More specifically, what is the fate of sinking particles leaving the upper ocean and what factors influence remineralization length scales for different sinking particle classes? Knowing the efficiency of particle transport is important for an accurate assessment of the ocean carbon sink. Globally, the magnitude and efficiency of the biological pump will in part modulate levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The research team will test two basic hypotheses about remineralization control, namely: (1) particle source characteristics are the dominant control on the efficiency of particle transport; and/or that (2) mid-water processing, either by zooplankton or bacteria, controls transport efficiency. To do so, they will conduct process studies at sea focused on particle flux and composition changes in the upper 500-1000m of the ocean. The basic approach is to examine changes in particle composition and flux with depth within a given source region using a combination of approaches, many of which are new to the field. These include neutrally buoyant sediment traps, particle pumps, settling columns and respiration chambers, along with the development of new biological and geochemical tools for an integrated biogeochemical assessment of the biological pump. Two sites will be studied extensively on three-week process study cruises: the Hawaii Ocean Time series site (HOT) and a new moored time-series site in the subarctic NW Pacific (Japanese site K2; 47oN 160oE). There are strong contrasts between these sites in rates of production, export, particle composition and expected remineralization length scales.

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David Siegel 3/15/2006-3/14/2009 $110,059

Princeton University, 00001198 (SDP05)

Application of Novel Satellite Carbon Biomass to Develop Ecosystem Models Capable of Predicting Climate Change

The prime responsibility of the UCSB group will be to produce and distribute a suite of novel satellite determinations of carbon biomass and growth rates in collaboration with researchers from Princeton University and Oregon State University. Input data for this will be SeaWiFS and MODIS Terra and Aqua missions. We will produce merged global data fields of carbon biomass, carbon to chlorophyll ratio, carbon-based primary production and phytoplankton loss rates and distribute these data sets via the world wide web. This work builds on that of a ReaSON grant to Jim Frew, Stéphane Maritorena and David Siegel of UCSB. We will work with researchers from Princeton University and Oregon State University in validating these data sets and will assist in develop predictive models of carbon cycling for predicting future changes in the ocean's carbon cycle.

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David Siegel 5/15/2007-5/14/2008 $50,220

Princeton University, 00001466 (SDP09)

Ocean color, carbon and circulation: Studies with an Earth System Model.

The UCSB component of the work will focus on the bio-optical modeling and the application of large-scale ocean color imagery. Specifically, we will:

develop bio-optical models for radiant heating applications which include colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM),
assist the Princeton group in modeling of CDOM dynamics within a standard ecosystem model frame,
validate the Princeton model output using available ocean color satellite and in situ data sets,
analyze trends (time, space, EOF modal, etc.) in merged MODIS / SeaWIFS data to develop useful twin experiments for simulations, and
collaborate with the Princeton group in the interpretation of and publication of results from the project.

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David A. Siegel 7/1/2007-6/30/2008 $30,000

Timothy Chaffey

University of California - Marine Council – CEQI SB070130 (SDP07)

Understanding Patterns of Connectivity Around Headlands and Implications for MPA Design

The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) created a structure to develop a statewide network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that emphasizes an ecosystem-based management approach. An optimal network of MPAs must account for the spatial distribution of reproductive adults and the connectivity among populations (Botsford et al. 2001). Predicting connectivity amidst chaotic coastal circulations along the California coast necessitates the understanding of the predictable and persistent elements of the flow generated by the irregularities of the California coastline. In particular, headlands will likely generate predictable physical features including filaments and recirculation zones that entrain dispersing larvae creating consistent settlement patterns. The Regional Ocean Modeling System, which can simulate 3-D wind driven circulations, will be used over an idealized domain to investigate a headland’s role in coastal circulation and larval dispersal. From many model realizations with variable headland geometric parameters, a mechanistic description of the flow patterns and larval dispersal around headlands will be developed and compared to fish and invertebrate recruitment patterns from the California coast. The theoretical framework developed will provide fishery managers an efficient tool to understand connectivity relationships over a dynamic coastline.

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David Siegel 7/1/2007-8/31/2008 $50,000

University of California, SB080010 (SDP08)

Scenario Tools for Assessing Spatial Management in the Southern California Bight

The focus of this project is the modeling of larval connectivity for the Southern California Bight using modeled flow fields from the UCLA group and larval flow-behavior advection models from the UCSB group (Siegel). The UCLA group will create multi-year 1 km spatial resolution fields of currents and temperature for the Southern California Bight (SCB) driven by available wind and remote forcing data using the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). The SCB domain is from south of San Diego to north of Conception, with 1 km grid resolution. Model integrations start in time from 2002, moving forward in time to the present. The UCSB group will use information about larval development time course, spawning season and larval behavior to construct larval connectivity kernels from and to nearshore sites in the Southern California Bight. Target species are Kelp Bass and several species of rockfish where enough life history information is known to constrain connectivity. Larval behavior is trickier as only anecdotal information is available. For this we will model a range of larval behavior patterns. Modeling results by the UCSB group using ROMS in idealized settings for a range of larval behaviors show only small changes in connectivity patterns and moderate changes in mean dispersal scales due to behavior factors (less than 20%; Siegel et al. in press, PNAS).

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Michael Singer 8/15/2005-7/31/2009 $103,265

Tom Dunne

National Science Foundation, BCS-0521663 (SMDF01)

Collaborative Research: Tracking Hydraulic Mining Sediments from the Sierra Piedmont into Flood Bypasses of the Sacramento Valley, California

Hydraulic mining in the Sierra Nevada of California displaced great volumes of sediment as a byproduct of gold extraction from placer gravels. The spatial distribution of hydraulic mining sediment reworking and deposition in flood bypasses over the last century are relevant to the fate of contaminants, flood conveyance, and the land-use in the lower Sacramento Valley of California, which is undergoing a massive program of restoration and development, and to basic research on valley floor sediment budgets and floodplain sedimentation. This research employs a suite of new techniques and data to investigate the temporal and spatial links between Central Valley floodplain sedimentation and erosion of hydraulic mining sediment in the Sierra piedmont over the last century. Recent field evidence of episodic piedmont erosion and bypass deposition calls for a new investigation of the hydraulic mining sediment delivery problem in the lower Sacramento valley over the last century. The research will track the movement of fine sediments derived from hydraulic mining tailings in the lower Sacramento Valley. The research team will link spatial and temporal patterns and processes of deposition in Sutter and Yolo Bypasses (leveed floodplains of the Central Valley) with erosion of piedmont tailings of the lower Bear, Yuba, and Feather Rivers downstream of the last major dam on each. It will track historical erosion of hydraulic mining sediments in the piedmont through a combination of photogrammetry, channel change analysis, and field surveys. The team will document history and provenance of mining sediment deposits in the Central Valley by granulometry, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, magnetism, and geochronology. In addition, records from a network of streamflow gauging stations will be perused for corroborative analysis of temporal correlation between piedmont erosion and Central Valley sedimentation. The project will produce quantitative, field-based estimates of volumetric sediment storage and erosion along piedmont channels and the timing of its evacuation. It will document geochemical, grain size, and magnetic properties of mining and non-mining sediment and develop appropriate mixing models for discerning the relative influence of each source downstream through the fluvial system. It will identify the spatial extent and volume of discrete sediment deposits in the bypass system, and document sedimentation rates and histories along various transects spanning Sutter and Yolo Bypasses. The research will develop quantitative links between piedmont erosion and bypass deposition that are based on historical hydrology and refined conceptual models of bypass sedimentation processes. It will provide the basis for predictive modeling of the impact of future floods on sediment movement through the Central Valley.

The project will provide a quantitative basis for future management decisions and direction in the Sacramento Valley and a set of methodologies that can be applied to other large, managed river basins. Data and interpretations from this study will be of great practical use to river and environmental management in the lower Sacramento Valley and the Delta, where our results are of utmost importance to flood conveyance, maintenance of islands, and potential toxicity of sediment. This research will create educational opportunities for a new generation of geomorphologists, including those from historically underrepresented groups. The output from this research will be made available as a project website via the World Wide Web and provide direct K-12 scientific outreach through the NASA space consortium, an educator resource center.

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Ray Smith 10/15/20029/30/08 $192,000

College of William and Mary, 518605/1247 (SRP03)

Long-Term Ecological Research on the Antarctic Marine Ecosystem: Climate Migration, Ecosystem Response and Teleconnections in an Ice-Dominated Environment

Previous research within the Palmer LTER research project was focused on four areas: bio-optics, sea ice and climate, cross-component integration, and ecological synthesis. This continuation will focus on completion of several manuscripts along a few outstanding problems. First, is to make use of our already obtained inherent optical property (iop) data to test hypotheses concerning the unique bio-optical characteristics of Southern Ocean (SO) waters. Second, our SeaWiFS algorithm for the SO (which is empirical) can be placed on a more analytical bases. Third, collaborating with co-PIs to complete a spatial/temporal analysis of key physical and biological parameters influencing the marine ecology of the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region. Fourth, working to better understand how climate warming along the WAP is influencing, and may influence in the future, the marine ecosystem.

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Terence Smith 10/1/2001–Fixed Price $489,972

James Frew

Greg Janeé

National Science Foundation (via UCAR) S02-36644 (STP01)

Collaborative Project: Core Integration of the National SMETE Digital Library

For thousands of years libraries have been centerpieces of learning. Often, too, they have been keystones of democracy, creating opportunities for individuals to gain knowledge and to participate fully in community affairs. The potential impacts of a National SMETE Digital Library upon science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education are no less profound - as both a means for positive educational change in a digital era and an exemplary continuation of library precedents. This project will perform the Core Integration (CI) effort for NSDL. The UCSB component, specifically, will work in two phases, as follows: Phase I will create: 1) middleware for integrating distributed, heterogeneous collections (including uniform search over heterogeneous collections and central collection discovery service); 2) legacy content inclusion services (connections to popular database systems); 3) metadata schema for "learning objects" (general, instructional, and geospatial fields, XML schemas for items and collections); 4) metadata creation and extraction tools (geospatial footprint ingest); 5) gazetteer API; and 6) Earth-science-specific reference services and controlled vocabularies (thesauri and dictionaries). During Phase II, UCSB will focus on: 1) personal collection development services (create and manage local collections, import objects from remote collections); 2) interoperable search services (evolution of {S,G}DLIP); 3) metadata schema for computer models; and 4) hand-held (PDA) computing support services.

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Christopher Still 9/15/2004-9/14/2008 $350,267

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNG04GR45G (SCN01)

C4 Photosynthesis and the Carbon Cycle: An Integrated Plan of Research and Education

The research goal of this project is to improve our understanding of C4 photosynthesis in the global carbon cycle. C4 plants are functionally different from C3 plants in several important respects, including stomatal conductance, responses to light, temperature, nitrogen, and CO2, as well as carbon and oxygen isotope fractionation during photosynthesis. As a result, global change affects C3 and C4 plants differentially, with important differences for such essential human needs as food and fiber production and fuel gathering. In addition, a refined prediction of C4 carbon fluxes in space and time is essential to accurate partitioning of land and ocean carbon sinks through inversion of atmospheric d13C-CO2 and CO2 data because of the similar isotopic imprint that C4 and oceanic carbon exchanges leave on the atmosphere. Finally, C4-dominated ecosystems are heavily impacted by climate variation and land use change, they are located in regions of high population density, and C4 crops are critical for the nutritional support of several hundred million people.

The primary research focus of my NIP project is the biogeography and biogeochemistry of C4 vegetation at regional to global scales. For this research, my group and I are combining MODIS datasets on vegetation composition (the vegetation continuous fields (VCF)) with climate data and crop data to predict the fraction of vegetation that uses the C4 photosynthetic pathway and the remaining fraction that uses the more common C3 photosynthetic pathway. We are finalizing the %C3 and %C4 maps for South America and Africa, as these continents contains many C4 grasslands and savannas, and there is already a great deal of biogeochemical research ongoing there (e.g., associated with the NASA LBA and SAFARI projects). The next steps will be to create similar maps for North America (for the north American Carbon Project), Asia, and Australia (there is almost no C4 vegetation cover in Europe). One of my postdocs is working on surface validation of these distributions and C4 evolution and biogeography in the Hawaiian Islands. I also have a student working to generate fire and lightning flash frequency maps for C4-dominated biomes. These will improve our ecological and biogeochemical understanding of frequent fires in these biomes. Finally, we have also generated new global maps of the C3 and C4 crop percentages, as C4 crops are crucial for the nutrition of several hundred million people worldwide.

Related to these projects, I have initiated collaborations with wildlife biologists to predict the carbon isotope composition of vegetation for constraining animal migration and movement in Africa. Although our work is preliminary, these isotope maps have the potential to significantly improve our efforts to understand animal migration and sources of insect pests and pathogens in Africa and elsewhere. Animal tissues represent baseline food web values and these can be linked with reasonable confidence to our plant carbon isotope maps using known isotopic discrimination factors between plants and animal tissues. No previous studies have attempted to establish animal origins based on large-scale carbon isotope patterns expected in plants, since such depictions were not available until very recently. Future work will extend this approach to other continents and animals whose migration and movement are poorly known. North America shows a great deal of promise for constraining animal migration, as its spatial carbon-13 gradients are quite large. Finally, other NASA EOS products show great potential in improving the mapping of isoscapes, and will be vigorously pursued in the near future.

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Christopher Still 1/1/2004-9/30/2007 $105,173

University of California, 2005-1522 (SCP02)

Linking the C18 Budget to Global Change Processes

This project will focus on the continued development and testing of the ecosystem isotope model against data such as that collected by the Biosphere-Atmosphere Stable Isotope Network (http://gcte-focus1.org/basin.html). We plan to continue our efforts to assess how changes in cloud cover and diffuse: direct ratios influence ecosystem-atmosphere CO18O fluxes in the DOE ARM Southern Great Plains region. Other plans include improvements in leafwater modeling of delta O18 by incorporating MODIS water content fields, as well as new approaches to include non-steady state effects in leafwater modeling. If data past 1997 can be obtained from NOAA, a more thorough analysis of delta O18 in CO2 variability will be conducted and compared with observed and modeled variability in carbon fluxes and delta O18 in the H2O cycle.

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Christina Tague 7/15/2007-6/30/2009 $12,000

Michael Farrell

National Science Foundation, BCS-0728236 (CTF01)

Doctoral Dissertation Research: Multi-spatial Forecasts of Hydrologic Sensitivity to Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest: A Process-based Modeling Approach

Summer streamflow in the Pacific Northwest provides water for aquatic biota, agriculture, hydroelectric generation, recreation, and urban use. Water resources in the region are already limited and are expected to become more so in coming decades. Higher air temperatures associated with climatic change will likely lead to reduced snow accumulation and melt, reducing summer streamflows. Understanding how large watersheds that are of mixed geologic composition with a range of snow accumulation and melt characteristics may respond to climatic change is an important step in analyzing regional responses to climatic change. Predicting spatial patterns of streamflow sensitivity associated with snowpack change is complicated by the influence of geology on the rate at which recharge (snowmelt or rain) becomes streamflow. Within the Oregon Cascades, distinct geologic differences between the younger High Cascade province and the older Western Cascade province are dominant controls on drainage rates and ultimately streamflow. The methods used in this study will include process-based hydrologic modeling (RHESSys) to predict distributed streamflow sensitivity to climatic change within the McKenzie River basin, a major Willamette River tributary. Fieldwork will monitor streamflow and produce a framework to distribute model parameters. Streamflow predictions will be integrated with reservoir models to assess the sensitivity to potential climatic change for three large reservoirs in the McKenzie watershed. The objective of this study is to provide a better understanding of the interaction among the controls of snowpack and geology on streamflow at multiple scales and its response to climatic change in the Oregon Cascades.

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Christina Tague 9/1/2007-8/31/2008 $19,150

University of California, Merced, EAR 0725097 (CTP01)

The California Critical Zone Observatory

The goal of the California Critical Zone Observatory is to develop data sets and an interdisciplinary research program to provide a process-level understanding of critical zone dynamics in the Sierra Nevada. The Observatory will link intensive field measurement with modeling to improve understanding of hydrology, biogeochemical cycling and vegetation dynamics in the critical zone and the sensitivity of these interactions to climate and land cover disturbances.

This effort will focus on the use of modeling to integrate and scale field measurements and address questions about whole watershed behavior under different climate and land cover scenarios. We will apply RHESSys (Regional hydro-ecologic system) to the four nested catchments within the Kings River field site (primary Observatory field site). Existing datasets will be used for preliminary model simulations that can be used to guide the locating of intensive instrumentation. We will work closely with other Co-PIs to integrate field measurements of critical zone hydrologic function, vegetation dynamics and biogeochemical cycling into the RHESSys modeling framework – both through improved parameterization and revisions to sub-models as needed.

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Claudia Tyler 12/31/2099-8/6/2012 $140,000

Frank Davis

Santa Barbara County, 06-00881 (TCP02)

Santa Barbara County Oak Restoration Project

The Santa Barbara County Oak Restoration Program (SBCORP) was funded as alternative mitigation for the loss of more than 2000 oaks during installation of the All American Pipeline. As described in the original request for proposals, this program was intended to promote the regeneration of oak habitats within Santa Barbara County through fencing and cattle grazing management.

Initiated in 1995 by investigators at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Oak Restoration Program was designed with the multiple objectives of research and restoration. This Program represents a long-term commitment by the principal investigators, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the UC’s Natural Reserve System to: 1) restore several hundred acres of oak savanna and woodlands on Sedgwick Reserve, a 5896-acre ranch at the base of Figueroa Mountain; 2) conduct large-scale grazing and related experiments that will give practical guidance to resource managers and land owners in Santa Barbara County who are concerned with management and restoration of local oak woodlands; 3) disseminate findings in the form of presentations, onsite demonstration projects, and literature that is directed towards locals landowners and resource managers. A Final Report, dated August 2005, summarized the program’s main accomplishments, research findings, and work completed within the initial 10-year contract period. Investigators presented these findings on April 5, 2006 to the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission, which approved renewal of the contract with UCSB for an additional 7-year period.

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Claudia Tyler 3/1/2008-6/30/2008 $9,751

University of California, SB080120 (TCP03)

Seed-flow on California Valley Oak Novel Approaches to an Old Problem

This project allows for fieldwork related to “Seedling Dispersal Outcomes,” specifically, the location of natural seedling patches throughout the study area (Sedgwick Reserve), mapping, and collecting newly established valley oak seedlings.

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Zhengming Wan 9/1/2006-11/30/2007 $27,672

Crystalaser, Inc., SB070028 (WZP01)

Measurement of land Surface Reflectance with Laser

This project seeks to increase the ability to measure land-surface emissivity by completing the following tasks:

1. Research and development of single longitudinal mode lasers, including infrared laser, red laser, blue laser, and green laser by use of diffraction grating technology. This work will increase the coherent length and thereby increase the ability to benefit research efforts.

2. Using the technology of non-contact surface temperature measurement, validate measurement of surface temperatures of baking plate for laser head and TEC and establish a standard method of thermal cycling of laser cavity. This will allow for the study of the stability of the laser in relationship with the thermal cycling temperature, in order to improve the stability and the reliability of the laser.

3. Based on the detecting and recording technologies for radiations, develop a method to study the stability of the lasers by use of detectors and data loggers.

4. Complete visibility study of land surface reflectance/emissivity with the newly developed single mode lasers.

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Zhengming Wan 12/18/2007-12/17/2008 $310,638

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NNX08AE62A (WZN06)

Refinement and validation of flexible operational algorithms for the generation of consistent long-term land-surface temperature/emissivity ESDR/CDR products

Radiance-based validation will be performed routinely for Terra and Aqua MODIS LST products over dozens of test sites world-wide. The PGE code for the daily MODIS LST products will be modified for the implementation of the refinements and the updated code will be delivered to the MODIS Science Team.

In order to evaluate the operational NPP VIIRS LST product, the MODIS split-window algorithm will be modified to retrieve LSTs using VIIRS data in bands M15 and M16, and the MODIS day/night LST algorithm will be modified to retrieve LST/Es from VIIRS data in seven TIR bands (M12, I4, M13, M14, M15, I5 and M16). Algorithms will be evaluated for NPP/NPOESS VIIRS LST Environmental Data Record (EDR) by comparing it to the MODIS LST algorithms, evaluate the suitability of the NPP/NPOESS LST EDR as ESDR/CDR, and possibly validate the NPP LST product. The metrics we will use to evaluate our results are 1) the increases in the values of QAPERCENTGOODQUALITY (the percent of retrieved LSTs with accuracies better than 1K) in the metadata of the refined MODIS LST products on the global scale; 2) the improvement must be validated routinely at dozens of test sites with the radiance-based approach; 3) the correlation between the emissivities in the MODIS LST products and the in-situ measured values in our previous field campaigns; 4) the correlation between the emissivities in the Terra and Aqua MODIS LST products, and the reasonable seasonality in the emissivities; and 5) the increases in the applications and publications of the MODIS LST products.

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Libe Washburn 9/1/2006-8/31/2008 $40,000

University of California, 2006-3821 (WLP15)

HF Radar national network data management development

The National High Frequency Surface Current Mapping Radar Network is being developed as a backbone system within Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). Of the core variables recognized in the IOOS Development Plan, two, ocean surface currents and ocean surface waves, can be measured by high frequency radar systems (HFR’s). As an operational component of IOOS, the existing (approximately 120 as of August 2008) HFR’s will need to adhere to data processing and operations standards. These standards include quality assurance (QA) methods, quality control (QC) of data and best practices in operation and maintenance (O&M) of radar sites.

As part of the IOOS effort, this project is developing a knowledge base on the uncertainty and reliability of the current velocity measurements made by coastal high frequency radar systems manufactured by Codar Ocean Sensors Ltd (COS). This project has examined important hardware and software diagnostic parameters to assess the functioning and reliability of HF radar measurement for measuring surface currents. These parameters are being incorporated into real-time processing algorithms which are freely available to all users of COS HFR’s. These improvements in processing are critical for developing robust operational coastal ocean observing systems. More details on the project and related efforts can be found at http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/iog/realtime/index.php.

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