1. Overview of Estuarine (and Puget Sound) Oceanography PSO 2009

2. Drivers Geology: Glacial-Interglacial carve channels, 200 m sea-level change Atmosphere: Weather, Climate Ocean: Nutrients in inflow (coastal upwelling) Rivers: Storms, nutrients, sediment Tides: Sea-surface and currents, Spring- Neap cycle

3. Physical & Chemical Habitat Circulation: The Exchange Flow Stratification: Increased by river, decreased by tidal mixing Salinity: Huge along-channel gradient Temperature: surface warming Nutrients: Ocean or river sources, AND lots of internal recycling (e.g. remineralization in the ETM) Residence Time = Volume/Flux, but be careful about the definition of both

4. Ecosystem Fundamentals Primary Production: is high in estuaries, needs nutrients and light (and stratification), different bloom timing in different basins. Zooplankton: like concentrated food sources, populations lag phytoplankton, behaviors (vertical distributions) affect distribution/retention in sheared currents.

5. Special Places ETM: Flocculation + deep inflow = accumulation of sediment, detritus, bacteria, zooplankton, larval fish Intertidal: episodic water exchange, waves important, high benthic grazing Basins: Long residence time, hypoxia, daytime predation refuge (e.g. krill) Sills: localized vertical turbulent mixing Headlands and braided channels: enhanced lateral dispersion by eddies, phytoplankton/zooplankton aggregation

6. Special Problems Hypoxia: Productivity + Stratification + Long deep residence time. Big biological consequences. HAB’s: causes debatable, different for diatoms vs. dinoflagellates, increasing in Sound? Invasive species: Asian zooplankton from SF Bay ballast water, competition for native species

7. Classification Well-mixed: Delaware Bay Well-mixed sometimes: Willapa Bay Partially-mixed: Hudson River, North SF Bay, James River Partially-mixed with deep basins: Chesapeake, Long Island Sound, Puget Sound Highly-stratified: Mississippi, Snohomish Rivers Intensely Variable: Skagit River Stagnant with episodic renewal: Baltic Sea