WEEK NINE: 3-7 April 2017

ITEMS OF INTEREST

• Public is invited to share "safe-place" selfies -- During this upcoming week (3-6 April 2017), the National Weather Service is promoting its #SafePlaceSelfie campaign as part of building a Weather-Ready Nation by encouraging everyone to determine a "safe place" in the home, school or business place when extreme weather threatens. Once a safe place has been determined, the public is invited to take a selfie (a self-portrait photograph) of this place and share it using #SafePlaceSelfie and then contact family and friends on social media by asking "where is your safe place?" The best and most creative selfies may even be shared from the @NWS account! A live Tweet Chat will be held on 6 April between 1 and 2 PM EDT. [NOAA Weather-Ready Nation News]
• Tsunami Awareness Month -- The month of April is Tsunami Awareness Month in Hawaii.
• Asteroids, climate change and mass extinctions -- You are invited to read this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth that describes how geoscientists have gathered evidence of five major mass extinctions over the last 550 million years from fossil records. These records also help in reconstructing past climates and help in the understanding of climate change.

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics --- At the start of last week two tropical cyclones were found moving across the waters of the Southern Hemisphere, with one system in the South Indian Ocean basin and the other in the western South Pacific Ocean basin:
• In the South Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Cyclone Caleb remained at tropical-storm-strength as traveled westward and weakened at the beginning of the week. On last Monday, this small tropical storm began to dissipate as it was situated approximately 130 miles south of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, which are to southwest of the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. Additional information and satellite imagery for Tropical Storm Caleb are found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• In the western sections of the South Pacific basin, Tropical Cyclone Debbie continued to intensify to become a category 3 tropical cyclone (on the Saffir-Simpson Intensity Scale) as it traveled to the west-southwest toward the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia at the start of last week. Debbie made landfall near Airlie Beach along the coast of Queensland on Tuesday, accompanied by torrential rain, strong winds and a storm surge that caused major flooding. [CNN] The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and other additional information on Cyclone Debbie.
• Names of two hurricanes in 2016 retired from the active name list -- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Region IV Hurricane Committee recently retired the names of Matthew and Otto from the internationally recognized Atlantic list of hurricane names. Matthew, a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale that traveled across the Caribbean at the end of last September and made land fall in Haiti, Cuba, Grand Bahama Island and South Carolina, was responsible for 585 direct fatalities and represents the 81st name to be removed from the list. Hurricane Otto became a category 3 hurricane before making landfall in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, with the loss of 18 lives in Central America. Storm names are retired if they were so deadly or destructive that the future use of the name would be insensitive. The WMO has selected the names Martin and Owen to fill the list when it is used again in 2022. NOAA's National Hurricane Center is a member of this WMO committee. [NOAA News]
• Derelict crab fishing pots in Chesapeake Bay cause a big problem -- A private consulting company working with NOAA's Marine Debris Program to investigate the physical, biological, and socio-economic impacts of Derelict Fishing Gear (DFG) in the Chesapeake Bay. The results of this work indicate that 145,000 derelict (lost or abandoned) crab pots are in the nation's largest estuary and that during the six-year (2008-2014) period of study, removal of these traps in areas with a heavy fish activity, the Chesapeake Bay harvest of blue crabs increased by 38 million pounds or a 23.8 percent. [NOAA News]
• New members to national hydrographic advisory panel are sought -- NOAA's National Ocean Service is currently seeking new members to serve a four-year term for its Hydrographic Services Review Panel, a federal advisory committee that advises the NOAA administrator on the agency's hydrographic programs, products and technology. [NOAA News]
• Interdisciplinary efforts made to advance Steller sea lion research -- Researchers at NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Fisheries Science Center are working with the data-science site Kaggle in order to automate the counting the number of Steller sea lions in a new project called NOAA Fisheries Steller Sea Lion Population Count. Steller sea lions are an endangered species of sea lions that populate the coasts of Alaska. Kaggle is a data science company that connects user groups to coders who can help automate processes to save time and money. Following the end of the project in June, the Center researchers hope to have algorithms that can help them process and count Steller sea lions in aerial images.[NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center News]
• Recent stories involving anadromous fish and dams -- Two far-flung regions of NOAA Fisheries recently have provided stories of how the presence of dams along freshwater streams are having an impact on some species of anadromous fish such as salmon that are hatched in fresh water, then spend most of their lives in ocean water before returning to fresh water to spawn:
  • According to the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region, the damage to California's Oroville Dam in February following torrential rain in February 2017 has raised concern for the status of the Feather River Fish Hatchery, one of the most important fish hatcheries in California that is located four miles downstream from the Oroville Dam on the Feather River. This hatchery is the largest producer of California Central Valley fall-run Chinook salmon, a species that provides millions of dollars annually to the state's economy through commercial and recreational fishing, as well as making up approximately 60 percent of the fall-run Chinook salmon caught off the southern Oregon coast. Quick action by NOAA and state officials resulted in the transfer of two million spring-run Chinook salmon and about 4.2 million fall-run Chinook salmon to the safety of the Thermalito Annex farther downstream. [NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region Stories]
  • NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region has posted a story that involves the research being conducted by various agencies including the NOAA Restoration Center to determine the river channels in the Upper Chesapeake Basin would respond to sediment releases as old dams are removed from these river channels. More than a dozen marine fish species, including Atlantic salmon, river herring, and American shad, use these rivers as freshwater habitats to complete one or more life cycle stages. Sediments building in the pools above the dams can be toxic. [NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region Stories]
• Multiple marine and freshwater algal toxins found in Southern California's coastal waters -- A team of scientists from the University of Southern California–Los Angeles, the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, and the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board recently reported on their survey of over fifty brackish water sites in bays, coastal sloughs, and creeks leading to the sea in southern California. They documented the occurrence of several, potentially harmful cyanobacteria and associated toxins at this coastal interface. All sites had potentially toxic genera of cyanobacteria, while many sites had measurable concentrations of anatoxins, cylindro-spermopsins, microcystins, saxitoxins, and nodularians—cyanotoxins known to have potential for causing human illnesses. [NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science News]
• Ocean acidification is spreading rapidly in the Arctic -- An international team of researchers from the United States, China and Sweden recently reported that between the 1990s and 2010, acidified waters in the western Arctic expanded northward approximately 350 miles from the Chukchi Sea slope off the coast of northwestern Alaska to just south of the North Pole. Furthermore, the depth of acidified waters increased from approximately 325 feet below the surface to more than 800 feet depth. The ocean acidification is taking place because the ocean is absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. More absorbed carbon dioxide results in increased acidity of the seawater, which decreases the building blocks used by shellfish to grow their shells. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
• Coral reef observing capability tested in Hawaii -- NASA has been flying a series of airborne research flights over the last several years in an effort to test new instruments such as the prototype Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) that can be placed on future satellite missions to monitor the condition of coral reefs around the world. During this past winter the HyspIRI Hawaii field campaign was conducted over the waters surrounding Hawaii, a NASA ER-2 aircraft flew to altitudes of 60,000 ft from Marine Corps Base Hawaii, on the island of Oahu carrying the Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and the MODIS-ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER). Six coral reef-related projects with diverse objectives are using imagery that AVIRIS and MASTER collected around the Hawaiian archipelago in January through early March. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory News]
• Widespread bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef is ongoing for a second year -- The NOAA Coral Reef Program has generated an animation loop of accumulated weeks of heat stress, defined as coral degree heating weeks, across the southwestern Pacific Ocean and the Coral Sea off northeastern Australia from the start of January 2017 through the third week of March. During mid March, values of the degree heating weeks increased to points that likelihood of widespread to significant coral bleaching, including possible death. A record-breaking coral-bleaching event on Australia's Great Barrier Reef was also observed one year ago, in March and April 2016. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
• New computer model used to predict Southern California shoreline changes -- Scientists with the US Geological Survey (USGS) have developed a new computer model called "CoSMoS-COAST" (Coastal Storm Modeling System – Coastal One-line Assimilated Simulation Tool) and their simulations have led them to predict that with limited human intervention, 31 to 67 percent of Southern California beaches may become completely eroded (up to existing coastal infrastructure or sea-cliffs) by the year 2100 under scenarios of sea-level rise of one to two meters. CoSMoS is a dynamic modeling approach that incorporates relevant physics involved with tides, waves and storm surge associated with coastal storms to allow more detailed predictions of coastal flooding due to both future sea level rise and storms integrated with long-term coastal evolution over large geographic areas. [USGS News]
• An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA's National Weather Service, FAA and FEMA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAA/NWS Daily Briefing]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Concept of the Week: Controlling Nutrient Input into Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay is the nation's largest estuary; it is more than 300 km (185 mi) long, 65 km (40 mi) at its broadest, and averages about 20 m (66 ft) deep. The estuary was formed by the post-glacial rise in sea level that flooded the valley of the ancient Susquehanna River. The Bay receives about half its water from the Atlantic Ocean and the other half from the more than 150 rivers and streams draining a 166,000 square kilometer land area encompassing parts of New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Major rivers that empty into Chesapeake Bay include the Potomac, Susquehanna, York, and James.

As described in more detail in your DataStreme Ocean textbook, an estuary is a complex and highly productive ecosystem where seawater and freshwater runoff meet and mix to some degree. In Chesapeake Bay, more-dense seawater creeps northward along the bottom of the estuary, moving under the less-dense fresh water flowing in the opposite direction. This circulation combined with wind-driven and tidal water motions causes salinity to decrease upstream in the Bay, from values typical of the open ocean at its mouth to freshwater values at its northern margin.

As in all ecosystems, organisms living in estuaries depend on one another and their physical environment for food energy and habitat. Phytoplankton and submerged aquatic vegetation (e.g., marsh grass) are the primary producers (autotrophs) in estuarine food chains. Chesapeake Bay consumers (heterotrophs) include zooplankton, finfish, shellfish, birds, and humans.

Human activity has greatly modified Chesapeake Bay with consequences for the functioning of the ecosystem. Much of the original forests that covered its drainage basin were cleared and converted to farmland, roads, cities, and suburban developments. These modifications accelerated the influx of nutrients (i.e., compounds of phosphorus and nitrogen), sediment, pesticides, and other pollutants into the Bay. More nutrients spur growth of algal populations and when these organisms die (in mid-summer), their remains sink to the bottom. Decomposition of their remains reduces dissolved oxygen levels in the Chesapeake's bottom water. More sediment increases the turbidity of the water, reducing sunlight penetration for photosynthesis. Presently Chesapeake Bay is on the Federal list of "impaired waters" and in need of pollution abatement and remediation. States in the drainage basin have agreed to work together to clean up the Bay but there are significant obstacles including cost.

One casualty of human modification of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem was marsh grass-reduced by 90% from historical levels. Marsh grass anchors sediment and dampens wave action thereby controlling shoreline erosion and turbidity. Marsh grass is a food source for many organisms including waterfowl and small mammals and serves as a primary nursery for crabs and many species of fish. Reduction of this habitat along with over-fishing has been implicated in the decline of populations of blue crabs, a mainstay of the Bay fishery for more than a century. Over the past decade, the number of adult female blue crabs plunged by 80%. Without adequate protection by marsh grass, blue crabs are more vulnerable to predation by striped bass (i.e., rockfish). Striped bass turned to blue crabs as a food source when fishing reduced the numbers of menhaden, their preferred food. Menhaden is a marine fish in the herring family and the Bay's top fishery by weight.

Human modification of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin converted it from an essentially closed system to an open system. In the original climax forests, nutrients primarily cycled within the system with relatively little input to the Bay. Modification of the land for agriculture increased the area of the soil exposed to the elements and runoff from rain and snowmelt accelerated nutrient input into the Bay. In addition to such non-point (area) sources of nutrients are point sources including the effluent of wastewater treatment plants that discharge treated water into rivers and streams that drain into the Bay.

For decades, agriculture has successfully employed various cultivation practices that limit the runoff from cropland (e.g., contour plowing, strip cropping, and retention ponds.) However, less than one-third of the 300-wastewater treatment facilities located in the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin have the technology to remove high levels of nutrients from their effluent. Under current environmental regulations, states are not required to regulate the nutrient content of this discharge. But in late October 2003, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a private, not-for-profit environmental advocacy organization called on Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia to specify nutrient limits on permits they grant to all wastewater treatment facilities. In support of their recommendations, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation cited the many water quality problems stemming from excessive nutrient load in the Bay waters (e.g., algal blooms, spread of "dead zones.") According to the U. S. EPA, under the federal Clean Water Act, a state can control nitrogen pollution if it determines that environmental harm is taking place. However, the EPA estimates that as much as $4.4 billion would be required to install state-of-the-art nutrient removal technologies at all major plants (those treating more than 500,000 gallons of wastewater per day).

Concept of the Week: Questions

1. In terms of nutrient cycling, the climax forest that originally occupied the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin was a(n) [(open)(closed)] system.
2. Excessive input of nutrients into Chesapeake Bay [(spurs the growth of)(has little impact on)] algal populations and [(increases)(reduces)] the concentration of dissolved oxygen in bottom waters.

Historical Events:

• 3 April 1797...Captain Thomas Truxtun, USN, devised and issued the first known American signal book using numerary system, encompassing 10 numeral pennants, made of combinations of red, white, blue, and yellow bunting, with flags for repeaters. This signal book contained approximately 300 signals. Fog signals were made by gunfire. Night signals were made by lanterns and gunfire. (Naval Historical Center)
• 4 April 1581...The famous English navigator, Francis Drake, completed his circumnavigation of the world (1577 to 1580) and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. (Wikipedia).
• 6 April 1894...President Grover Cleveland authorized enforcement of the Paris Award concerning the preservation of fur seals in Alaska. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 6 April 1909...The American explorer, Commander Robert E. Peary, USN, along with assistant Matthew Henson, and four Eskimos reported reaching the geographic North Pole; however, navigational errors may have meant that they were a few miles away from the exact pole. (Naval Historical Center) (The History Channel)
• 6 April 1913...USRC Seneca, a derelict destroyer (whose mission was to locate and destroy abandoned wrecks that were still afloat and a menace to navigation), inaugurated the Revenue Cutter Service's participation in the International Ice Patrol. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 8-10 April 1958...A global 48-hr precipitation record was established at Aurere, La Reunion Island, when 97.1 in. of rain from a tropical cyclone fell on the Indian Ocean island. (The Weather Doctor)
• 8-14 April 1984...Intense Tropical Cyclone Kaimsy crossed and re-crossed the northern portion of Madagascar. Winds exceeding 112 mph destroyed 80 percent of Antseranana and Mahajanga. Rainfall from this system totaled 27.99 in. Eighty-two people were killed and 100,000 were made homeless. Damage was greater than 150 million US dollars. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (The Weather Doctor)
• 8 April 1993...What was probably a waterspout from off the Gulf of Mexico struck land near the middle of Grand Isle, LA killing 3 and injuring 39 people. (National Weather Service files)
• 9 April 1770...The English explorer Captain James Cook discovered Botany Bay on the Australian continent.

Return to RealTime Ocean Portal

Prepared by DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D.,
email hopkins@aos.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2017, The American Meteorological Society.