Shelf-Basin Exchange on the BC Central Coast
Image: H. Dosser
Upwelling is a process by which cold, low oxygen, low pH and nutrient-rich water from the deep Pacific is drawn onto the continental shelf in response to shifts in the large-scale winds. The pathways of upwelled water across the continental shelf, the timing of its arrival at the coast, and how mixing modifies its properties have important consequences for coastal ecosystems. Climate projections predict enhanced upwelling-favourable winds, with upwelling source water containing less oxygen and decreased carbonate mineral stability and pH known to harm marine life. Thus there is an important need to better understand the connections between the open ocean and the coastal ocean and how these may change in a changing climate.

Through involvement with the MITACS and Tula Foundation-funded Salmon Early Marine Survival research program, we are working to better understand how seasonal upwelling in Queen Charlotte Sound affects nutrient availability that supports high levels of plankton productivity along the BC central coast. Understanding the physical mechanisms controlling nutrient delivery to plankton is crucial to predicting the feeding conditions for juvenile salmon in a given year.  To do so, we are using using a compilation of historical and contemporary observational data from diverse sources to answer questions about how seasonal upwelling influences the timing of arrival, amounts, and ratios of nutrients reaching the biologically productive sunlit upper ocean along the BC coast; how seasonal cycles in upwelling differs between regions and how this maps onto differences in plankton community composition and biological productivity; and how mixing processes and circulation affect the transport of upwelled ocean water, from the deep Pacific Ocean to coastal regions and vertically throughout the water column. The project is greatly enhanced by its close collaboration with the Hakai Institute, a not-for-profit research institution that conducts long-term ecological research at remote locations on the coastal margin of BC.
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Select Papers & Presentations:

  • A paper co-authored by postdoc Hayley Dosser about the persistence of a Pacific Ocean marine heatwave in BC coastal waters published in Geophysical Research Letters in 2018.
  • A talk by postdoc Hayley Dosser et al. about the physics of upwelling and downwelling along the BC central coast presented at the ASLO 2018 Summer Meeting in Victoria Canada.
  • A poster by postdoc Hayley Dosser et al. about connecting small-scale processes to water mass transformation and nutrient availability in the coastal Pacific presented at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland USA.

In the News:

  • An AGU GEoSpace blog post about "The Blob" influence's on BC Central Coast fjords.
  • A profile of postdoctoral research fellow Hayley Dosser published in the Journal of Ocean Technology in 2018.