August has been a month focused on oceanography. We currently have three oceanographic moorings in the water at the Cascade Head, Cape Falcon, and the Cape Meares Comparison Area collecting data on temperature, salinity and oxygen. We are also collaborating with OSU-PISCO to gather similar data at Cape Perpetua. This month we’ve also been diligently working up the first oceanographic data collected at Cape Falcon from last year. The results have been very interesting so far.
Above is a time series of temperature data collected at 15m depth, spanning September 2018-September 2019 at Cape Falcon. Over the winter, temperatures were fairly consistent, with gradual increases and decreases in temperature. But during the summer months, we see large and rapid changes in temperature. This is largely the result of wind-driven upwelling and downwelling events that occur from late spring to early fall, and show the stark contrast in temperature shifts between winter and summer seasons.
Stay tuned for more oceanographic data from the additional four marine reserve sites.