Meeting Abstract
P2.16 Thursday, Jan. 5 Nearshore Satellite Data as Relative Indicators of Intertidal Organism Physiological Stress MATZELLE, Allison J*; HELMUTH, Brian S; LAKSHMI, Venkat ; Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia; Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia; Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia allisonmatzelle@gmail.com
The physiological performance of intertidal and shallow subtidal invertebrates and algae is significantly affected by water temperature, and so the ability to measure and model onshore water temperatures is critical for ecological and biogeographic studies. Because of the localized influences of processes such as upwelling, mixing, and surface heating from solar radiation, nearshore water temperatures can differ from those measured directly offshore by buoys and satellites. It remains an open question what the magnitude of the differences in these temperatures are, and whether “large pixel” measurements can serve as an effective proxy for onshore processes, particularly when extrapolating from laboratory physiological studies to field conditions. We compared 9 years of nearshore (≈10km) MODIS (Terra and Aqua overpasses) SST data against in situ measurements of water temperature conducted at two intertidal sites in central Oregon- Boiler Bay and Strawberry Hill. We collapsed data into increasingly longer temporal averages to address the correlation and absolute differences between onshore and nearshore temperatures over daily, weekly and monthly timescales. Results indicate that nearshore SST is a reasonable proxy for onshore water temperature, and that the strength of the correlation increases with decreasing temporal resolution. Correlations between differences in maxima are highest, followed by average and minima, and were lower at a site with regular upwelling. While average differences ranged from ≈0.199-1.353°C, absolute differences across time scales were ≈0.446-6.906°C, and were highest for cold temperatures. The results suggest that, at least at these two sites, SST can be used as a relative proxy for general trends only, especially over longer time scales.
