Chapter 21: Oceanographic Processes and Marine Productivity in Waters Offshore of Marbled Murrelet Breeding Habitat

Abstract

Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) occupy nearshore waters in the eastern North Pacific Ocean from central California to the Aleutian Islands. The offshore marine ecology of these waters is dominated by a series of currents roughly parallel to the coast that determine marine productivity of shelf waters by influencing the rate of nutrient flux to the euphotic zone. Immediately adjacent to the exposed outer coasts, wind driven Ekman transport and upwelling in the vicinity of promontories and other features create zones of enhanced primary production in which primary and secondary consumers may aggregate. In the more protected waters of the sounds, bays and inlets of British Columbia and Alaska, tidal processes dominate the physical mechanisms responsible for small-scale variation in primary production and prey aggregations.

Parent Publication

• Ecology and conservation of the Marbled Murrelet

Citation

Hunt, Jr., George L. 1995. Chapter 21: Oceanographic Processes and Marine Productivity in Waters Offshore of Marbled Murrelet Breeding Habitat. In: Ralph, C. John; Hunt, George L., Jr.; Raphael, Martin G.; Piatt, John F., Technical Editors. 1995. Ecology and conservation of the Marbled Murrelet. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-152. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; p. 219-222