Coastal Ocean Institute and Rinehart Coastal Research Center
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Although the oceans cover 71% of Earth, it is the 7% that comprises the coastal ocean that most influences, and is most influenced by, human activity. The importance of this narrow strip of ocean—from the outer edge of the continental shelf to the farthest penetration of salt water up river—is increasing as more people live near the shore and draw resources from the water. Coastal waters are important for reasons that include weather, national defense, shipping, fishing, human health, shoreline hazards, and mineral extraction. We affect the coastal ocean through our fishing practices, industrial pollution, habitat modifications, and agricultural runoff. And these environments affect us through fluctuating food supplies, water quality, harmful algal blooms, and the accumulation of wastewater. The coastal ocean is the most biologically productive part of the ocean. Nutrients from the deep and from the land well up into surface waters where there is sufficient light for plants to grow. Some mechanisms for this delivery are broadly understood but in general, we know very little about why our coasts are so productive. The Coastal Ocean Institute and Rinehart Coastal Research Center responds to these scientific and societal phenomena by supporting innovative experiments and field expeditions, and by communicating the scientific results to the public.
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Technical ReportHydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and DDE in mussels and oysters from the U.S. Coast - 1965-1978 - the mussel watch(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1982-10)Mytilus edulis, Mytilus californianus, Crassostrea virginica and Ostrea equestris were sampled at 90 to 100 stations around the United States coastline during each of three years- 1976, 1977, 1978. Data for concentrations of PCB, DDE, total hydrocarbons, gas chromatographically unresolved complex mixture hydrocarbons, and selected aromatic hydrocarbons are presented for most of the samples. Similar data for monthly samples of Mytilus edulis from Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, U.S.A. and Mytilus californianus from Bodega Head, California, U.S.A. and laboratory intercalibrations are presented and discussed. Monthly temporal changes of factors of two to ten were found for ·organic pollutants in mussels from the Narragansett Bay station. Concentrations of PCBs and fossil fuel hydrocarbons for some urban stations were one to two orders of magnitude higher than those in remote areas. The northeast "megapolis" of the U.S. coast from the Chesapeake Bay area to Boston, Massachusetts clearly shows elevated concentrations of PCBs and fossil fuel hydrocarbons. The composition of aromatic hydrocarbons in samples with elevated concentrations shows both the influence of oil spill or chronic oil inputs and pyrogenic sources.
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Technical ReportAnnual report of the Coastal Research Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1982-01)Coastal research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was the subject of a special series of seminars and discussions in 1978-1979 which led to the identification of three important issues: (1) The need for more formal multidisciplinary interactions in order to effectively tackle some key research problems; (2) The need for facilities for experimentation; and (3) The need for unrestricted funds to initiate new multidisciplinary research ventures or to act as the "glue" binding together ongoing research projects. The Coastal Research Center was established in late 1979 with the charge of meeting these needs and initiating and carrying out projects in coastal research. Work within the Center is carried out by scientists and students from the scientific departments, visiting scientists, and post-doctoral investigators. A Planning Committee advises the Center Director in areas of research projects, budgets, and experimental facilities. Three specific projects were chosen for initial emphasis: (1) Georges Bank; (2) Assimilative Capacity; (3) Instrumentation. Planned new facilities for coastal research include an experimental laboratory which is now under construction, a 100-meter flume, a greenhouse, and an addition to the existing Environmental Systems Laboratory.
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Technical ReportCoastal Research Center report of the period January 1982-April 1984(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1984-05)This report describes the major activities of the Coastal Research Center over a 28 month period up to April of 1984. This period is a particularly important stage in the development of the Coastal Research Center where concrete progress has been made on implementing many of the ideas and plans which accompanied the initial concept of the Center. This period also represents an important milestone for the next several years because the major projects reported here will be completed and new projects will be initiated. The success of the Center is due to the enthusiasm and efforts of scientists involved in Coastal Research at W.H.O.I., the inspiration given by visitors, the support of the W.H.O.I. administration and the generous support of several donors and foundations. We greatly appreciate the efforts of all.
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Technical ReportBuzzards Bay bibliography : a reference collection of scientific and technical reports published on Buzzards Bay(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1985-07)The Coastal Research Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has initiated a series of WHOI/CRC Technical Reports in order to make information generated by CRC-associated researchers available as rapidly as possible to the coastal community. Buzzards Bay is an important segment of the Massachusetts coast and has been studied by Woods Hole scientists and others for decades. However, only a few systematic studies have been completed. Increasing development pressure in this heavily used area has been followed by an increasing demand for more complete information on coastal environmental quality. In an effort to fill this information gap, and to foster understanding of fundamental processes operative in coastal areas in general, multi-disciplinary research is being pursued in Buzzards Bay. As the results of this become available, this information will be published in the CRC Technical Report Series.
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Technical ReportCoastal Research Center report of the period May 1984-February 1986(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1986-04)The Coastal Research Center activities for the period of 1984 to 1986 are described briefly. Major projects include: Assimilative Capacity-Buzzards Bay, Georges Bank book; Instrumentation-Experimental Seawater Flume, Sea Level Change - Measurement and Consequences; and Fisheries Ecology. General activities are also described.
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Technical ReportNo. 2 fuel oil compound retention and release by Mytilus edulis : 1983 Cape Cod Canal oil spill(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1986-03)Retention and release of No. 2 fuel oil compounds by Mytilus edulis contaminated by a small oil spill in the Cape Cod Canal in 1983 has been studied for the population "in situ" and for a subsample transplanted to a clean laboratory seawater system. Compounds analyzed include C13 to C24 n-alkanes; pristane; phytane; C2-, C3-naphthalenes; fluorene; phenanthrene; C1-, C2-, C3-phenanthrenes; fluoranthene; pyrene and dibenzothiophene. Biological half-lives were determined for the compounds from Day-3 to Day-29 following the spill and ranged from 1.5 days for C2-naphthalenes to 9.9 days for C2-phenanthrenes. Biological half-lives for the unresolved complex mixture determined by gas chromatographic analyses were 17 days for the alkane-cycloalkane fraction and 35 days for the aromatic fraction. Results compared favorably with data from a small oil spill contaminating the same mussel population at the same time of the year in 1978, although marked differences were noted for certain parameters. Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometer analyses of C2- and C3-phenanthrenes revealed changes in relative abundance of compounds within isomer groups from samples at Day-29 to the time when no further detection of fuel oil was noted. These results suggest a release or metabolism of these compounds which is molecular structure specific. This study also demonstrated the feasibility of training an analyst unfamiliar with analyses of hydrocarbons in tissues to conduct high resolution glass capillary GC analyses and some aspects of GCMS data systems output within a period of four to five months.
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Technical ReportGeodetic fixing of tide gauge bench marks : technical report(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1989-08)Under the auspices of the International Association for Physical Sciences of the Ocean (IAPSO) a committee was established to identify the oceanographic and geophysical requirements for fixing Tide Gauge Bench Maries (TGBM's) in an absolute terrestrial coordinate system; to evaluate the technology for fixing TGBM's; and to malce recommendations to the Commission on Mean Sea Level and Tides (IAPSO) of a strategy for coordinated global fixing ofTGBM's and for making the results centrally·available. To meet these goals, the committee met for a several day session at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in November, 1988. From this workshop came a series of technical conclusions, plus specific recommendations to achieve the goals of the committee. Included in these discussions were Very Long Baseline Interferometry, Satellite Laser Ranging, Lunar Laser Ranging, Global Positioning System, and Absolute Gravity Meters, as well as mechanisms for logging and distributing the results from these systems, perhaps via the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) in Britain.
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Technical ReportDevelopment, characteristics, and effects of the new Chatham Harbor inlet(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1989-06)A new tidal inlet into Chatham Harbor, Massachusetts, has developed from a breach in the barrier beach, Nauset Beach, that forms the outer shoreline of southeastern Cape Cod. Increased tidal range and wave energy resulting from the new inlet produced acute coastal erosion and channel shoaling within Chatham Harbor, with significant impacts on the fishing and boating industries, and on private and public propeny and interests. Study results are consistent with the hypothesis that the Nauset-Monomoy barrier beach system undergoes a long-term cycle of geomorphological change, and that a new cycle was initiated with the formation of this new inlet. Based on this new understanding, future changes in the system can be foreseen and provided to coastal resource managers.
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Technical ReportThe 17-meter flume at the Coastal Research Laboratory. Part II, Flow characteristics : technical report(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1989-05)This report summarizes the characteristics of the idealized one-dimensional turbulent channel flow for which the 17-Meter Flume was designed, and describes a measurement program designed to determine whether the flume can in fact produce such a flow. The measured quantities include mean velocities, Reynolds stresses, turbulence intensities and velocity spectra. Measured profiles of mean velocity, Reynolds stress and turbulence intensity are consistent with previous theoretical and empirical results. Measured spectra, although consistent with expectations over a wide range of frequencies, indicate a few unexpected features, including a constant spectral density at high frequencies (possibly due to aliasing or high-frequency noise) , motion at a few well-defined high frequencies of order 10 hz (possibly due to structual vibrations), oscillations with time scales of order 30 s (possibly due to low-mode standing surface waves) and irregular motions with time scales of several minutes (possibly due to fluctuations in pump performance) . The unexpected features indicated by the spectra at high and low frequencies do not have a significant effect on mean velocities and low-order statistics, but they may be important in some applications.
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Technical ReportThe 17-meter flume at the Coastal Research Laboratory. Part I, Description and user's manual : technical report(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1989-05)The 17-Meter Flume, a recirculating, temperature-controlled, seawater channel, was recently constructed in W.H.O.I.'s Coastal Research Laboratory for studies of boundary-layer flows and sediment transport, and for interdisciplinary research where adequate simulation of the near-bed flow environment is required. The flume channel is 17.3-m long by 0.6-m wide and can be filled to a maximum depth of 0.3 m. The water is circulated by a centrifugal pump and is temperature controlled to ± 0.5°C over a range of about 4-30°C. Made of fiberglass , glass, plastics and high-grade stainless steel, all surfaces of the flume that come into contact with the water are noncorrosive and nontoxic to organisms. The flume is equipped with a computer-controlled, two-axis, laser-Doppler velocimeter (LDV) for detailed, accurate and precise measurements of flow characteristics anywhere along the flume channel. In addition to detailed descriptions and illustrations of all components of the flume, this report provides instructions for use of the flume and associated instrumentation. In Part II, flume flow characteristics measured with the LDV are illustrated and evaluated relative to theoretical and empirical expectations for open-channel flows.
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Technical ReportCoastal Research Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Report for the period March 1986-July 1988(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1989-03)Activities of the WHOI Coastal Research Center during the period of March 1986 to July 1988 are briefly described. Major activities during this period include: 1. global climate change, 2. assimilative capacity, 3. coastal instrumentation and 4. rapid response. During this period the Georges Bank book was completed and published by MIT Press. Continuing emphasis is placed by CRC on fostering interdisciplinary and multi-institutional interactions. This emphasis is implemented through support of workshops, guest investigators, speakers and students.
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Technical ReportToxic dinoflagellates and marine mammal mortalities : proceedings of an expert consultation held at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1989-11)On May 8 and 9, 1989, a consultation of experts was convened at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to discuss the possible link between natural biotoxins and recent mass mortalities of humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins along the eastern coast of the United States. The focus was on the possible role of dinoflagellate toxins in these events. The objectives of the meeting were to review and assess the existing evidence and to recommend research priorities and needs.
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Technical ReportSedimentation study, Environmental Monitoring and Operations Guidance System (EMOGS), Kings Bay, Georgia and Florida : Phase III--FY 1989(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1990-08)Repeated side-scan sonar and multi-frequency bathymetric surveys, accompanied by accurate, high resolution, and repeatable navigation, were conducted in the vicinity of a tidal inlet to define the length and time scales associated with bedforms and channel shoaling in a structured tidal inlet. The study site, St. Mary's entrance channel along the Georgia/Florida border (Fig. I), has a dredged channel approximately 46-52 feet in depth, bordered by a large ebb tidal delta. The tidal inlet serves Cumberland Sound, Kings Bay, and associated waterways, providing a large discharge of water from the inlet that creates bedforms and channel shoaling, given the abundance of sand-sized sediment in the vicinity. The jettied inlet produces flows tht are predominately tidally-driven, whereas farther offshore the driving forces consist predominately of waves and storm-generated flows. In the channel reaches (Table 1) between these two areas, combined wave-steady flows are present, creating a myriad of scales of bedforms and shoaling patterns. This study was designed to elucidate the time and space scales of these variable bedforms and shoaling patterns, emphasizing the difference in these scales between the three different flow regimes. The results provide an important data base for quantifying shoaling processes and mechanisms in tidal inlet channels.
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Technical ReportNew England salt pond data book(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1990-06)This volume contains information on New England salt ponds and lagoons. The first part contains abstracts of a symposium on salt ponds and lagoons held in conjunction with the New England Estuarine Research Society (NEERS) on April 21, 1988. These should provide both scientists and managers with an overview of recent research on salt ponds. The second part contains maps, morphometric data, and references for individual salt ponds in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The third section is a comprehensive bibliography of papers and reports on salt ponds, including information on ponds located outside of New England. A listing of references organized according to topic areas is also provided.
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Technical ReportAtlantic shelf sand ridge study : physical oceanography and sediment dynamics data report(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1990-02)This report describes and presents the hydrodynamic meaurements made during the Atlantic Shelf Sand Ridge Study at and near Peahala Ridge, offshore of Long Beach Island, New Jersey, in Spring 1985. The intent of this phase of the study was to examine the physical oceanographic and fluid mechanical processes in the vicinity of Peahala Ridge, one of the large shore-oblique sand ridges common in the area, and from this to identify those processes responsible for sand transport near the ridge with particular reference to its generation, maintenance and migration. The field measurement program was carried out from March to May 1985 by scientists and staff of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. It included measurements of currents, temperature, waves, pressure and near-bed velocity profiles. This phase was part of a larger oil industry study that included extensive geological and geophysical measurements of Peahala Ridge and other ridge-and-swale areas of the mid-Atlantic continental shelf.
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Technical ReportHurricane impacts on the Caribbean coastal/marine environment : using scientific assessment to plan for the future(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1991-09)The passage of Hurricane Hugo through the eastern Caribbean provided a unique opportunity for multidisciplinary study of (1) the effects of severe storms on tropical coastal and marine ecosystems, and (2) the physical and biological responses of those ecosystems to intense storm-induced changes. In addition to its direct value as basic science, this study can be used to facilitate development of improved coastal and marine resource management capabilities.
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Technical ReportSedimentation study, Environmental Monitoring and Operations Guidance System (EMOGS), Kings Bay, Georgia and Florida, 1988-1990 : final report(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1991-07)Repeated side-scan sonar and multi-frequency bathymetric surveys, accompanied by accurate, high resolution, and repeatable navigation, were conducted in the vicinity of a tidal inlet to define the length and time scales associated with bedforms and channel shoaling in a structured tidal inlet. The study site, St. Marys entrance channel along the Georgia/Florida border (Fig. 1), has a dredged channel approximately 46-52 feet in depth at a datum of mean low water (MLW), bordered by a large ebb tidal delta. The tidal inlet serves Cumberland Sound, Kings Bay, and associated waterways, providing a large discharge of water from the inlet that creates bedforms and channel shoaling, given the abundance of sand-size sediment in the vicinity. The jettied inlet produces flows that are predominantly tidally-driven, whereas farther offshore the driving forces consist predominantly of waves and storm-generated flows. In the channel reaches (Table 1) between these two areas, combined wave/steady flows are present, creating a myriad of scales of bedforms and shoaling patterns, emphasizing the difference in these scales between the three different flow regimes. The results provide an important data base for quantifying shoaling processes and mechanisms in tidal inlet channels.
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Technical ReportThe Black Sea general circulation and climatic temperature and salinity fields(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1992-09)The Black Sea is a nearly enclosed ocean basin, exhibiting many features common with larger ocean basins. Lacking an open boundary and having a limited exchange with sources of fresh and salt water, this basin is an ideal laboratory for developing and evaluating numerical circulation models. The present report describes one numerical model of the Black Sea, developed by Bulgarian and Russian scientists. The new approach has the advantages of both diagnostic models (incorporation of experimental data) and prognostic models (producing hydrodynamical adjustment and filtered fields). Successive application of diagnostic and prognostic models is used. The temperature and salinity fields obtained from observations, and currents obtained from diagnostic models, are used as the initial approximation to the prognostic model. Judicious selection of an integration time prevents over-smoothing of the results while preserving the stability of the solution. Using this model, caculations have been made at 25 levels over a grid interval of 0.25° (latitude) by 0.5°. Input data consist of nearly 50,000 observations taken over nearly 100 years, averaged over 0.5° by 0.5° cells. Seasonal fields of temperature, salinity, and velocity form the output of these experiments. The results provide the basis for various hypotheses that must be tested using future field observations and more sophisticated models.
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Technical ReportThe environmental impacts of boating : proceedings of a workshop held at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA USA, December 7 to 9, 1994(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1998-03)Substantiated impacts of boating activity discussed at this workshop include: sediment and contaminant resuspension and resultant turbidity; laceration of aquatic vegetation with loss of faunal habitat and substrate stabilty; toxic effects of chemical emissions of boat engines; increased turbulence; shearing of plankton; shorebird disturbance; and the biological effects of chemically treated wood used in dock and bulkhead construction. These discussions revealed that many of the issues of concern remain inadequately defined and described. But sufficient hard data was referred to or presented to substantiate the inference that recreational and commercial motor boat operation is far from a benign influence on aquatic and marine environments. This is particularly so in temperate climates due to the unfortunate synchrony, with only a few exceptions, between the peak seasons for boating and the occurence of planktonic embryonic and larval stages of vertebrates and invertebrates in estuaries and coastal waters. Therefore, the chance of plants and organisms being afected by power boat operation appears to be substantial in shallow, heavily used boating areas such as those along the entire U.S. eastern and Gulf coasts. As such, motor boat operation should be conducted and managed in such a manner as to minimize those impacts.