Special Oceanography Seminar

Clarissa R. Anderson, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of South Carolina and a candidate for a tenure-track faculty position in biological oceanography, is giving a seminar entitled “Toxins from Space: Understanding Decadal Trends of Harmful Diatom Blooms in the California Current System”

The documented link between upwelling-related physical signatures, macronutrients, and toxigenic Pseudo-nitzschia blooms in the various “hotspots” throughout California has motivated attempts to remotely detect and forecast these harmful algal blooms as a function of select environmental variables. The Santa Barbara Channel is one such localized region for toxic diatom blooms with nearly annual toxic events occurring in spring and summer months since 2002.

Recent analysis of archived sediment trap samples from 1993-2007 in the Santa Barbara Basin reveals an abrupt shift towards an increased frequency and magnitude of toxic events over the last decade compared to that previously. This shift may be related to a change in the composition and magnitude of upwelled waters in the California Undercurrent since 1998. I will show how statistical detection models using satellite ocean color and regional ocean models are being used to test these hypotheses and create spatially-explicit forecasts of bloom probabilities.

4:00 p.m. Open discussion with candidate

4:30 p.m. Reception on MSB lanai

Ticket Information
Free

Event Sponsor
Oceanography, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Ocean, 956-7633, Ocean@hawaii.edu, http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/seminar.html

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