Workshop Report Defines Research Needs for the Olympic Coast-Puget Sound
This story entered on 7th Feb, 2005 06:30:11 AM PST

Major features of the area bordered by the Olympic Coast, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Puget Sound include a deep-seated, glacially-derived estuary impacted by the rapidly growing urban populations of Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett, as well as a relatively undisturbed outer coastal environment. Within the region's confines lies a vast diversity of habitats that hold many biotic and abiotic resources, which serve as sites for tourism and recreation and are of great cultural value.

The NURP Center for the West Coast and Polar Regions recently sponsored a workshop to identify research questions with management relevance for the Olympic Coast-Puget Sound Area that require the aid of undersea vehicles and other tools to answer them. A substantial amount of past and current research related to the Olympic Coast-Puget Sound marine environment, conducted by universities, government agencies, and independent investigators, provided the foundation for the research needs identified at the workshop.

The Workshop Report released this week summarizes the proceedings of the Olympic Coast-Puget Sound Undersea Research Workshop held on November 29 - December 2, 2004 at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories. Workshop participants reviewed research questions solicited from the research community at large targeting the deep underwater areas of the Puget Sound/Georgia Basin/Strait of Juan de Fuca system. The three questions identified as the most scientifically relevant and compelling were:

1) How do physical and biological fluxes affect regional system dynamics?
2) How do habitat associations and life history characteristics vary within and between coastal and estuarine environments, and what are the physical correlates of these variations?
3) How do natural and human-induced disturbances affect the structure and process of the estuary and coastal ocean?

The full report can be viewed at http://www.westnurc.uaf.edu/workshop

Contact information
Name: Jennifer Reynolds
Tel: (907) 474-5871
jreynolds@guru.uaf.edu