Interactive spatio-temporal visualization of long-term physical characteristics of California coastal waters

CalCOFI

About the Project

The goal of this project is to visualize the variation of oceanic chemical properties over time and space to help understand changing ocean conditions and identify potential impacts on marine life. We will create an exploratory tool — an ocean observing and monitoring program -- from the data collected by CalCOFI. Data includes quarterly measurements of oceanic samples, at a depth of up to 1,000m, collected from 1970-2020. Parameters explored are dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll.

  Student Team

  • Dante Coletta
  • Mallika Gupta
  • Prerana (PK) Kottapalli
  • Teresa Gonzalez

  Mentors

  • Erin Satterthwaite, Sponsor
  • Trevor Ruiz, Faculty

   Presentation
 

About CalCOFI

The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) are a unique partnership of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries Service and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The organization was formed in 1949 to study the ecological aspects of the sardine population collapse off California. Today our focus has shifted to the study of the marine environment off the coast of California, the management of its living resources, and monitoring the indicators of El Nino and climate change. CalCOFI conducts quarterly cruises off southern & central California, collecting a suite of hydrographic and biological data on station and underway. Data collected at depths down to 500 meters include: temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, silicate, nitrate and nitrite, chlorophyll, transmissometer, PAR, C14 primary productivity, phytoplankton biodiversity, zooplankton biomass, and zooplankton biodiversity.

In 2004, the CalCOFI surveys became part of the LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) ecological studies network as a site to understand the pelagic ecosystem of the California Current....