Center for Coastal and Land-Margin Research: Projects

Center for Coastal And Land-Margin Research

CCALMR Research

CCALMR Research Mission

The Research Mission of the Center for Coastal and Land-Margin Research (CCALMR) is to advance the scientific understanding of coasts and land-margins, in ways that support society's need to interact with these complex ecosystems.

Research Review

Our research is interdisciplinary in nature. Advanced computer and computational technology is used to integrate, at a regional scale, state-of-the-art conceptual, field, and laboratory research on the physics, chemistry, and biology of coastal and land-margin processes.

Featured Project

CORIE

A Pilot Estuarine Nowcast-Forecast System (CORIE)

CORIE is a pilot environmental observation and forecasting system (EOFS) for the Columbia River. It integrates a real-time sensor network, a data management system and advanced numerical models. Through this integration, we seek to characterize and predict complex circulation and mixing processes in a system encompassing the lower river, the estuary and the near-ocean. The acquired knowledge is transformed into data products designed to provide objective insights on the spatial and temporal variability of the Lower Columbia River.

Initiated in 1996, CORIE is a coastal margin observatory designed as a multi-purpose scientific and regional infrastructure for the Columbia River.

http://www.ccalmr.ogi.edu/CORIE/

CRETM/LMER

ETM's are sites of intense geochemical and biological activity. In addition to trapping rich organic particles, they actually promote merging into bigger particles ("aggregates") that are the preferred sites for bacteria to attach. These highly "bioactive" particles ar the prime sources of food for consumer organisms such a zooplankton that, because of the trapping action of ETM, are able to build large poplulations in the region of the estuary. In the Columbia River estuary, we know that these ETM zooplankton are some of the most important pery of higher-leel consumer organisms such as shrimps and fish; they support links to the estuary's food web weel beyond the ETM.

RISE

RISE is the latest in a series of studies funded by the National Science Foundation, Ocean Sciences Division as part of the CoOP (Coastal Ocean Processes) Program.

RISE will compare biological production rates within the Columbia River plume and outside the plume, on the more productive shelf to the north (WA) and the less productive shelf to the south of the river mouth (OR). Results from this study will solve an important puzzle?that a shelf with weaker upwelling winds is more highly productive throughout the food chain than a shelf with stronger winds. Available data suggest that the Columbia affects regional productivity from phytoplankton up the food web to juvenile fish (e.g., salmon). The study will integrate results from the nearby wind-driven CoOP study as well as salmon-related regional studies by NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Center to provide definitive new information on alteration of rates of biogeochemical processes by the unique stratification, turbidity, mixing environment and nutrients of a river plume.

Tsunami!

Impact of Tsunamis on Oregon Coastal Communities (featured in the The Oregonian, Science section 12/7/95).

Scientific findings of the last several years have shown that the Oregon coast is vulnerable to great (M 8-9) earthquakes that can occur on the offshore Cascadia sudbuction zone (CSZ) fault system. CSZ earthquakes are rare events: the last has occurred about 300 years ago, and they are believed to occur every 200 to 600 years. While rare, these events can be highly destructive. A major manifestation of CSZ earthquakes are tsunamis, large water waves generated by the seismic deformation of the sea floor. As these waves reach the coast, severe flooding can occur, resulting in loss of life and property.

Predicting the impact of tsunamis anywhere in the world is a process fraught with uncertainty. The rarety of CSZ tsunamis compounds the uncertainties, and has forced scientists to blend computers, fundamental laws of physics, and information from prehistoric earthquakes and tsunamis in a fairly unique way.

Site-specific Research

Coasts and land-margins in the Eastern North Pacific ocean and worldwide have provided fertile ground for field laboratories, pilot projects, and duplication sites. Field laboratories are sites where research is conducted with a long-term (typically 5 or more years) integrated perspective, even if through a string of independently-funded projects:

Pilot project sites are those where research is conducted for a limited period of time, typically 1-3 years, often with the specific objective of developing, enhancing, or assessing a particular approach or methodology:

Duplication sites are those where research is conducted for a short period of time, using methodologies pioneered elesewhere, typically with the objective of assessing the generality of such methodology:

Newport Bay, OR
Seaside, OR