Award: OCE-1459480

Prior to our project, very few observations and samples were available off the northern California Current System during winter. One key outcome of this work is the successful completion of the winter cruises themselves and the novel data they have produced given the dearth of information on organic matter production, transport and fate during the winter months along the Oregon coast. Pairing these shipboard measurements with data from autmated and remote sensor platforms, particularly mooring and glider data, as well as satellites allowed us to contextualize our findings within the broader seasonality of the winter periods in this region of the coastal ocean. We obverved clear impacts of the small mountainous rivers that line the coastline of the Pacific Northwest region of the US, including inputs of freshwater, sediments, organic matter and nutrients and modification of the structure of the water column -by increasing stratification. Our observations of organic matter distributions and compositions, optical properties, primary productivity rates, microbial community structure and rates indicate there are major impacts on the marine food web during this period. These include enhanced primary productivity by phytolankton and elevated rates of organic matter degradation by microbes. These results indicate the winter season off the northern California Current system is a more dynamic and productive period than previosluy understood that has measurable impacts on the ecology of this section of the coastal ocean. Last Modified: 05/20/2019 Submitted by: Miguel A Goni