The objective of this project is to enable real-time monitoring of ocean conditions present in the olympic coast national marine sanctuary (OCNMS), compare these measurements to existing…

This Cooperative Agreement award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Climate and Atmospheric Research (CFDA 11.431) federal grant program provides $520,386 to the University of Washington to enable real-time monitoring of ocean conditions in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. The objective is to compare these measurements to existing climatologies and associate trends and anomalies with information about the abundance and composition of critical biological communities. The University of Washington will provide analysis results as web-based infographics for use in the Sanctuary's climate vulnerability assessment, management plan review, and condition reports, as well as for other coastal resource decision-makers. The award period runs from Sep 1, 2023 to Aug 31, 2026.

The objective of this project is to enable real-time monitoring of ocean conditions present in the olympic coast national marine sanctuary (OCNMS), compare these measurements to existing climatologies, and associate trends and anomalies with information about the abundance and composition of critical biological communities which fuel higher trophic levels and ecosystems that coastal communities depend upon. From these observations, we aim to improve climate understanding and information for management and response by assessing how tightly coupled environmental conditions track with various plankton metrics. We will provide results from our analyses as readily digestible web-based infographics available to OCNMS for their climate vulnerability assessment, management plan review, condition reports, etc, and to other coastal resource decision makers including four coastal treaty tribes, managers from washington state and adjacent areas (e.g., oregon, canada), academic scientists