Deliverables:
Outcomes will be presented during two June 2003 workshops

Project Summary

The Copper River Delta Intertidal mudflats and network of sloughs serve as a critical connection between the Gulf of Alaska and a vast expanse of wetlands, rivers, lakes and glaciers. Whereas the Copper River Delta was once thought to be safe from pollution events such as oil spills because of the westward flow of the Alaska Coastal Current, recent data show that the Delta is, in fact vulnerable to oiling. In FY 2000 OSRI provided funding to initiate the first ecological studies of the marine/estuarine areas of the Delta ecosystem. The ultimate goal of this research is to understand the special and temporal dynamics of the biological community of the Copper River Delta in order to predict how this community would respond to anthropogenic or naturally induced changes in the physical/chemical environment. Our approach to achieve this goal has been to focus on the central part of the food web (benthic invertebrates) and then to add components that focus on higher (predators) and lower tropic levels (primary producers) as funding allows. We will begin a long-term process of collaboration with other Principal Investigators on the OSRI Nowcast-Forecast Program to evaluate data for incorporation into a biological model for Nowcast-Forecast. In conjunction with project 03-10-08.