Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) has become a critical framework for the adaptive management of marine conservation. MSP incorporates the entire ecosystem into management practices in order to sustain healthy fisheries as well as a thriving environment. The MSP process includes creating an optimal monitoring strategy in order to yield the most positive results for the well-being of the ecosystem. In my capstone I explored the importance of spatial and temporal trends for making effective monitoring strategies for adaptive management within the MSP framework. The research relied upon GIS (Geographic Information Systems), which is regarded as a vital tool for creating MSP strategies. In order to examine the effect of spatial zonation on management decisions I used copper rockfish (Sebastes caurinus) data from the San Juan Islands from 1994, 1999, and 2000. This data was used to create a map illustrating the influence different spatial zones have on the information management obtains in order to form adaptive management strategies. Furthermore, in order to investigate the effect of temporal binning on MSP I used killer whale (Orcinus orca) data from the same relative location from 1996-2001. I categorized the data into different periods, or "bins" of time, and analyzed how these bins impact management decisions. In both examples a threshold was created from the given data that would in theory trigger management action in order to quantitatively prove that the spatial and temporal way in which a species is monitored does affect regulatory and marine spatial planning decisions. Hopefully, by proving this statement with specific case studies I will also identify any consistent trends from the data that may be helpful in determining monitoring strategies to enhance marine spatial planning and conservation for those particular species in this region. ArcGIS will be used in order to illustrate the results and produce further geostatistics on the data.  

This project is an interpretation of high-resolution bathymetric data from the Norwegian Mapping Authority (Statens Kartverk), acquired between 2004 and 2008 at Engelskbukta, a bay located in West Spitsbergen in the Norwegian high arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Engelskbukta is bordered on the southeast by Comfortlessbreen, a large, surge-type tidewater glacier, and on the northeast by Uversøyra, a delta formed by the melting and outwash of the land-anchored Uversbreen glacier. The dataset was imported using CARIS processing software and was analyzed with ESRI ArcGIS. Initial interpretations of the seafloor morphology indicate a retreat moraine series, representative of long-term warming and recession of the glacier terminus, and larger thrust moraines indicative of active surging phases. Fluvial features, such as glacier-proximal grounding line fans and channels, indicate zones of past and present subglacial sediment flux from Comfortlessbreen and deltaic flux from the Uversøyra delta. These features can offer significant negative feedbacks against terminus melting by marine heat flux. Satellite and aerial imagery, descriptive models of surge-type glacier processes, and in-situ sediment dating from the adjacent Kongsfjorden offer further opportunities to constrain both retreat rate and surge frequency and predict future glaciodynamic responses to climate forcing.

Nearly half the world’s population lives in a coastal watershed where all anthropogenic input to the hydrologic network are transported downstream and onto the continental shelf. This connectivity then extends to the movement of terrestrial matter by submarine canyon channels. The morphology and evolution of these two essential coastal transport systems have been shown by previous literature to be strongly linked. I investigate the changes in channel morphology across a coastal zone on the Baja peninsula, and quantifying the link between river and submarine channel complexity through measurements of channel sinuosity, network slope gradient, and order length. Quantifying the changes in channel complexity across the coastal zone provides the means to monitor anthropogenic impacts upon terrestrial riverine system on submarine canyons.