The Ocean Environment of the Northern Strait of Georgia
Kyle Fawkes
2015-11-09
Root directory
The motivation for this study is grounded in my Keystone project on plankton blooms in the Discovery Passage area. However a key piece of plankton trends is their interaction with the abiotic environment. Thus the primary goal of this study is to explore the relationship between the abiotic environment of the Northern Strait of Georgia and zooplankton abundance. Specifically I want to focus on the relationships between sea surface temperature, wave height, and zooplankton.
To accomplish this goal I develop two different analytical paths:
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Visual using time-series: First I explore the trends of sea surface temperature and wave height individually against the timeline of my keystone (from 2009 to 2012)
a. Sea Surface temperature-not done
b. Significant Wave Height-not done
c. Zooplankton-not done
d. All three together (Done for 2009)
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Statistical analysis: Then I aim to compare sea surface temperature, wave height and zooplankton abundance, while additionally performing a statistical analysis for the time intervals of:
a. Months
b. Years
For each of these time intervals:
i. New dataset is created composed of mean data for time interval ii. Linear model analyzing relationship between 2 out of the following three variables 1. zooplankton abundance, 2. sea surface temperature, 3. significant wave height (averaged over specified time period above). iii. Visual and statistical analysis of linear model is given using linear regression