07/05/2026
SBOC is super proud of Sierra's achievements !! And we appreciate being a partner farm contributing to the MarReCon project.
Sierra Greene recently graduated with her master’s degree in Fisheries from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She conducted her research through the Mariculture Research and Restoration Consortium (MarReCon), focusing on the oceanography of mariculture farms in Southcentral Alaska. To better understand the environmental conditions of different farms across the Gulf of Alaska, the MarReCon team deployed farm-site sensors that measured temperature, salinity, oxygen, turbidity, and chlorophyll. Partner farmers collected profiles of the temperature and salinity of the water column around their farms. From these data, Sierra and colleagues determined that the oceanography of farms around Kodiak and in Kachemak Bay were similar to each other year-round, while farms in Prince William Sound differed.
Waters in Prince William Sound were consistently warmer and fresher, and recorded an earlier spring phytoplankton bloom than other regions. Additionally, these data provide insight into oyster reproduction potential in the study area. The long-term temperature data reveal that all of the MarReCon sites are not warm enough for long enough to support oyster reproduction, by a far margin. Understanding the environmental conditions at each farm site and across regions serves several purposes: it will help prospective farmers understand environmental variability and inform their selection of farm sites, give current project farmers context for the growth patterns they observe, and support researchers in developing novel kelp and oyster growth models specific to the Gulf of Alaska. Thanks for sharing your work with us, Sierra!
This information is an excerpt from the Alaska Mariculture Research and Training Center's monthly newsletter. If you are interested in receiving more updates like this, you can subscribe to their newsletter using the following link: https://amrtc.org/newsletter/
