Abstract
Extinction coefficients and chlorophyll a concentrations were measured for three years along sampling lines off the mouth of a large river (Columbia), a relatively small river (Yaquina), and a section of Oregon coastline with little river outflow. The relative contribution of particulate chlorophyll and nonliving suspended matter (tripton) to the extinction coefficient, k, was assessed using a three‐component equation that allowed the separation of areas and seasons in which k was a function of chlorophyll concentration from areas and seasons in which other factors besides chlorophyll concentration were involved.The effect of river discharge into the sea is twofold: to increase tripton turbidity, and thus k, and to change the oceanic relationship between chlorophyll a concentration and k in areas subject to, but not overwhelmed by, river discharge. The first effect is more pronounced with large volumes of discharge and becomes less significant with increasing distances from the river mouth. Beyond the areas of masking of this relationship by tripton turbidity, k apparently is a function of chlorophyll concentration only in winter and spring (through mid‐May) when river discharge is low. In areas that never receive significant river discharge, k is a function of chlorophyll concentration during all seasons except possibly summer, when upwelling may at times destroy the relationship.
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