The Salish Sea is a marginal inland sea of the NE Pacific (NW North America) that includes the Georgia Strait-Gulf Islands Archipelago of British Columbia, Canada and the San Juan Archipelago, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Lower Puget Sound of Washington State, USA. This marginal seafloor has been extensively mapped and according to criteria presented and discussed at GeoHab conferences critical marine benthic habitat types are identified. One such habitat that is the focus of this paper is the deep-water sub-tidal habitat of Pacific sand lance (PSL). The PSL (Ammodytes personatus) is a critical forage fish for a variety of mammals, birds and fish including minke whales and salmon as it preys upon zooplankton and acts as an energy transfer species from the lower to higher trophic levels. Pacific sand lance seeks refuge and overwinters in sand-wave fields consisting of dynamic bedforms. The species prefers loosely packed, well-aerated, well-sorted, medium- to coarse-grain (∼1 phi [φ], 500 µm) sand that it can burrow into easily. Such geomorphic features as active dynamic bedforms provide preferable habitats for PSL and depends on specific and unique oceanographic processes that can maintain the habitat's morphology and grain sizes. Understanding these processes is essential in forecasting alteration or destruction of such features, including changes that may be brought about by sea level rise. Using the five-person submersible Cyclops 1, we recently examined a well-studied sand-wave field in the San Juan Archipelago of Washington State, USA, which has been reported to harbor up to 12 million PSL. Observations, video recordings, and photography from this vehicle allowed us to assess modern seafloor processes of the central Salish Sea that can be used along with fish and sediment sample data to determine physical preferences this fish needs to sustain its population. Changes in the seafloor current regime, sediment source, and anthropogenic disturbances can critically alter these dynamic bedforms. This research provides insight into the structure of these bedforms, their composition, their persistence, their resilience to disturbance, and the susceptibility as an impact and becoming impacted.

萨利希海是东北太平洋（北美西北部）的边缘内海，包括加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省的乔治亚海峡-海湾群岛群岛和圣胡安群岛、胡安德富卡海峡和华盛顿的下普吉特海峡州，美国。这个边缘海底已被广泛绘制，并根据在 GeoHab 会议上提出和讨论的标准确定了关键的海洋底栖栖息地类型。本文重点关注的栖息地之一是太平洋沙矛 (PSL) 的深水潮下栖息地。PSL ( Ammodytes personatus) 是各种哺乳动物、鸟类和鱼类（包括小须鲸和鲑鱼）的重要饲料鱼，因为它捕食浮游动物并充当从低营养级到高营养级的能量转移物种。太平洋沙矛在由动态床型组成的沙波场中寻求庇护和越冬。该物种更喜欢松散、通气良好、分选良好、中等至粗粒（∼1 phi [φ]、500 µm）的沙子，它可以轻松地钻入其中。诸如活跃的动态床形之类的地貌特征为 PSL 提供了更好的栖息地，并依赖于能够维持栖息地形态和粒度的特定和独特的海洋学过程。了解这些过程对于预测这些特征的改变或破坏至关重要，包括海平面上升可能带来的变化。Cyclops 1，我们最近检查了美国华盛顿州圣胡安群岛的一个经过充分研究的沙浪场，据报道，该场藏有高达 1200 万 PSL。该车辆的观察、视频记录和照片使我们能够评估萨利希海中部的现代海底过程，这些过程可与鱼类和沉积物样本数据一起使用，以确定这种鱼维持其种群所需的物理偏好。海底流态、沉积物来源和人为干扰的变化可以严重改变这些动态床型。这项研究深入了解了这些床型的结构、它们的组成、它们的持久性、它们对干扰的恢复能力，以及作为影响和受到影响的易感性。