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Brandy Cervantes

Senior Research Associate I

Current Research

My current role in CEOAS is to conduct research in the field of observational coastal physical oceanography with Melanie Fewings’ group, primarily in the Northern California Current region. Research projects have focused on curating and analyzing long time series, including a dataset of temperature, salinity, and velocity at the NH-10 location on the Newport Hydrographic (NH) Line. Data from several mooring campaigns over the past 25 years had previously not been combined into one time series, and the resulting dataset is a powerful tool for calculating subsurface climatologies and anomalies. We used these data in a 2024 JGR Oceans paper investigating temperature anomalies from 2014-2021 focusing on marine heatwaves. I am also Co-PI on a NOAA project to study subsurface water masses in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS) and NCC region. We have excavated and quality-controlled the OCNMS mooring data for use by collaborators and partners from the Coastal Treaty Tribes, and we are using these data to characterize climatological conditions and develop new indicators of physical and biogeochemical anomalies. This task is especially important considering the Coastal Treaty Tribes have treaty-protected rights to marine resources on the Olympic Coast, such as fish and crab, which were strongly affected by recent episodes of hypoxia and anoxia in the region.

Education

Ph.D. Physical Oceanography, Oregon State University, College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences, 2004
B.S. Atmospheric, Oceanic & Space Sciences, University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Cum Laude, 1997

Publications

Kurapov, Alexander, Fisher, Jennifer L., Cervantes, Brandy T., and Fewings, Melanie R., 2025. A summer stratification anomaly over the continental slope off Oregon: A common feature of El Niños?, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 55, DOI: 10.1175/JPO-D-24-0198.1.

Cervantes, B.T., Fewings, M.R., and Risien, C.M., 2024. Subsurface temperature anomalies off central Oregon during 2014–2021. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 129, DOI: 10.1029/2023JC020565.

Risien, C.M., Hough, K.R, Waddell, J., Fewings, M.R., and Cervantes, B.T., 2024. Hydrographic shipboard profile data collected within Olympic coast national marine sanctuary, 2005–2023, Data in Brief, 53, DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2024.110171.

Risien, Craig M., Cervantes, Brandy T., Fewings, Melanie R., Barth, John A. and Kosro, P. Michael, 2023: A stitch in time: Combining more than two decades of mooring data from the central Oregon shelf, Data in Brief, 48, DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2023.109041.

Kurapov, A.L., D.L. Rudnick, B.T. Cervantes, and C.M. Risien, 2022. Slope and shelf flow anomalies off Oregon influenced by the El Niño remote oceanic mechanism in 2014-2016. Journal of Geophysical Research, DOI: 10.1029/2022JC018604.

Sundermeyer, M.A, D.A. Birch, J.R. Ledwell, M.D. Levine, S.D. Pierce, B.T. Cervantes, 2020. Dispersion in the Open Ocean Seasonal Pycnocline at Scales of 1-10 km and 1-6 days, Journal of Physical Oceanography, DOI: 10.1175/JPO-D-19-0019.1.

Sundermeyer, M.A., E. Skyllingstad, J.R. Ledwell, B. Concannon, E.A. Terray, D.A. Birch, S.D. Pierce, B.T. Cervantes, 2014. Observations and numerical simulations of large-eddy circulation in the ocean surface mixed layer, Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1002/2014GL061637.

Kuebel Cervantes, B.T. and J.S. Allen, 2006. Numerical Model Simulations of Continental Shelf Flows off Northern California, Deep Sea Research Part II, DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2006.07.004.

Largier, J.L., C.A. Lawrence, M. Roughan, D.M. Kaplan, E.P. Dever, C.E. Dorman, R.M. Kudela, S.M. Bollens, F.P. Wilkerson, R.C. Dugdale, L.W. Botsford, N. Garfield, B.T. Kuebel Cervantes, D. Koracin, 2006. WEST: A northern California study of the role of wind-driven transport in the productivity of coastal plankton communities, Deep-Sea Research Part II, DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2006.08.018.

Kuebel Cervantes, B.T., J.S. Allen, and R.M. Samelson, 2004: Lagrangian Characteristics of Continental Shelf Flows Forced by Periodic Wind Stress, Nonlin. Proc. Geophys., 11 (1), 3-16.

Kuebel Cervantes, B.T., J.S. Allen, and R.M. Samelson, 2003: A Modeling Study of Eulerian and Lagrangian Aspects of Shelf Circulation off Duck, North Carolina, J. Phys. Oc.,33 (10), 2070-2092.