Larval transport during winter in the SABRE study area: results of a coupled vertical larval behaviour–three‐dimensional circulation model

Abstract

A three‐dimensional circulation model was used in conjunction with larval fish vertical behaviour models to study the interaction between larval vertical distribution, advection and the outcome of larval transport along the central portion of the east coast of the United States. The circulation model was forced by tides, a northern boundary inflow, and winds. Vertical behaviour models were developed for Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) and spot (Leiostomus xanthurus). The purpose of this modelling effort was to investigate the transport pathways of Atlantic menhaden and spot larvae from offshore spawning grounds to estuarine nursery habitats. The coupled circulation and behavioural model demonstrated the importance of along‐shelf transport in what is generally thought to be a ‘cross‐shelf’ problem. Cross‐shelf transport was associated with bathymetric features, such as shoals. Both physical (e.g. wind) and biological (e.g. changes in larval behaviour) events were responsible for many of the observed patterns in larval transport. Overall, larval transport was determined by circulation but was modified by larval vertical distributions.

Larval Transport and Dispersal in the Coastal Ocean and Consequences for Population Connectivity

“…20, No. 3 28 larval transport in nearshore and shelf species is often split into crossand alongshore components (e.g., hare et al, 1999;Ma and grassle, 2005). This distinction follows a convention in coastal physical oceanography and is convenient because cross-and alongshore hydrodynamic processes have different temporal and spatial scales (Winant, 1983), different physical processes dominate cross-and alongshore transport (e.g., Winant and Bratkovich, 1981), and momentum balances in these two axes are accounted for by different terms (e.g., lentz et al, 1999).…”

“…Pachygrapsus crabs (Hiatt, 1948) (Hare et al, 1999;Paris et al, 2005). How larvae transverse these last 10 km is unknown largely because of the exclusion of smaller-scale processes in models and the inability to include realistic behaviors (see above).…”

“…Most studies of larval dispersal, however, either do not consider larval mortality (Hare et al, 1999), consider spatially homogenous mortality (Cowen et al, 2000), or assume low mortality (Gaylord and Gaines, 2000).…”

The São Paulo shelf (SE Brazil) as a nursery ground for Doryteuthis plei (Blainville, 1823) (Cephalopoda, Loliginidae) paralarvae: a Lagrangian particle-tracking Individual-Based Model approach

“…The incorporation of biological characteristics such as buoyancy, vertical migration behaviour and growth in larval transport IBM-3D hydrodynamic models developed for a number of species have led to mixed results, from being particularly important to having no effect at all on the larval trajectories in the models applied (e.g. Hare et al, 1999;North et al, 2008;Martins et al, 2010a). Whichever effect holds for modelling D. plei larval transport on the SP shelf is still unknown, and this issue must clearly be assessed by incorporating biological traits into the virtual paralarvae in future studies.…”

Wind Conditions on the Great Barrier Reef Influenced the Recruitment of Snapper (Lutjanus carponotatus)

“…They have been utilized to model connectivity and recruitment variability in coral reef systems to great effect (e.g., Paris and Cowen, 2004). They have also been used extensively to investigate the recruitment of commercially important species to fisheries (e.g., Caputi et al, 1996;Hare et al, 1999). Biophysical models are useful tools for making predictions on self-seeding and connectivity between populations at biologically relevant spatial and temporal scales, which can aid in the management of coral reef fish populations (Cowen et al, 2006;Melbourne-Thomas et al, 2011).…”