OceanObs’09
Community White Paper Proposal
Title
Fish and Physics: Applications of an Ocean Observing System in
Fisheries Research
Lead author:
Josh Kohut, PhD
Marine and Coastal Sciences
School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
71 Dudley Road
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901 USA
phone: 732-932-6555 x542
Email: kohut@marine.rutgers.edu
Contributing authors:
John Manderson, PhD
Ecosystem Processes Division
NEFSC/NMFS/NOAA
James J. Howard Marine
74 Magruder Rd
Highlands, NJ 07732 USA
Phone: +1 732-872-3057
Email: john.manderson@noaa.gov
Scott Glenn, PhD
Marine and Coastal Sciences
School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
71 Dudley Road
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901 USA
phone: +1 732-932-6555 x506
Email: glenn@marine.rutgers.edu
Clayton Jones
Teledyne Webb Research
82 Technology Park Dr.
E. Falmouth, Massachusetts 02536-4441
Phone: +1 508-548-2077 x113
Email: cjones@webbresearch.com
Description:
Species habitat relationships are manifestations in space and time of the
effects of environmental heterogeneity on species specific survival, growth, dispersal
and reproductive processes. Marine organisms have evolved in a viscous
environment with a high heat capacity and solute concentrations similar to
intracellular milieus, in which drag rather than gravity is the dominant force controlling
movements. As a result, metabolisms, physiologies, and dispersal strategies of
marine organisms are tightly coupled to oceanographic processes and features.
Marine habitats are often defined on the basis of bottom structure which is relatively
stable in space and time. However, oceanographic features including temperature,
salinity, and current velocity are at least as important and often provide contexts for
structural characteristics. These parameters are particularly important in determining
the timing of formation, durations, as well as locations and volumes of critical habitats
that ultimately control the production of marine resource species. Defining ecological
habitat indicators for fishery resources is challenging due to the complex interactions
between marine ecosystems and the physical forcing of key oceanographic features
and processes. Ocean observatories now sample these critical variables at the
broad spatial and fine temporal scales required to describe the effects of spatially
dynamic ocean characteristics, enabling significant advances in the understanding of
life history processes for living marine resources that use coastal ecosystems.
As part of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) program,
partners in the Mid-Atlantic region along the United States east coast are developing
a fully regional scale ocean observing network. The Mid Atlantic Regional Ocean
Observing System (MARCOOS) data footprint stretches along 1000 km of coastline
from Cape Hatteras, NC to Cape Cod, MA offshore to the shelf break. This region
covers a large part of the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem
(LME) in which climate and fisheries are the primary driving forces (Sherman, 2003).
MARCOOS brings three key technologies that allow for fine scale characterization of
the coastal ocean in support of fisheries science, including the acquisition of data
streams from U.S. and foreign satellites in space, a network of high-frequency radars
deployed along the shore, and a fleet of robotic gliders flying beneath the ocean
surface. Within this context we will discuss fisheries applications utilizing
retrospective analysis, adaptive sampling, and technological advances extending
AUV missions toward fisheries specific applications. These include, real-time
support for adaptive larval and fisheries process studies within the observatory
footprint, integration of acoustic telemetry receivers on regional glider surveys to
describe spatial population structure, and the development of observatory based
ecological indicators to support the spatial management of fishery resources.