Fish Recruitment in the Florida Keys

Florida Straits, South Florida and Keys Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (FKeyS-HYCOM) Fish Recruitment in the Florida Keys

Along the Florida Keys, the motions of mesoscale frontal features associated with the Florida Current have been identified as possible mechanisms affecting the cross-shelf exchange of water masses, transport of biological material, plankton concentration, and fish larvae abundance.
 
Wind-driven process are also expected to contribute directly to alongshore and cross-shore transport, especially for biological organisms concentrated near the surface.
 
Tidal flows contribute local circulation patterns, in particular in the shallow waters around coral reefs.
 
=> A BiOphysical Lagrangian Tracking System (BOLTS) of coral fish larvae is coupled to the circulation model.

BiOphysical Lagrangian Tracking System (BOLTS)

DESCRIPTION:
BOLTS: Individual particle movements are tracked offline with a Lagrangian Stochastic Model (LSM), assuming that the evolution of particle velocity and position in non-homogeneous, non-stationary turbulence can be represented as a Markovian process.
 
BOLTS simulations show that active behavior is significant in recruiting for the bicolor damselfish larvae.
 
The addition of realistic larval behavior and mortality estimates provides a mechanism for enhancing local retention and self-recruitment.

CONTACT:
Claire Paris — cparis@rsmas.miami.edu

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