Can Thermoclines Be a Cue to Prey Distribution for Marine Top Predators? A Case Study with Little Penguins

The use of top predators as bio-platforms is a modern approach to understanding how physical changes in the environment may influence their foraging success. This study examined if the presence of thermoclines could be a reliable signal of resource availability for a marine top predator, the little penguin (Eudyptula minor). We studied weekly foraging activity of 43 breeding individual penguins equipped with accelerometers. These loggers also recorded water temperature, which we used to detect changes in thermal characteristics of their foraging zone over 5 weeks during the penguin’s guard phase. Data showed the thermocline was detected in the first 3 weeks of the study, which coincided with higher foraging efficiency. When a thermocline was not detected in the last two weeks, foraging efficiency decreased as well. We suggest that thermoclines can represent temporary markers of enhanced food availability for this top-predator to which they must optimally adjust their breeding cycle

Semidiurnal temperature changes caused by tidal front movements in the warm season in seabed habitats on the Georges Bank northern margin and their ecological implications

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain. The definitive version was published in PLoS ONE 8 (2013): e55273, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055273.Georges Bank is a large, shallow feature separating the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean. Previous studies demonstrated a strong tidal-mixing front during the warm season on the northern bank margin between thermally stratified water in the Gulf of Maine and mixed water on the bank. Tides transport warm water off the bank during flood tide and cool gulf water onto the bank during ebb tide. During 10 days in August 2009, we mapped frontal temperatures in five study areas along ~100 km of the bank margin. The seabed “frontal zone”, where temperature changed with frontal movment, experienced semidiurnal temperature maxima and minima. The tidal excursion of the frontal boundary between stratified and mixed water ranged 6 to 10 km. This “frontal boundary zone” was narrower than the frontal zone. Along transects perpendicular to the bank margin, seabed temperature change at individual sites ranged from 7.0°C in the frontal zone to 0.0°C in mixed bank water. At time series in frontal zone stations, changes during tidal cycles ranged from 1.2 to 6.1°C. The greatest rate of change (−2.48°C hr−1) occurred at mid-ebb. Geographic plots of seabed temperature change allowed the mapping of up to 8 subareas in each study area. The magnitude of temperature change in a subarea depended on its location in the frontal zone. Frontal movement had the greatest effect on seabed temperature in the 40 to 80 m depth interval. Subareas experiencing maximum temperature change in the frontal zone were not in the frontal boundary zone, but rather several km gulfward (off-bank) of the frontal boundary zone. These results provide a new ecological framework for examining the effect of tidally-driven temperature variability on the distribution, food resources, and reproductive success of benthic invertebrate and demersal fish species living in tidal front habitats.This study was supported by salary funds from the regular annual salary budget from Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and United States Geological Survey Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center (USGS WH C&MSC), respectively; ship time funds from the NEFSC annual budget for days-at-sea ship operations; equipment from the NEFSC and USGS WH C&MSC annual equipment budgets

Integrated monitoring of mola mola behaviour in space and time

Over the last decade, ocean sunfish movements have been monitored worldwide using various satellite tracking methods. This study reports the near-real time monitoring of finescale (< 10 m) behaviour of sunfish. The study was conducted in southern Portugal in May 2014 and involved satellite tags and underwater and surface robotic vehicles to measure both the movements and the contextual environment of the fish. A total of four individuals were tracked using custom-made GPS satellite tags providing geolocation estimates of fine-scale resolution. These accurate positions further informed sunfish areas of restricted search (ARS), which were directly correlated to steep thermal frontal zones. Simultaneously, and for two different occasions, an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) videorecorded the path of the tracked fish and detected buoyant particles in the water column. Importantly, the densities of these particles were also directly correlated to steep thermal gradients. Thus, both sunfish foraging behaviour (ARS) and possibly prey densities, were found to be influenced by analogous environmental conditions. In addition, the dynamic structure of the water transited by the tracked individuals was described by a Lagrangian modelling approach. The model informed the distribution of zooplankton in the region, both horizontally and in the water column, and the resultant simulated densities positively correlated with sunfish ARS behaviour estimator (r(s) = 0.184, p < 0.001). The model also revealed that tracked fish opportunistically displace with respect to subsurface current flow. Thus, we show how physical forcing and current structure provide a rationale for a predator's finescale behaviour observed over a two weeks in May 2014

Has Sverdrup's critical depth hypothesis been tested? Mixed layers vs. turbulent layers

Sverdrup (1953. On conditions for the vernal blooming of phytoplankton. Journal du Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer, 18: 287-295) was quite careful in formulating his critical depth hypothesis, specifying a "thoroughly mixed top layer" with mixing "strong enough to distribute the plankton organisms evenly through the layer". With a few notable exceptions, most subsequent tests of the critical depth hypothesis have ignored those assumptions, using estimates of a hydrographically defined mixed-layer depth as a proxy for the actual turbulence-driven movement of the phytoplankton. However, a closer examination of the sources of turbulence and stratification in turbulent layers shows that active turbulence is highly variable over time scales of hours, vertical scales of metres, and horizontal scales of kilometres. Furthermore, the mixed layer as defined by temperature or density gradients is a poor indicator of the depth or intensity of active turbulence. Without time series of coincident, in situ measurements of turbulence and phytoplankton rates, it is not possible to properly test Sverdrup's critical depth hypothesis

Has Sverdrup's critical depth hypothesis been tested? Mixed layers vs. turbulent layers

Sverdrup (1953. On conditions for the vernal blooming of phytoplankton. Journal du Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer, 18: 287-295) was quite careful in formulating his critical depth hypothesis, specifying a "thoroughly mixed top layer" with mixing "strong enough to distribute the plankton organisms evenly through the layer". With a few notable exceptions, most subsequent tests of the critical depth hypothesis have ignored those assumptions, using estimates of a hydrographically defined mixed-layer depth as a proxy for the actual turbulence-driven movement of the phytoplankton. However, a closer examination of the sources of turbulence and stratification in turbulent layers shows that active turbulence is highly variable over time scales of hours, vertical scales of metres, and horizontal scales of kilometres. Furthermore, the mixed layer as defined by temperature or density gradients is a poor indicator of the depth or intensity of active turbulence. Without time series of coincident, in situ measurements of turbulence and phytoplankton rates, it is not possible to properly test Sverdrup's critical depth hypothesis