Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS36 Dealing With Scales in Aquatic Ecology: Structure and Function in Aquatic Ecosystems (Spatial and Temporal Connections)

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2001, Time: 10:30:00 AM

Location: San Miguel

Gallager, S, M, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole , USA, sgallager@whoi.edu

Yamazaki, H, , Tokyo University of Fisheries, Tokyo, Japan, hide@tokyo-u-fish.ac.jp

Yamazaki, A, K, Tokyo University of Fisheries, Tokyo, Japan, atsuko@sainet.or.jp

LINKING SPACE-TIME SCALES FROM INDIVIDUALS TO POPULATIONS USING PLANKTON BEHAVIOR

Empirical and theoretical studies are used to make short-term predictions of abundance and distribution of the marine snail Limacina retroversa (Pteropoda, Thecosomata). Development of this approach involves: 1)Mesocosm experiments to determine the effects of light, temperature stratification, and mixing intensity on swimming behavior and vertical position of pteropods in the water column; 2) Simulation models with behavioral feed-back to provide a coupling between individual behavior of pteropods and population level vertical distributions; 3) Field observations using Video Plankton Recorder instrumentation. Posture analysis of pteropods in still images taken by the VPR show a defined set of characteristic behaviors. Thus VPR data provides both distributional and behavioral maps of populations over scales of mm to 100's km. Individual based behavior models (IBM) simulate population distributions which are compared with experimental data and distributions from the field. The combined approach provides interpretation of behavioral data on individual plankton over a broad range of spatial scales.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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