Sustainable harvesting of a patchy resource: aggregation mechanisms and implications for stock size estimates (Sea Patches)

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2017

End date

12/31/2020

Budget

1,227,417 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

The main objective of the Sea Patches project was to determine the physical and biological mechanisms leading to the formation of zooplankton swarms. In the project we have found a new way of locating plankton swarms, using remote sensing from satellite. This gives us a significantly better starting point for understanding swarm formation, as we can now collect data on a much larger scale and over a much longer time than has been possible so far, with collection from research vessels. For zooplankton research, this is to be regarded as a major step forward that has already changed our view of the plankton's ecology. Also within ocean color remote sensing, these results have opened up many new research questions, mainly related to the ability to see larger particles than previously assumed from satellite. To understand the mechanisms behind swarm formation, we have developed an experiment in which we measured the vertical movement of plankton. These results were then fed into an advanced 3D model of ocean currents (FVCOM) and the first model runs show that the formation of plankton patches depends on both the movement of plankton and the patterns of the ocean currents. In the project, we also looked at the stock size of overwintering Calanus finmarchicus, and found that the stock increases as a delayed response to climatic effects in the North Atlantic, which also affects the herring stock. The project has significantly expanded our understanding of plankton patch formation. At the same time, we have found a new technological method that will make it easier to increase our understanding of the plankton's ecology further, and statistical methods for predicting stock fluctuations in Calanus finmarchicus.