Modelling the basin-scale demography of Calanus finmarchicus in the North East Atlantic

Speirs, D. and Gurney, W.S.C. and Heath, M.R. and Wood, S.N. (2005) Modelling the basin-scale demography of Calanus finmarchicus in the North East Atlantic. Fisheries Oceanography, 14 (5). pp. 333-358. ISSN 1054-6006

Abstract

In this paper, we report on a coupled physical-biological model describing the spatio-temporal distribution of Calanus finmarchicus over an area of the North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea from 56°N, 30°W to 72°N, 20°E. The model, which explicitly represents all the life-history stages, is implemented in a highly efficient discrete space-time format which permits wide-ranging dynamic exploration and parameter optimization. The underlying hydrodynamic driving functions come from the Hamburg Shelf-Ocean Model (HAMSOM). The spatio-temporal distribution of resources powering development and reproduction is inferred from SeaWiFS sea-surface colour observations. We confront the model with distributional data inferred from continuous plankton recorder observations, overwintering distribution data from a variety of EU, UK national and Canadian programmes which were collated as part of the Trans-Atlantic Study of Calanus (TASC) programme, and high-frequency stage-resolved point time-series obtained as part of the TASC programme. We test two competing hypotheses concerning the control of awakening from diapause and conclude that only a mechanism with characteristics similar to photoperiodic control can explain the test data.

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