scholarly journals In situ swimming speed and swimming behaviour of fish feeding on the krill Meganyctiphanes norvegica

2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (8) ◽  
pp. 1822-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
M SR Onsrud ◽  
S Kaartvedt ◽  
M T Breien

In situ swimming speed and swimming behaviour of dielly migrating planktivorous fish were studied at a 120-m-deep location. Acoustic target tracking was performed using a hull-mounted transducer and submersible transducers located on the sea bottom and free hanging in the water column. The original data displayed a relationship between distance to transducer and swimming speed. A simplistic smoother applied during post-processing, appeared to break this relationship. Target tracking thus provided robust results on in situ swimming behaviour throughout the water column. Swimming speeds of deep-living fish, mainly Norway pout (Trisopterus esmarkii) and whiting (Merlangius merlangus), were highest during the day (speeds centred around 14–16 cm·s–1) and decreased somewhat by night (modes around 10–11 cm·s–1). Fish in the upper 10–30 m swam somewhat faster (speeds ranging from 16 to 24 cm·s–1). Fish in the upper layer at night were mainly Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), sprat (Sprattus sprattus), and whiting. We ascribe the reduction of swimming speed in deep-living fish at night to a switch from visual feeding during daytime to nonvisual feeding by night. We suggest that shallow-living fish could forage visually even by night. Most tracks were fairly short, but some long tracks unveiled elaborate swimming paths as well as cyclic swimming behaviour.

2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 1191-1196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geir Pedersen ◽  
Nils Olav Handegard ◽  
Egil Ona

Abstract Pedersen, G., Handegard, N. O., and Ona, E. 2009. Lateral-aspect, target-strength measurements of in situ herring (Clupea harengus). – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 1191–1196. Surveys of schooling herring with the new multibeam sonar (Simrad MS70) pose new challenges when converting the echo energy to estimates of biomass. Because the sonar projects horizontally, data and models of lateral-aspect, herring target strength (TS) are needed. In this study, the TS of herring is measured with a horizontally projecting, split-beam echosounder (Simrad EK60). Target-tracking methods are used to estimate swimming angles relative to the horizontal (θ) of individual herring within schools and layers and to evaluate how θ and TS change with depth (z). Measurements of θ and TS are used as inputs for a model describing TS as a function of θ and z. The results indicate that the mean lateral-aspect TS of in situ herring depends on z. Moreover, the mean lateral-aspect TS is more sensitive to z than the mean dorsal-aspect TS predicted by a published model. At z = 50 m, the mean lateral-aspect TS is nearly 2.5 dB higher than the mean dorsal-aspect TS. Conversely, at z = 350 m, the lateral-aspect TS is 5 dB lower. These results suggest that herring swimbladders do not compress uniformly with increasing pressure, but compress dorsoventrally more than laterally.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Stukel ◽  
Thomas Kelly

Thorium-234 (234Th) is a powerful tracer of particle dynamics and the biological pump in the surface ocean; however, variability in carbon:thorium ratios of sinking particles adds substantial uncertainty to estimates of organic carbon export. We coupled a mechanistic thorium sorption and desorption model to a one-dimensional particle sinking model that uses realistic particle settling velocity spectra. The model generates estimates of 238U-234Th disequilibrium, particulate organic carbon concentration, and the C:234Th ratio of sinking particles, which are then compared to in situ measurements from quasi-Lagrangian studies conducted on six cruises in the California Current Ecosystem. Broad patterns observed in in situ measurements, including decreasing C:234Th ratios with depth and a strong correlation between sinking C:234Th and the ratio of vertically-integrated particulate organic carbon (POC) to vertically-integrated total water column 234Th, were accurately recovered by models assuming either a power law distribution of sinking speeds or a double log normal distribution of sinking speeds. Simulations suggested that the observed decrease in C:234Th with depth may be driven by preferential remineralization of carbon by particle-attached microbes. However, an alternate model structure featuring complete consumption and/or disaggregation of particles by mesozooplankton (e.g. no preferential remineralization of carbon) was also able to simulate decreasing C:234Th with depth (although the decrease was weaker), driven by 234Th adsorption onto slowly sinking particles. Model results also suggest that during bloom decays C:234Th ratios of sinking particles should be higher than expected (based on contemporaneous water column POC), because high settling velocities minimize carbon remineralization during sinking.


2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Legendre ◽  
Richard B Rivkin ◽  
Nianzhi Jiao

Abstract This “Food for Thought” article examines the potential uses of several novel scientific and technological developments, which are currently available or being developed, to significantly advance or supplement existing experimental approaches to study water-column biogeochemical processes (WCB-processes). After examining the complementary roles of observation, experiments and numerical models to study WCB-processes, we focus on the main experimental approaches of free-water in situ experiments, and at-sea and on-land meso- and macrocosms. We identify some of the incompletely resolved aspects of marine WCB-processes, and explore advanced experimental approaches that could be used to reduce their uncertainties. We examine three such approaches: free-water experiments of lengthened duration using bioArgo floats and gliders, at-sea mesocosms deployed several 100s m below the sea-surface using new biogeochemical sensors, and 50 m-tall on-land macrocosms. These approaches could lead to significant progress in concepts related to marine WCB-processes.


1983 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Aneer ◽  
G. Florell ◽  
U. Kautsky ◽  
S. Nellbring ◽  
L. Sj�stedt

Ocean Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1185-1206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Pérez-Santos ◽  
Leonardo Castro ◽  
Lauren Ross ◽  
Edwin Niklitschek ◽  
Nicolás Mayorga ◽  
...  

Abstract. The aggregation of plankton species along fjords can be linked to physical properties and processes such as stratification, turbulence and oxygen concentration. The goal of this study is to determine how water column properties and turbulent mixing affect the horizontal and vertical distributions of macrozooplankton along the only northern Patagonian fjord known to date, where hypoxic conditions occur in the water column. Acoustic Doppler current profiler moorings, scientific echo-sounder transects and in situ plankton abundance measurements were used to study macrozooplankton assemblages and migration patterns along Puyuhuapi Fjord and Jacaf Channel in Chilean Patagonia. The dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy was quantified through vertical microstructure profiles collected throughout time in areas with high macrozooplankton concentrations. The acoustic records and in situ macrozooplankton data revealed diel vertical migrations (DVM) of siphonophores, chaetognaths and euphausiids. In particular, a dense biological backscattering layer was observed along Puyuhuapi Fjord between the surface and the top of the hypoxic boundary layer (∼100 m), which limited the vertical distribution of most macrozooplankton and their DVM, generating a significant reduction of habitat. Aggregations of macrozooplankton and fishes were most abundant around a submarine sill in Jacaf Channel. In this location macrozooplankton were distributed throughout the water column (0 to ∼200 m), with no evidence of a hypoxic boundary due to the intense mixing near the sill. In particular, turbulence measurements taken near the sill indicated high dissipation rates of turbulent kinetic energy (ε∼10-5 W kg−1) and vertical diapycnal eddy diffusivity (Kρ∼10-3 m2 s−1). The elevated vertical mixing ensures that the water column is well oxygenated (3–6 mL L−1, 60 %–80 % saturation), creating a suitable environment for macrozooplankton and fish aggregations. Turbulence induced by tidal flow over the sill apparently enhances the interchange of nutrients and oxygen concentrations with the surface layer, creating a productive environment for many marine species, where the prey–predator relationship might be favored.


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