Effect of mesoscale eddies and streamers on sardine spawning habitat and recruitment success off Southern and central California

We quantified the effect of mesoscale eddies and streamers on the spatial distribution of Pacific sardine spawning habitat using a merged altimetry data set and a statistical spawning habitat model. The distribution of eggs could be predicted using sea‐surface temperature, chlorophyll concentration,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Oceans 2014-09, Vol.119 (9), p.6330-6339
Main Authors: Nieto, Karen, McClatchie, Sam, Weber, Edward D., Lennert-Cody, Cleridy E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chlorophyll
Eddies
Eggs
Geophysics
Habitats
Mathematical models
mesoscale
Ocean circulation
Offshore
Offshore engineering
Recruitment
sardine
Sardines
spawning
streamers
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We quantified the effect of mesoscale eddies and streamers on the spatial distribution of Pacific sardine spawning habitat using a merged altimetry data set and a statistical spawning habitat model. The distribution of eggs could be predicted using sea‐surface temperature, chlorophyll concentration, and eddy kinetic energy (EKE) similarly to previous studies. Eddies alone did not have a significant additional or emergent effect on the probability of capturing eggs beyond these predictors. Rather, mesoscale features (eddies and streamers) entrained water with the appropriate conditions in terms of temperature, chlorophyll, and EKE. These dynamic features moved appropriate spawning habitat for sardine offshore to areas where appropriate habitat otherwise would not exist. Using centroids of predicted sardine habitat, we showed that sardine recruitment success was inversely correlated with distance from shore of predicted sardine habitat centroids. This indicates that offshore transport has a negative effect on sardine recruitment, despite expanding favorable spawning habitat further offshore. Key Points Eddies have no additional effect on probability of capturing sardine eggs Mesoscale features moved appropriate sardine spawning habitat offshore Sardine recruitment was inversely correlated with offshore distance of habitat
ISSN:2169-9275
2169-9291
DOI:10.1002/2014JC010251