Which factors contribute to zooplankton congregation over Stellwagen Bank?
Abstract
Stellwagen Bank lies at the Massachusetts Bay's eastern boundary with the Gulf of Maine (GoM) and is encompassed by the Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. It is a shoal with primarily sandy bottom and with water depth ranging from 20 meters to 40 meters. The waters all across the bank are highly productive and support a large and diverse planktonic and benthic communities, large fish diversity and fish biomass; it is also one of the most active whale feeding grounds in coastal waters of the United States.
Our previous studies found three factors to be mainly responsible for the high biomass over and around sea banks and sea mounts in coastal areas: zooplankton diel migration, tidal currents, and topography, and their interactions. Other factors, such as high dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN = NH4 + NO3), retention of productivity, plus the advection and local concentration of food produced elsewhere, can also be contributing factors. In this study, a 2D cross-bank profile model is used to investigate the biological and physical processes that can explain the biomass patterns and accumulations across Stellwagen Bank. This study is focused on determining the relative contributions of different factors and processes that are responsible for sustaining high biomass in the Stellwagen Bank ecosystem. Furthermore, the manner in which local or regional changes in climate and circulation that might affect the food availability in this important whale feeding ground are also tested using this model. The results of this 2D model show that tidal currents are the dominant force which influences the distribution pattern of zooplankton along the Bank. In addition, we found that zooplankton diel migration also affects plankton biomass and DIN concentration over the Bank.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMOS43F2147Z
- Keywords:
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- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 1879 Watershed;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1879 Watershed;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 4235 Estuarine processes;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL