Coupling Behavior and Vertical Distribution of Pteropods in Coastal Waters Using Data from the Video Plankton Recorder.

Abstract

A combination of empirical, theoretical, and field studies are being used to develop a method for mailing accurate short-term (hours-days) predictions of the abundance and distribution of zooplankton, Limacina retroversa (Pteropoda, Thecosomata), in the ocean. This snail occurs in large numbers in coastal waters, forming dense patches (many kilometers in length) that are acoustically and optically opaque due to the animal's hard shell. A new conceptual approach is being developed to obtain behavioral information on individual plankton over a large range of spatial scales (1 cm- 100 km). Still images from the Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) are being used to link behavior at the micro-scale to vertical and horizontal distributions of plankton over much larger scales.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1997
Accession Number
ADA328924

Entities

People

  • Scott M. Gallager

Organizations

  • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aquatic Organisms
  • Buoyancy
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Couplings
  • Electron Microscopy
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Human Behavior
  • Image Processing
  • Images
  • Observation
  • Organism Forms
  • Plankton
  • Recording Systems
  • Scanning Electron Microscopy
  • Simulations
  • Swimming
  • Zooplankton

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Marine Ecotoxicology
  • Oceanography.