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Advances in defining fine- and micro-scale pattern in marine plankton

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2003

Dale V. Holliday*
Affiliation:
BAE SYSTEMS, 4669 Murphy Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92123, USA
Percy L. Donaghay
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA
Charles F. Greenlaw
Affiliation:
BAE SYSTEMS, 4669 Murphy Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92123, USA
Duncan E. McGehee
Affiliation:
BAE SYSTEMS, 4669 Murphy Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92123, USA
Margaret M. McManus
Affiliation:
University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
Jim M. Sullivan
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA
Jennifer L. Miksis
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA
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Abstract

Since the June 1995 ICES Symposium on Fisheries and Plankton Acoustics in Aberdeen (MacLennan and Holliday, 1996) the use of acoustics for studying zooplankton has seen important advances. Acoustical monitoring of small-scale zooplankton distributions can now be done at intervals of a fraction of a minute. Resolution at vertical spatial scales of tens of centimeters is now easily achieved with commercially available sensors. Multiple-frequency echo-ranging sensors (TAPS™) have been deployed in an up-looking mode on the bottom, and on moorings looking up, down and horizontally. Real-time telemetry provides data on plankton distributions at ranges up to tens of meters from the sensors for periods of weeks to months. These sensors allow one to estimate total zooplankton biomass and the size-abundance spectrum of the animals in the water column at different depths and times. When a profiling CTD and multi-spectral optical sensors were used to define the physical environment and phytoplankton distributions near an acoustical zooplankton profiler, bold relationships were observed between measured spatial and temporal patterns. New methods in zooplankton acoustics are illustrated with data collected from these sensors while monitoring thin, sub-meter thick layers of plankton and diel migrations of benthopelagic crustaceans.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Elsevier, IRD, Inra, Ifremer, Cemagref, 2003

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