Ocean Sciences 2016 session, 'Physical-biological interactions at ocean fronts: from processes to predators'
Are you interested in how marine mammals interact with their oceanic environment? Does your work investigate (sub-)mesoscale oceanographic influence on at-sea habitat use? Does your study species associate with ocean fronts, or are they ecologically significant features of your study system? If so, we need you! We are seeking abstracts for an Ocean Sciences (New Orleans, Feb 2016) session, 'Physical-biological interactions at ocean fronts: from processes to predators'. Further details are given below. We aim to make this an engaging session with an interdisciplinary, cross-taxon focus and opportunities for discussion with experts from across the fields of marine ecology, biologging, physical oceanography, remote sensing and oceanographic modelling. Abstracts can be submitted at https://agu.confex.com/agu/os16/preliminaryview.cgi/Session9323 The submission deadline is 23 September 2015, 23:59EDT. Session info: Ocean fronts are sharp horizontal gradients in physical properties such as temperature, salinity and density. Fronts manifest throughout the oceans over a range of spatio-temporal scales, from ephemeral sub-mesoscale features in shelf seas to persistent basin-scale water mass boundaries in the open oceans. Under certain conditions, bio-physical coupling along fronts can lead to enhanced primary productivity and the aggregation of zooplankton and micronekton. This low trophic level enhancement is known to attract marine predators including seabirds, cetaceans, turtles, pinnipeds, sharks and tuna to front-associated foraging and migration habitats. However, key questions remain regarding the mechanisms through which the physical properties of fronts interact with prey field dynamics and the foraging ecology of marine predators to influence associations. A better understanding of the physical-biological interactions that occur at fronts, and the influence of spatial scale, frontal persistence and wider regional oceanography is required to ascertain their ecological importance, and predict future shifts in critical predator habitats. This session seeks to gather researchers to share new insights into physical-biological interactions at fronts in pelagic systems. We particularly encourage inter-disciplinary presentations that integrate model-derived or remotely-sensed oceanographic data with biological indices to elucidate the mechanistic links between physical processes, predators and prey. *Dr. Kylie L. Scales | *Assistant Project Scientist Environmental Research Division NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center 99 Pacific Street, Suite #255A Monterey, CA 93940, USA kylie.scales@noaa.gov | +1 (831) 648-8516 @KylieScales
participants (1)
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Kylie Scales - NOAA Affiliate