Characterizing Rice’s Whale Habitat on the Northern West Florida Shelf Using a Moored Array, Ship Transects, Remote Sensing, and Numerical Modeling
Implementing Organization
University of South Florida
Overview
DWH Project Funding
$993,306
Known Leveraged Funding
$0
Funding Organization
The U.S. Department of Treasury
Funding Program
The RESTORE Act Funds Bucket 5: Centers of Excellence Research Grant Program
Details
Project Category
Science
Project Actions
Environmental Research
Targeted Resources
Pelagic Zone
Project Description
In this project, moored and shipboard oceanographic observations are employed together with numerical models and remote sensing to characterize ocean circulation and ecosystem function and connectivity in critical Rice’s Whale habitat on the northern West Florida Shelf (nWFS), specifically the shelf escarpment and De Soto Canyon region. Time series of key met/ocean variables will be collected and combined with a high-resolution numerical model to provide realistic four-dimensional ocean circulation information that can be used to study the connectivity of the ecosystem on the nWFS. The process-oriented study will focus on the local and remote forcing that drives the complex interactions between oceanographic processes (e.g., mesoscale dynamics) and zooplankton spatiotemporal variations, abundance and distribution on the nWFS to better understand the zooplankton-micronekton trophic link in the study region.
Contact
Liu, Yonggang727-553-3508
yliu@usf.edu
Project Website
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