Knauss legislative fellowships in Congress help build careers — and they're fun and educational. See our video and fact sheet for details.
The Maryland Sea Grant bookstore is closed from December 10 to January 3.
Research Publications: UM-SG-RS-2019-07
Title:
Ocean destratification and fish evacuation caused by a Mid-Atlantic tropical stormYear:
2019Authors:
Secor, DH; Zhang, F; O'Brien, MHP; Li, MSource:
ICES JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE 76 ( 2 ) : 573 - 584DOI:
10.1093/icesjms/fsx241Abstract:
Tropical and extratropical storms commonly occur in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, sometimes causing catastrophic losses to coastal fisheries. Still, their influence on fish movements and range shifts is poorly known. We coupled biotelemetry observations of black sea bass in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bight with numerical modelling of the coastal ocean to evaluate the influence of Hermine (3-8 September 2016) on cold pool thermal destratification and fish evacuation. Spring through fall, black sea bass is a sedentary species, with movements focused on structure where they support important commercial and recreational fisheries. During summer 2016, we characterized the movements of 45 acoustically tagged black sea bass at three sites deploying acoustic receivers moored in shelf waters 18-31km east of Ocean City, Maryland, and at depths 20-32m in the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight. On 3 September 2016, cyclonic winds of Hermine caused rapid destratification of the water column. At experimental sites, bottom temperatures rose from 13 to 23 degrees C in 10h. An oceanographic model and observing data showed that the effects of this destratification dominated large portions of the Mid-Atlantic Bight and had long term effects on seasonal evolution of the shelf temperature. Nearly half of remaining black sea bass on 3 September (40%) permanently evacuated the experimental sites. Those that remained showed long-term depressed activity levels. Although the cause of this incomplete evacuation is unknown, it exemplifies partial migration, which may buffer black sea bass to regional impacts of changed timing or increased incidence of tropical storms.Open Access:
This article is freely available online. You can use the DOI number to find it through the journal's website or through a search engine.Related Research Project(s) Funded by Maryland Sea Grant:
'Related Research Project(s)' link to details about research projects funded by Maryland Sea Grant that led to this publication. These details may include other impacts and accomplishments resulting from the research.
'Maryland Sea Grant Topic(s)' links to related pages on the Maryland Sea Grant website.
Program Announcements
News and Blogs
Featured Fellow
Leone Yisrael is a cephalopod-loving scuba diver, cook, and loves to try new activities. She conducts genetic analysis and fieldwork at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center through the Coastal Disease Ecology Lab.
Featured Research Project
Developing a habitat model for mysids, an important link in Chesapeake Bay food webs
Mysids are important mesozooplankton prey for many species of fish in Chesapeake Bay and are an important link in transferring energy from lower to upper trophic levels. Mysids also serve as biological vectors for benthic-pelagic coupling due to their diel vertical migration and omnivorous prey-switching behavior, which makes mysids important regulators of food web architecture. Despite their central role in coastal food webs, surprisingly little is known about mysid ecology and dynamics in Chesapeake Bay.
