Spatially-Explict Models of Fish Growth Rate Potential: Integration of Acoustics and Ecological Modeling

使用切萨皮克湾作为研究地点，拟议的研究将评估如何在物理和生物栖息地的空间/时间异质性相互作用，影响捕食者-猎物的相互作用，鱼类生长速度和系统生产。 鱼类增长率潜力是一个新概念，将首次纳入模型。 本研究将以数学方式发展鱼类生长率潜力，评估鱼类生长率潜力相对于栖息地基本物理和生物结构的敏感性和空间统计，比较不同群体和物种之间的空间显性鱼类生长率在捕食者行为，觅食效率和观测空间尺度方面的特性，并开发一个动态空间模型，允许在模型的不同部分之间进行交换。 切萨皮克湾将被用作研究中心，因为有一个非常适合这些分析的广泛数据库。 该研究将在一个空间明确的框架内将生物学和物理学联系起来，并广泛应用于预测环境模式或绝对尺度的变化如何影响更高营养级的生产动态。

Using Chesapeake Bay as a study site, the proposed research will evaluate how spatial/temporal heterogeneity in physical and biological habitats interact to affect predator-prey interactions, fish growth rate and system production. Fish growth rate potential is a new concept that will be incorporated into the models for the first time. The research will develop the growth rate potential mathematically, evaluate the sensitivity and spatial statistics of fish growth rate potential relative to the underlying physical and biological structure of habitat, compare properties of spatially-explicit fish growth rate among different cohorts and species with respect to predator behavior, foraging efficiency and spatial scale of observation, and develop a dynamic spatial model that allows exchange between different segments of the model. The Chesapeake Bay will be used as a study site because of the availability of an extensive database well-suited for these analyses. The research will link biology and physics within a spatially-explicit framework and has widespread application for predicting how changes in the patterning or absolute scaling of the environment might affect production dynamics of higher trophic levels.