Collaborative Research: A Multidisciplinary Study of Selective Tidal-Stream Transport: Bio-physical Coupling and Behavioral Mechanisms

许多无脊椎动物和鱼类利用选择性潮流运输（STST）进行水平运动。STST基于垂直迁移模式，即动物在潮汐的一个阶段离开底部进入水柱，在另一个阶段留在底部或附近。一个显着的，但未研究的方面，STST在一个物种是逆转的方向迁移在不同的生活史阶段。蓝蟹Callinectes sapidus的迁移，涉及反转STST方向产卵后，是这个多学科研究的重点。在产卵迁移，产卵的女性使用落潮运输从河口向海移动。在释放幼虫后，它们会改变方向，并通过涨潮运输重新进入河口。本研究的具体目标是：使用生物遥测技术观察和描述产卵迁移过程中的运动模式和物理条件;模拟观察到的物理条件和迁移路径，并使用耦合的生物物理模型在时间和空间上推断这些结果;确定STST的行为基础是由内源性活动节律还是由对外源性线索的行为反应介导的;并确定介导由具有成熟卵的雌性的落潮运输和产卵后雌性的涨潮运输的开始的线索。这项研究整合了生物和物理海洋学领域，将扩大我们对STST背后的线索、行为和物理机制的理解，STST是许多海洋和河口物种的共同生活史特征，对种群的延续至关重要。具体而言，结合从现场观察和实验室实验的结果与循环模型，将使研究人员能够预测水文和气象条件，促进或阻碍雌性青蟹迁移和产卵地点，并估计相对贡献的幼虫释放从不同地区的河口发展中的幼虫在沿海沃茨的供应。

Many invertebrates and fishes use selective tidal-stream transport (STST) for horizontal movement. STST is based on a vertical migration pattern, in which animals leave the bottom and enter the water column during one phase of the tide and remain on or near the bottom during the other phase. One remarkable but unstudied aspect of STST within a species is the reversal in the direction of migration at different life history stages. Migration of the blue crab Callinectes sapidus, involving a reversal in STST direction following spawning, is the focus of this multidisciplinary research. During spawning migration, ovigerous females use ebb-tide transport to move seaward from estuaries. After releasing larvae, they reverse direction and undergo flood -tide transport to re-enter the estuary. The specific goals of this research are to: use biotelemetry to observe and characterize the pattern of movement and physical conditions during the spawning migration; simulate observed physical conditions and migratory pathways and extrapolate these results in time and space using a coupled bio-physical model; determine whether the behavior underlying STST is mediated by an endogenous rhythm in activity or by behavioral responses to exogenous cues; and determine the cues mediating the onset of ebb-tide transport by females with mature eggs and flood-tide transport of post--spawn females. The study integrates the fields of biological and physical oceanography and will expand our understanding of the cues, behaviors, and physical mechanisms underlying STST, a common life history trait among many marine and estuarine species that is essential for continuation of populations. Specifically, combining results from field observations and laboratory experiments with a circulation model will allow researchers to predict hydrologic and meteorologic conditions that promote or impede female blue crab migration to and from spawning sites and estimate the relative contribution of larvae released from different areas of an estuary to the supply of developing larvae in coastal waters.