Collaborative Research: Linking behavior and transport of larvae using waves and turbulence as cues

许多底栖海洋物种的幼虫在水柱中的行为影响扩散和成年分布。 蜗牛幼虫会更努力地向上游，或者对波浪和湍流的线索做出反应，目前还不清楚幼虫是否可以利用这些物理线索在栖息地内停留或在栖息地之间航行。 在波浪下游上来的幼虫可能由于波浪引起的表层沃茨的向岸漂移而留在大陆架上。然而，海洋变暖导致幼虫在春季更早被释放，此时海浪更大，沿海上升流更弱，可能会将幼虫带到超过成虫温度耐受力的较浅沃茨。研究人员将使用中大西洋湾和邻近河口的物理模型来测试关于波浪和湍流如何影响运输模式，成年栖息地附近的保留以及气候引起的成年分布变化的假设。该项目将模拟海洋环流和幼虫跟踪代码，其中包括作为行为线索和运输机制的波浪;这些产品将公开提供。一个研究生将做一个相关的论文。本科生将通过NSF资助的REU计划参与，该计划使罗格斯大学多样化的本科生参与研究，以提高STEM专业的保留率，罗格斯大学科学与工程研究计划，针对代表性不足的少数民族，以及斯基德莫尔暑期研究计划。模型输出将用于开发本科生的学习材料，包装为案例研究，通过国家科学案例研究教学中心分发。研究结果也将通过斯基德莫尔安可系列讲座向成人（55岁及以上）学习者展示。波浪是独特的，它为幼虫提供了直接与水平运输机制相关的行为线索，新发现的幼虫对波浪的反应可能会对幼虫运输和物种分布产生反直觉的影响。 两种同类蜗牛的相邻栖息地的波浪气候不同：Tritia obsoleta占据湍流入口和河口，波浪小，而Tritia trivittata占据大陆架，波浪大得多。这两个物种的幼虫感知波和湍流分别作为加速度和涡诱导的身体旋转，分别。后期河口幼虫主要表现出的毒性诱导的下沉，可以减少运输出的入口和河口，而货架幼虫也表现出波浪诱导的向上游泳，可以帮助保留在货架上通过斯托克斯漂移。 自20世纪60年代以来，陆架物种的活动范围已经转移到温暖的水域，与基于耐热性的预测相反。这种转变可能是由波浪引起的幼虫运输;由于海洋变暖导致产卵提前，幼虫将在春季遇到较大的波浪和较弱的上升流，加强斯托克斯漂移和向内陆架较温暖，较浅的沃茨的岸上运输。该项目将使用数值模型来测试假设连接流引起的幼虫行为的传输路径，本地保留，和气候驱动的范围转移。波将被包括作为一个来源的行为线索和平流通过加速度和斯托克斯漂移，分别。 结果将有助于解决斯托克斯漂移，欧拉回流，和上涌相互作用，运输幼虫的不确定性。数值实验将描述气候驱动的产卵物候变化如何影响幼虫运输，潜在地确定了大陆架物种进入温暖水域的令人困惑的范围变化背后的机制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Many bottom-dwelling marine species have larvae whose behavior in the water column impacts dispersal and adult distributions. Snail larvae swim up with more effort or sink in response to cues from waves and turbulence, and it remains unclear whether larvae can use these physical cues for retention within or navigation among habitats. Larvae that swim up under waves may be retained over the continental shelf by wave-induced shoreward drift in surface waters. However, ocean warming causes larvae to be released earlier in spring when waves are larger and coastal upwelling is weaker, potentially carrying larvae into shallower waters that exceed the adults' temperature tolerance. The investigators will use a physical model of the Middle Atlantic Bight and adjacent estuaries to test hypotheses about how waves and turbulence affect transport patterns, retention near adult habitats, and climate-induced shifts in adult distributions. The project will produce simulations of ocean circulation and larval tracking codes that include waves both as behavior cues and as a transport mechanism; these products will be made publicly available. A graduate student will do a related dissertation. Undergraduate students will be involved through an NSF-funded REU program, the Aresty Program, which engages Rutgers' diverse undergraduates in research to boost retention in STEM majors, the Rutgers Research in Science and Engineering program, which targets underrepresented minorities, and the Skidmore Summer Research program. Model outputs will be used to develop learning materials for undergraduates, packaged as a case study for distribution through the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. Research results will also be presented to adult (55 and over) learners through the Skidmore Encore lecture series.Waves are unique in providing planktonic larvae with a behavior cue directly tied to a horizontal transport mechanism, and newly discovered larval responses to waves could have counter-intuitive impacts on larval transport and species distributions. Wave climates differ in the adjacent habitats of two congeneric snails: Tritia obsoleta occupies turbulent inlets and estuaries where waves are small, while Tritia trivittata occupies the continental shelf where waves are much larger. These two species' larvae sense waves and turbulence separately as acceleration and vorticity-induced body rotation, respectively. Late-stage estuarine larvae mainly exhibit turbulence-induced sinking that could reduce transport out of inlets and estuaries, whereas shelf larvae also exhibit wave-induced upward swimming that could aid retention over the shelf via Stokes drift. Since the 1960s, the shelf species' range has shifted into warmer water, opposite to predictions based on thermal tolerance. This shift may be driven by wave-induced larval transport; as ocean warming induces earlier spawning, larvae will encounter larger waves and weaker upwelling in spring, intensifying Stokes drift and onshore transport toward warmer, shallower waters of the inner shelf. The project will use numerical models to test hypotheses linking flow-induced larval behaviors to transport pathways, local retention, and climate-driven range shifts. Waves will be included as a source of both behavior cues and advection through acceleration and Stokes drift, respectively. Results will help resolve uncertainties about how Stokes drift, Eulerian return flow, and upwelling interact to transport larvae. Numerical experiments will describe how climate-driven changes in spawning phenology affect larval transport, potentially identifying the mechanism behind perplexing range shifts of shelf species into warmer water.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.