A breadth of discovery: aquatic organisms and the thermal integral; right whales and risk and food; ecosystem biomass spectra; and particle tracing

该“发现”计划涉及未来5年的4个研究重点，涉及3名博士生和3名硕士生。**(1)利用生长度日度量（GDD）来诊断大范围捕捞种群的尺寸选择性捕捞，解决了海洋变温动物的尺寸年龄变化问题，从而进一步推进了相关研究；即，诊断大小选择性捕捞如何导致年龄大小减少与早熟/早熟相适应，以及b)通过使用GDD度量来解释包括软体动物、甲壳类动物、棘皮动物等在内的水生生物（鱼类以外）的分类范围内的年龄大小变化，以及爬行动物和两栖动物。**(2)完成涉及濒危露脊鲸的研究：a)估算Roseway盆地内露脊鲸浮游动物食物能量密度的空间变化；b)利用Fundy和Roseway栖息地20年历史浮游生物样本的时间序列，确定食物能量密度的年际变化是否可以解释鲸鱼占用、状况和繁殖的变化；c)确定每个栖息地内食物的时空变化如何归因于水文特性和环流。d)完成对露脊鲸致命遭遇船只和渔具的时空风险量化研究，其中主要任务是使用状态空间模型来估计鲸鱼在主要栖息地之间和之间的运动；这些结果也将有助于加强上述其他分析。**(3)测试生物量谱模型解释诺森伯兰海峡生态系统生态结构和功能的空间和季节变化的能力，重点是自下而上和自上而下的过程。**(4)利用粒子追踪来确定淡水系统中压载水排放中入侵物种的命运，并解决圣乔治湾和诺森伯兰海峡内幼虫龙虾的“连通性”和源库分散和运输问题。

This "Discovery" proposal addresses 4 research foci involving 3 PhD students and 3 MSc students over the next 5 years. **(1) Advance our research related to the growing degree day metric (GDD) by addressing: a) size-at-age variation in marine ectotherms by using the GDD metric to diagnose size-selective fishing among a large range of exploited stocks; i.e. diagnose how size-selective fishing results in reduced size-at-age commensurate with earlier/smaller maturation, and b) by using the GDD metric to explaining size-at-age variation across a taxonomic range of aquatic organisms (beyond fishes) including molluscs, crustaceans, echinoderms, etc., as well as reptiles and amphibians. **(2) Complete research involving the endangered right whale by: a) estimating the spatial variation in energy density of zooplankton food for right whales within Roseway Basin, b) using a 20-year time series of historical plankton samples from the Fundy and Roseway habitats to determine whether inter-annual variation in food energy density can explain variation in whale occupancy, condition and reproduction, c) determining how spatial and temporal variation in the food within each habitat can be attributed to hydrographic properties and circulation, and d) by completing our research on quantifying spatial and temporal risk to right whales of lethal encounters with vessels and fishing gear where the primary task involves state-space models to estimate whale movements among and between major habitats; these results will also serve to strengthen the other analyses above. **(3) Test biomass spectrum models in their ability to explaining spatial and seasonal variation in the ecological structure and functioning of the Northumberland Strait ecosystem with an emphasis on bottom up and top down processes. **(4) Use particle tracing to determine the fate of invasive species from ballast water discharge in freshwater systems and to address larval lobster "connectivity" and source-sink dispersion and transport in St. Georges Bay and within the Northumberland Strait.