Acoustics of Copepods and Micronekton in the Great South Channel

SCOPEX（South Channel Ocean Productivity Experiment）是一个 研究春季聚集的多学科计划 新英格兰海域露脊鲸的数量以及 这些鲸鱼和它们的主要猎物桡足类哲水蚤 finmarchicus。 潜在的假设是鲸鱼 每年春天都集中在这个有限的地区， 异常密集的桡足类 的可能原因 桡足类聚集包括平流，产量增加， 行为，或这些因素的组合。 在游轮上， 1988年春天和1989年春天， 鲸鱼的分布和行为（H。温河肯尼，URI）， 浮游动物分布（K. Wishner，URI）、浮游植物 分布和浮游动物摄食（E. Durbin，A.德宾 URI）、声生物量（M.麦考利，NMFS，B。弗罗斯特，华盛顿大学）， 水文学和海流（R。比尔兹利河Limeburner，WHOI，P. Cornillon，URI）。 1988年巡航的初步结果显示， （1）鲸鱼潜水时间与深度相关， 昼夜迁移的声学层，这意味着鲸鱼是 以这一层的浮游生物为食 (2)密集桡足类层 可能是强烈迁移或连续存在于附近 表面，具有年际和地理变化。 鲸鱼可以吃这两种类型的层。 (3)没有明确的 涡流（一种可能的集中机制）与 浮游生物集群 虽然有迹象表明， 在50米和更深处的缓慢流动中，近地表漂流物倾向于 迅速离开该地区。 对1989年巡航的进一步分析 现将抽取样本以完成调查。

SCOPEX (South Channel Ocean Productivity Experiment) is a multidisciplinary program to investigate springtime aggregations of right whales off New England and the interactions between these whales and their main prey, the copepod Calanus finmarchicus. The underlying hypothesis is that whales are concentrated in this limited area each spring because of unusually dense concentrations of copepods. Possible causes of the copepod aggegations include advection, elevated production, behavior, or a combination of these factors. On cruises in spring 1988 and scheduled for spring 1989, measurements were made of whale distributions and behavior (H. Winn, R. Kenney, URI), zooplankton distributions (K. Wishner, URI), phytoplankton distributions and zooplankton feeding (E. Durbin, A. Durbin, URI), acoustic biomass (M. Macaulay, NMFS, B. Frost, UW), hydrography and currents (R. Beardsley, R. Limeburner, WHOI, P. Cornillon, URI). Preliminary results from the 1988 cruise showed that (1) whale dive times were correlated with the depth of a diel migrating acoustic layer, implying that the whales were feeding on plankton in this layer. (2) Dense copepod layers could be either strongly migrating or present continuously near the surface, with both interannual and geographic variability. Whales can feed on both types of layers. (3) No well-defined eddy (a possible concentrating mechanism) was associated with the plankton aggregations. While there was come indication of very slow flow at 50m and deeper, the near-surface drifters tended to move quickly out of the area. Further analysis of 1989 cruise samples will now be pursued to complete the investigation.