Authors / CoAuthors
Kool, J. | Nichol, S.
Abstract
As part of Geoscience Australia's commitment towards the National Environmental Programme's Marine Biodiversity Hub, we have developed a fully four-dimensional (3D x time) Lagrangian biophysical dispersal model to simulate the movement of marine larvae over large, topographically complex areas. The model operates by fusing the results of data-assimilative oceanographic models (e.g. BLUELink, HYCOM, ROMS) with individual-based particle behaviour. The model uses parallel processing on Australia's national supercomputer to handle large numbers of simulated larvae (on the order of several billion), and saves positional information as points within a relational database management system (RDBMS). The model was used to study Australia's northwest marine region, with specific attention given to connectivity patterns among Australia's north-western Commonwealth Marine Reserves and Key Ecological Features (KEFs). These KEFs include carbonate terraces, banks and reefs on the shelf that support diverse benthic assemblages of sponges and corals, and canyons that extend from the shelf edge to the continental slope and are potential biodiversity hotspots. We will show animations of larval movement near canyons within the Gascoyne CMR; larval dispersal probability clouds partitioned by depth and time; as well as matrices of connectivity values among features of interest. We demonstrate how the data can be used to identify connectivity corridors in marine environments, and how the matrices can be analysed to identify key connections within the network. Information from the model can be used to inform priorities for monitoring the performance of reserves through examining net contributions of different reserves (i.e. are they sources or sinks), and studying changes in connectivity structure through adding and removing reserve areas.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
79621
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Custodian
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
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- External Publication
- ( Theme )
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- marine
- ( Theme )
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- NERP
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Marine Geoscience
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- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2014-01-01T00:00:00
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unknown
Topic Category
oceans
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Unknown
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