[All-postdocs] Biology Seminar next week: Joint Program students Seth Cones & Alexandra Jones

[Margot McKlveen]

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*Biology Department Virtual Seminar*

*

Thursday, April 29 at Noon

Zoom link: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/98338871942 
<https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/98338871942>


MIT-WHOI Joint Program students Seth Cones: “Swimming behaviors during 
vertical migration in veined squid (Loligoforbesii)”Alexandra Jones: 
“Exploring the Biological Response to Eddy Trapping in the North Pacific 
Subtropical Gyre”

Seth Cones_:_ Swimming behaviors during vertical migration in veined 
squid (Loligo forbesii)

Abstract: Many squid taxa undergo daily vertical migrations from deeper 
daytime depths to shallower waters at night. Locomotory strategies that 
animals use to complete these vertical migrations define the metabolic 
costs of migrations and influence the risk of detection and capture by 
predators. Yet, there is little understanding of the fine-scale 
movements squid employ during these migrations. In 2019, we affixed 5 
veined squid (Loligo forbesii) with custom-built biologging tags (ITags) 
containing high-resolution inertial measurement units coupled with depth 
and temperature sensors for ca. 24 hours. Here, we present the first 
high-resolution (> 1 Hz) movement data set for any free-ranging squid. 
This work uses these novel data to broadly define squid habitat use and 
its diel variability, and at a finer-scale, to quantify gait and swim 
direction during ascent and descent swimming. Each animal underwent 
normal diel vertical migrations roughly aligned with sunset and sunrise. 
Ascent periods varied in swimming strategy and vertical speed; two squid 
exhibited cyclic climb-and-glide ascents, while the remaining three 
individuals swam vertically at a lower vertical speed with no repetitive 
depth modulation patterns. While all squid swam in both the arms-first 
and mantle-first direction, mantle-first swimming was preferred during 
ascents, which underscores its importance during frequent upward 
migrations that are more energetically expensive than horizontal 
swimming.  Our results indicate that L. forbesiivertical migrations are 
variable in aspects such as animal posture, swim direction, and swimming 
strategy. Taken together, such data provide new insights about energy 
conservation and predator-prey dynamics of marine predators in their 
natural environment.


Alexandra Jones: Exploring the Biological Response to Eddy Trapping in 
the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

Abstract: Mesoscale eddies are universal spinning masses of water that 
are analogous to atmospheric weather systems and account for most of the 
kinetic energy in the ocean. Eddies drive biophysical interactions with 
phytoplankton populations by inducing vertical and horizontal mixing, 
altering nutrient concentrations, and transporting ecosystems. Despite 
the ubiquity of ocean eddies and the abundance of studies dedicated to 
understanding their dynamics, much is unknown with respect to the 
biological response to eddy trapping. Computational fluid dynamics tools 
have been recently developed to identify rotationally coherent 
Lagrangian vortices, a distinct set of eddies characterized by their 
ability to trap fluid over significant periods of time. Notably, the 
phytoplankton community structure inside rotationally coherent 
Lagrangian vortices remains unexplored. This study uses a combined 
Lagrangian and Eulerian framework to identify eddies with a range of 
trapping strengths in the North Pacific subtropical gyre using satellite 
observations and a high-resolution MITgcm-Darwin Model simulation. By 
examining changes in chlorophyll and phytoplankton community structure, 
our preliminary results suggest that coherent eddies stimulate a unique 
biological response compared to leaky eddies. This motivates future 
analysis to better understand how eddy trapping affects phytoplankton 
populations and the potential impacts for biogeochemical cycling.


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Meeting ID: 983 3887 1942

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*

-- 
Margot McKlveen | she/her
Senior Administrative Assistant
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Redfield Building Room 305 | MS 32
266 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole, MA 02543
508-289-2334
mmcklveen at whoi.edu

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