2006 Ocean Sciences Meeting SEACOOS Poster - Simulated Nutrient and Plankton Fluxes From Florida Current Frontal Eddies Along the East Florida Shelf: Implications for the Oculina Bank Deep Coral Reef Ecosystem

For the program on "Biological, Biogeochemical, and Physical Dynamics and Their Interactions in the Coastal Ocean VII Posters," OS46K-23. Because of its location along the East Florida shelf break between 27.5 and 29.5 N, the Oculina Bank deep (60 to 120 m) coral reef ecosystem may be particularly sensitive to the impact of Florida Current frontal eddies and associated biophysical variability. Over the last three decades, the Oculina Bank ecosystem has undergone significant habitat destruction from bottom trawling and the number and size of spawning aggregations of economically important species (e.g., gag grouper) have dramatically decreased. Restoration efforts for this fragile environment through progressive ecosystem-based management would certainly benefit from understanding the importance of frontal eddies in modulating the transport of heat, nutrients, phytoplankton, etc in this particular region. Simulation results from a high-resolution, three-dimensional coastal ocean model (EFS-POM, developed within the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS) program), coupled to a 4-component (NPZD) ecosystem model, provide new insight on the dramatic increase of nutrient and phytoplankton fluxes during frontal eddy passages along the East Florida Shelf. Furthermore, simulated particle trajectories indicate that the circulation induced by the frontal eddies (i.e., onshore/offshore transport and northward advection) would certainly impact the potential dispersion pathways of coral and fish larvae spawned in the Oculina Bank region, as well as planktonic food availability. The present modeling work represents a significant step towards the ability to characterize the full spatial and temporal biophysical variability associated with the Florida Current frontal eddies along the East Florida Shelf and, thus, it provides a framework for future ecological forecasting efforts in this region. *J Fiechter, C N Mooers