Abstract
We examine the influence of spatial scale on studies of nektonic patchiness at the north edge of the Gulf Stream by altering the grain size of acoustic cross sections and applying a patch-finding algorithm. From original ‘pictures’ of 180 pixels deep by 540–1260 pixels long, we averaged depth and length, to give 9 scales ranging from fine grain (1 m vertical × 25 m horizontal sized pixels) to coarse grain (12 m × 300 m sized pixels). Measures of overall echo intensity within patches were the most predictable and showed little change with scale. Measures of variability of the echo within patches showed simple negative trends with scale and were best measured at fine spatial scales. Patch size and shape related variables have a more complex relationship with scale with differences between day and night transects more pronounced at intermediate scales. This suggests behavioral patch forming mechanisms within the nekton occur at a specific grain size (4 m vertical × 100 m horizontal) within the Gulf Stream front.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blaxter, J.H.S. 1975. The role of light in the vertical migration of fish-a review. In Light as an ecological factor: II. pp. 189–210. Edited by G.C. Evans, R. Bainbridge and O. Rackham. Blackwell Scientific Publ., London.
Boyd, S.H., P.H. Wiebe, R.H. Backus, J.E. Craddock and Daher, M.A. 1986. Biomass of the micronekton in Gulf Stream ring 82-B and environs: changes with time. Deep-Sea Res. 33: 1885–1905.
Brown, J.H. and Maurer, B.A. 1989. Macroecology: the division of food and space among species on continents. Science 243: 1145–1150.
Buerkle, U. 1983. First look at herring distributions with a bottom referencing underwater towed instrumentation vehicle ‘BRUTIV’. In Symposium on fisheries acoustics. pp. 125–130. Edited by O. Nakken and S.C. Venema. FAO Fish. Rep., (300): 331 pp.
Clark, P.J. and Evans, F.C. 1954. Distance to nearest neighbor as a measure of spatial relationships in populations. Ecology 35: 445–453.
Clay, C.S. and Medwin, H. 1977. Acoustical oceanography: principles and applications. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Cole, H.P., Bryan, G.M. and Gordon, A.L. 1970. The deep scattering layer: patterns across the Gulf Stream and the Sargasso Sea. In Proceedings of an international symposium on biological sound scattering in the ocean. pp. 281–293. Edited by G.B. Farquhar. Department of the Navy, Washington, D.C.
Conover, W.J. 1971. Practical nonparametric statistics. John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York. 426 pp.
Downing, J.A., Perusse, M. and Frenette, Y. 1987. Effect of interreplicate variance on Zooplankton sampling design and data analysis. Limnol. Oceanogr. 32: 673–680.
Fahrig, L. and Merriam, G. 1985. Habitat patch connectivity and population survival. Ecology 66: 1762–1768.
Gardner, R.H., Milne, B.T., Turner, M.G. and O'Neill, R.V. 1987. Neutral models for the analysis of broad-scale landscape pattern. Landscape Ecol. 1: 19–28.
Gardner, R.H., O'Neill, R.V., Turner, M.G. and Dale, V.H. 1989. Quantifying scale-dependent effects of animal movement with simple percolation models. Landscape Ecol. 3: 217–227.
Greenlaw, C.F. and Pearcy, W.G. 1985. Acoustical patchiness of mesopelagic micronekton. J. Mar. Res. 43: 163–178.
Herman, A. and Platt, T. 1980. Meso-scale spatial distribution of plankton: co-evolution of concepts and instrumentation. In Oceanography: the past. pp. 204–225. Edited by M. Sears and D. Merriman. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Kampa, E.M. 1976. Photoenvironment and vertical migrations of mesoplelagic marine animal communities. In Biological rhythms in the marine environment. pp. 257–272. Edited by P.J. DeCoursey. Univ. South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina.
Mackas, D.L. 1984. Spatial autocorrelation of plankton community composition in a continental shelf ecosystem. Limnol. Oceanogr. 29: 451–471.
Magnuson, J.J., T.K. Kratz, T.M. Frost, B.J. Benson, R.W. Nero and C.J. Bowser. 1991. Expanding the temporal and spatial scales of ecological research and comparison of divergent ecosystems; roles for the LTER in the United States. In Long-Term Ecological Research. Edited by P.G. Risser. SCOPE Series, J. Wiley & Sons Ltd., Sussex, England. In Press.
Margalef, R. 1985. From hydrodynamic processes to structure (Information) and from information to process. In Ecosystem theory for biological oceanography. pp. 200–210. Edited by R.E. Ulanowicz and T. Platt. Can. Bull Fish. Aquat. Sci. no. 213.
Mazumder, A., Taylor, W.D., McQueen, D.J. and Lean, D.R.S. 1990. Effects of fish and plankton on lake temperature and mixing depth. Science 247: 312–315.
McClatchie, S. 1986. Time-series feeding rates of the euphausiid Thysanoessa raschii in a temporally patchy food environment. Limnol. Oceanogr. 31: 469–477.
Munk, P., Kiorbe, T. and Chritensen, V. 1989. Vertical migrations of herring, Clupea harengus, larvae in relation to light and prey distribution. Envir. Biology of Fishes 26: 87–96.
Nash, R.D.L., Magnuson, J.J., Stanton, T.K. and Clay, C.S. 1989. Distribution of peaks of 70 kHz acoustic scattering in relation to depth and temperature during day and night at the edge of the Gulf Stream — EchoFront'83. Deep-Sea Res. 36: 587–596.
Nero, R.W. and Magnuson, J.J. 1989. Characterization of patches along transects using high-resolution 70-kHz integrated echo data. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 46: 2056–2064.
Nero, R.W., Magnuson, J.J., Brandt, S.B., Stanton, T.K. and Jech, J.M. 1990. Fine-scale biological patchiness of 70 kHz acoustic scattering at the edge of the Gulf Stream-EchoFront 85. Deep-Sea Res. 37: 999–1016.
O'Neill, R.V., DeAngelis, D.L., Wade, J.B. and Allen, T.F.H. 1986. A hierarchical concept of ecosystems. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Platt, T. and Sathyendranath, S. 1988. Oceanic primary production: estimation by remote sensing at local and regional scales. Science 241: 1613–1620.
Platt, T. and Denman, K.L. 1975. Spectral analysis in ecology. A. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 6: 189–210.
Powell, L. and Stanton, T.K. 1983. A programmable microcomputer-based sonar echo processor for real-time processing. IEEE J. Oceanic. Eng. OE-8: 280–287.
Powell, T.M. 1989. Physical and biological scales of variability in lakes, estuaries, and the coastal ocean. In Perspectives in ecological theory. Edited by J. Roughgarden, R.M. May and S.A. Levin. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Price, H.J. 1989. Swimming behavior of krill in response to algal patches: A mesocosm study. Limnol. Oceanogr. 34: 649–659.
Ramanthan, V. 1988. The greenhouse theory of climate change: a test by an inadvertent global experiment. Science 240: 293–299.
Rose, G.A. and Leggett, W.C. 1988. Hydroacoustic signal classification of fish schools by species. Can.J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 45: 597–604.
Rose, G.A. and Leggett, W.C. 1990. The importance of scale to predator-prey spatial correlations: an example of Atlantic fishes. Ecology 71: 33–43.
Rudstam, L.G. and Trapp, T.W. 1987. Diel patterns of behavior and habitat utilization of cisco (Coregonus artedii) in two Wisconsin Lakes. Trans. Wisc. Acad. Sci. Arts Lett. 75: 70–78.
Scavia, D., Fahnenstiel, G.L., Davis, J.A. and Kreis, R.G. 1984. Small-scale nutrient patchiness: some consequences and a new encounter mechanism. Limnol. Oceanogr. 29: 785–793.
Schneider, D.C. 1989. Identifying the spatial scale of density-dependent interaction of predators with schooling fish in the southern Labrador Current. J. Fish. Biol. 35: 109–115.
Sheldon, R.W., Prakash, A. and Sutcliffe, W.H., Jr. 1972. The size distribution of particles in the ocean. Limnol. Oceanogr. 17: 327–340.
Slingo, A. 1990. Sensitivity of the Earth's radiation budget to changes in low clouds. Nature 343: 49–51.
Steele, J.H. (ed.) 1978. Spatial pattern in plankton communities. Plenum Press, New York.
Steele, J.H. 1989. The ocean ‘landscape’. Landsc. Ecol. 3: 185–192.
Stevens, G.C. 1989. The latitudinal gradient in geographical range: how so many species coexist in the tropics. Am. Nat. 133: 240–256.
Stommel, H. 1963. Varieties of oceanographic experience. Science 139: 572–576.
Stouffer, R.J., Manabe, S. and Bryan, K. 1989. Interhemispheric asymmetry in climate response to a gradual increase of atmospheric CO2. Nature 342: 660–662.
Turner, M.G. 1987. Spatial simulation of landscape changes in Georgia: a comparison of 3 transition models. Landsc. Ecol. 1:29–36.
Turner, M.G., Dale, V.H. and Gardner, R.H. 1989. Predicting across scales: theory development and testing. Landsc. Ecol. 3: 245–252.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nero, R.W., Magnuson, J.J. Effects of changing spatial scale on acoustic observations of patchiness in the Gulf Stream. Landscape Ecol 6, 279–291 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00129706
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00129706