GCRC Project Summary |
Sources and Transport Mechanisms of White Shrimp in Southeastern Coastal Waters
PIs: Jackson O. Blanton and Peter G. Verity (Skidaway Inst. of Oceanography, Savannah, GA) Charles A. Barans and Elizabeth L. Wenner (Marine Resources Research Institute, South Carolina Dept Natural Resources, Charleston, SC)
Support: Georgia Sea Grant and South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium (Project Number R/FS-1).
Timeframe: 9/1/96 - 2/28/02 (complete)
Project Overview:
White shrimp (Penaeus setiferus) and blue crab (Callinectes sapidus)
are decapod crustaceans with significant commercial value in Georgia and South
Carolina. Both species have a life-history that includes offshore larval development
and an estuarine nursery habitat. While they are offshore, larvae embedded in
water masses of the inner continental shelf are affected by oceanographic and
meteorological processes such as tidal forces, wind stress, bottom friction
and buoyancy. These physical forces interact with the behavior and population
biology of white shrimp and blue crab larvae to transport the pre-adult stages
(postlarvae) from offshore sites to estuarine nurseries. With funding from the
Georgia and South Carolina Sea Grant programs, scientists at the Skidaway Institute
of Oceanography and MRRI have been studying how the distributions of postlarval
blue crab and white shrimp are influenced by physical processes during their
transport through inlets to their nursery grounds. The study was conducted over
5 years at two locations: the North Edisto Inlet in South Carolina and the Ogeechee
River in Georgia.
Findings:
1. Identified
wind stress as an important controlling mechanism in the ingress of postlarvae
white shrimp.
2. Demonstrated that larvae are supplied to inlets from a narrow zone only 6-km
wide bounded by the shore and extending into the alongshore direction.
3. Demonstrated the importance of wind and bottom stress on the resuspension
of detrital and benthic diatoms into the water column near tidal inlets.
4. Documented how wind- and tidal-induced currents provide a "nutritional
hypodermic" to coastal waters carrying larvae as they enter nursery areas.
5. Derived a three
component model to account for the conditions that optimize the ingress of white
shrimp post larvae into esturaires.
Publications:
Kapolnai, A., F. E. Werner, and J. O. Blanton. 1996. Circulation, mixing and exchange processes in the vicinity of tidal inlets: a numerical study. J. Geophys. Res. 101: 14,253-14,268.
Blanton, J. O., J. Amft, and T. Tisue. 1997. Response of a small-scale bottom-attached estuarine plume to wind and tidal dissipation. J. Coastal Res., 13: 349-362.
Verity, P. G., J. O. Blanton, J. Amft, C., Barans, D. Knott, B. Stender, and E. Wenner. 1998. Influences of physical oceanographic processes on chlorophyll distributions in the coastal and estuarine waters of the South Atlantic Bight. J. Mar. Res. 56: 681-711.
Wenner, E., D. Knott, J. Blanton, C. Barans, J. Amft. 1998. Roles of tidal and wind-generated currents in transporting white shrimp (Penaeus setiferus) postlarvae through a South Carolina (USA) inlet. J. Plankton Res. 20: 2333-2356.
Blanton, J., F. Werner, A. Kapolnai, B. Blanton, D. Knott, E. Wenner. 1999. Wind-generated transport of fictitious passive larvae into shallow tidal estuaries. J. Fisheries Oceanography 8(Suppl.2): 210-223. 1999
Blanton, J., J. Amft, R. Luettich, J. Hench, J. Churchill. 1999. Tidal and subtidal fluctuations in temperature, salinity, and pressure for the winter 1996 larval ingress experiment--Beaufort Inlet, NC. J. Fisheries Oceanography 8(Suppl.2): 134-152.
Churchill, J. H., R.B. Forward, R.A. Luettich, J.L. Hench, W.F. Hettler, L.B. Crowder and J.O. Blanton. 1999. Circulation and larval fish transport within a tidally dominated estuary. J. Fisheries Oceanography 8(Suppl.2): 173-189.
Churchill, J.H., J.O. Blanton, J.L. Hench, R.A. Luettich, Jr., F.E. Werner. 1999. Flood tide circulation near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina: implications for larval recruitment. Estuaries 22(4): 1057-1070.
Blanton, J.O., G. Lin and S.A. Elston. Tidal current asymmetry in shallow estuaries and tidal creeks. Continental Shelf Research (In press)
Seim, H.E., J.O. Blanton, and T.F. Gross. Direct stress measurements in a shallow, sinuous estuary. Continental Shelf Research (In press)