Fig 1.
Surface circulation and mesoscale features in the GoM’s deep-water region during particle tracking experiments.
HLC/low interaction (two upper rows): High Loop Current intrusion/low interaction between mesoscale features (2011). LLC/high interaction (two lower rows): low Loop Current intrusion/high interaction between mesoscale features (2016). July 1st (col. 1), July 15th (col. 2), and July 31st (col. 3). Colored maps with contours (-0.1, 0, and 0.2 m) represent sea surface height (SSH, m). Vector maps indicate surface velocities (m s-1).
Fig 2.
Quadrants used to examine particle dispersion in the GoM consisting of a 2 by 2-degree grid covering the deep-water region (depths >1000 m).
Numbers indicate particle arrival quadrants. The red polygon represents the BoC’s null model. Dashed and continuous lines represent the 200, and 1000 m isobaths.
Table 1.
Area of potential habitats subset with each species’ predicted densities >0.4 and number of particles deployed at the 5 depth layers (z: 0, 50, 10, 150, and 200 m).
Areas were scaled to that of the smallest potential habitat (Bregmaceros atlanticus 1) for comparative purposes.
Fig 3.
Species-specific larval potential habitats are expressed as normalized larval densities (maximum predicted density = 1).
A: Auxis spp., B: Bregmaceros atlanticus, C: Cubiceps pauciradiatus and D: Notolychnus valdiviae. Red bold lines indicate habitat subsets (predicted densities >0.4) used in particle seeding experiments. Two potential habitat areas with PD >0.4 were predicted for B. atlanticus in the deep-water region. Dotted, dashed, and continuous lines represent the 40, 200, and 1000 m isobaths, respectively.
Fig 4.
Results of particle dispersion experiments for the BoC’s null model (A, B), N. valdiviae (C, D) and Auxis spp. (E, F).
First column: seeded particles at t = 0 days, second column: t = 15 days, third column: t = 30 days. HLC/low interaction (A, C, E): high Loop Current intrusion/low interaction between mesoscale features (2011). LLC/high interaction (B, D, F): low level of intrusion of the Loop Current/high interaction between mesoscale features (2016). Seeded particles (red dots) were released at five depths (z = 0, 50, 100, 150, and 200 m). Ni: Number of particles retained at depths >1000 m. Nt: Number of particles retained at depths >200 m and deeper (including the deep-water region). Smoothed 200 m isobath (gray continuous line), and smoothed 1000 m isobath (black line surrounding the 2 by 2-degree grid).
Fig 5.
Results of particle dispersion experiments for Bregmaceros atlanticus 1 (A, B), B. atlanticus 2 (C, D) and Cubiceps pauciradiatus (E, F) over gridded regions.
See Fig 4 for the caption’s description.
Table 2.
Percentage of seeded particles that were retained at t = 30 days within the potential habitat subset, in the GoM’s deep water region (>1000 m), or transported to the upper slope (200 to 1000 m) or continental shelf (<200 m).
Bold values indicate the largest value for each category. HLC/LI: high Loop Current intrusion/low interaction between mesoscale features (2011). LLC/LI: low intrusion of the Loop Current/high interaction between mesoscale features (2016).
Table 3.
Percentage of particles retained in the Bay of Campeche (BoC) at t = 0 days, at t = 15 days and t = 30 days.
HLC/LI: high Loop Current intrusion/low interaction between mesoscale features (2011). LLC/HI: low intrusion of the Loop Current/high interaction between mesoscale features (2016). Bold values indicate the highest value for each comparison.
Fig 6.
Species’ particle distribution matrix after t = 0 days, t = 15 days and t = 30 days under HLC/low interaction between mesoscale features (top) and LLC/high interaction between mesoscale features (bottom).
Rows from top to bottom: BoC (Bay of Campeche), Not (N. valdiviae), Cub (C. pauciradiatus), Bre 1 (B. atlanticus (1) in the sBoC) and Bre 2 (B. atlanticus (2) north of YS) and Aux (Auxis spp.). Columns: quadrant numbers from Fig 2. Red box: western GoM (-98 to -92 ºW); green: central GoM (-92 to -88 ºW); yellow: eastern GoM (-88 to -80 ºW).