Statistical modeling of bio-physical interactions in the Gulf of California using a high-resolution acoustic profiling vehicle

Le résumé fourni par la source

The mesopelagic ecosystem in the Gulf of California (GOC) is characterized by a pronounced and shallow Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) which influences animal distributions and behavior. While this region harbors significant biomass of midwater fishes and invertebrates, the environmental and biological drivers of their spatial and temporal distribution remain poorly understood, particularly regarding how organisms interact with sharp environmental gradients. This study leverages vehicle-borne acoustic data to investigate the partitioning of mesopelagic communities with respect to hydrographic variability resolved at high resolution using the Wire Flyer, a towed vehicle equipped with environmental sensors and an EK80 echosounder with side-looking 70 and 200 kHz transducers. From this data, we assessed the response of deep scattering layers to key environmental variables like oxygen, temperature, and salinity at meso- and submesoscales. Using Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) to capture multivariate and non-linear relationships, our results show how the structure of the midwater community responds to the environment, particularly to fine-scale gradients at the OMZ boundaries. These findings highlight the specific sensitivities of mesopelagic fauna to their physical environment and provide new insights into how midwater communities may respond to the expansion of OMZs in a changing ocean.

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