NEW PAPER: Habitat partitioning of young tunas in the Gulf of Mexico

https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00257

Nina Pruzinsky has published a new paper from her MS thesis research examining correlations between mesoscale oceanographic features and juvenile / post-larval tunas and other scombrid species in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The paper, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, used data from the DEEPEND research program, collected in the offshore waters of the Gulf, and identified a "coastal" group, dominated by Euthynnus alletteratus and Auxis thazard that were more abundant in waters with lower surface salinity and high Chlorophyll a, and an 'offshore' group, characterized by Thunnus atlanticus which was found further from the coast, and associated with fully marine, oligotrophic waters. This is one of very few studies that focus on the post-larval juveniles of tuna species, rather than adult or larval stages, and we anticipate that it will be of use to resource managers to better understand the early life-history stages of these commercially valuable species.

Juvenile tuna. Image courtesy of Nina Pruzinsky

The full text is open-access, and can be read here: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.00257/full

It is part of an FMARS special issue, containing several other papers from the DEEPEND program. You can see those here: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/10575/deep-pelagic-ecosystem-dynamics-in-a-highly-impacted-water-column-the-gulf-of-mexico-after-deepwater-horizon/magazine