Project title
Plymouth Marine Laboratory Research Visit
Project acronym
PORES
Grant
Connectivity Program, Gaining Experience Grant
Unity through Knowledge Fund - UKF
Project leader
Tomislav Džoić, PhD
Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries
Šetalište I. Meštrovića 63, 21000
Split, Croatia
Project co-leader
Bror Jonsson, PhD
Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Prospect Place, , PL1 3DH
Plymouth, United Kingdom
Host organization
Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Prospect Place, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, United Kingdom
Beneficiary (Administering) organization
Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries
Šetalište I. Meštrovića 63, 21000 Split
Split, Croatia
PML Research Visit Period
July 1st, 2019 - October 1, 2019
Overall budget 69.700,00 HRK
UKF Contribution 39.000,00 HRK
Contribution from other sources 30.700,00 HRK
Summary
Particle transport has been found crucial for proper reproduction of marine ecology processes. Lagrangian methods are the state-of-the-art tool in describing dynamics of the ocean particles, still absent in applications to the Adriatic Sea, in particular regarding plankton transport. The aim of this proposal is to establish cooperation by young Croatian scientist with top-level scientist from Plymouth Marine Laboratory through learning on marine applications of their trajectory model. The learning will be executed through model applications to the Adriatic processes, ending to a knowledge about timescales over which surface currents are connecting different regions in a basin. A combination of multiyear simulations with novel Lagrangian connectivity tools will be used in studying transport success of in different environmental conditions. Trends obtained by modelling will be compared with trends from long time series of biological measurements. The matching of modelled and measured trends would enable to quantify adjustment of different plankton species to environmental changes and variations of plankton pathways during climate changes and shifts in ocean and atmosphere. Once validated, the new connectivity methods are planned to become basis for new approach to plankton sampling, where sampling locations are going to be chosen taking into account modelled connectivity.