Florida Bay

Description:

The larger model domain (parent grid) is centered on Florida Bay, encompasses the eastern side of the Loop Current and the Florida Strait all the way to Cuba to the south and the Great Bahamas Banks to the East. A zoom (child grid) focuses on Florida Bay and the Dry Tortugas.

Resolution:

The horizontal resolution of the parent grid is 2 km and the minimum depth is 3m. In the child grid the horizontal resolution is 700 m and the minimum depth 1m. Both models have 25 vertical layers.

Nested:

Yes. This is an off-line nesting within the outer model, which doesn't use the AGRIF package since both models are not run at the same time.

Initial conditions:

January 1^st 1995 Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) reanalysis global simulation.

Outer conditions:

The model uses a weekly or monthly relaxation to the SODA reanalysis for the period 1995-2005.

Tides:

Tides were set at the boundaries by the TPXO6 global tide model.

Forcing:

We will use 4-times daily atmospheric forcing obtained from theNavy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS ) and Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS). Bulk fluxes capability of the ROMS model will be used. Wind stress is obtained from QuikSCAT scatterometer or calculated from COAMPS surface wind speed.

Applications:

The simulation is set in the framework of a Fisheries and the Environment (FATE) project:

Development of Biological and Physical Indices for Stock Evaluation in the Dry Tortugas Pink Shrimp Fishery

Synopsis

This 2-yr project involves collaboration between ecologists, oceanographers, and stock assessment scientists. The project goal is to develop physical and biological indicators of recruitment to help assess the status of the pink shrimp stock in south Florida and better inform fishery managers about the factors contributing to stock changes. Existing hydrodynamic and biophysical models will be used to develop indices of recruitment of young adult pink shrimp to the Tortugas, Florida fishery. The models and physical variables the models identify will provide a basis for incorporating environmental variability into stock assessment and fishery management. The pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus duorarum) supports a multi-million-dollar fishery in south Florida and is a major link between the food web base and top consumers (Browder et al. 2002) and between offshore and coastal ecosystems (Criales et al. 2005, 2006, 2007). The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), a coastal-scale hydrodynamic model, will be the foundation of the coupled model. In the proposed work, ROMS will connect the lower Florida Shelf with larger scale flows of the Gulf of Mexico and the western North Atlantic, while incorporating detailed coastal dynamics around Florida Bay and the SW Florida Shelf and the presence of fresh water discharge. Tide, a fundamental factor in transport of pink shrimp, is an intrinsic element of ROMS missing from other regional models of the south Florida area. The Biophysical Lagrangian Model (Paris et al. 2005) will be coupled to ROMS to predict successful immigration of postlarvae to inshore nursery grounds. This model has been used in other applications in south Florida and the wider Caribbean to incorporate behavior into the larval transport process. Model output will help identify the most relevant physical and biological parameters affecting larval transport and recruitment success of pink shrimp. These physical and biological indicators will be used to develop a recruitment index for use in stock assessment.

Contacts:

Laurent Cherubin - lcherubin@rsmas.miami.edu

Joan Browder - Joan.Browder@noaa.gov

Maria Criales - mcriales@rsmas.miami.edu

Claire Paris - cparis@rsmas.miami.edu