Assessing Variability in Juvenile Brown Shrimp Growth Rates in Small Marsh Ponds: An Exercise in Model Evaluation and Improvement
Authored by William E Grant, Jennifer P Leo, Thomas J Minello
Date Published: 2018
DOI: 10.1002/mcf2.10028
Sponsors:
United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
Brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus support a commercially important
fishery in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and the juvenile shrimp use
coastal estuaries as nurseries. Production of young shrimp from these
nurseries, and hence commercial harvest of adults from the Gulf, is
highly variable from year to year. Our recently published,
individual-based model attempted to explain this variability as a
function of habitat and the environmental factors such as temperature,
salinity, and access to intertidal marsh habitat. We conducted a
mark-recapture field study between April 12 and June 9, 2011, to provide
growth rate data for model testing, as well as to further examine
factors that affect growth, including available food biomass. Brown
shrimp growth rates were measured in three polyhaline marsh ponds over
periods of 2 to 4weeks. We recorded hourly temperature and flooding data
and measured biomass of infaunal food organisms. We parameterized our
production model with input from 2011 to compare modeled output with
observed data. Mean growth rate estimates from the model were similar to
the estimated mean growth rate observed in the field (1.13mm/d and
1.06mm/d, respectively); however, field growth rates differed
significantly among three marsh ponds (1.02, 1.03, and 1.26mm/d). Data
on infaunal biomass suggest that spatial and temporal variability in
available food organisms is related to differences in shrimp growth, and
the inclusion of such information may enhance the model.
Tags
Mortality
Gulf-of-mexico
Salinity
Salt-marsh
Nurseries
Louisiana
Penaeus-setiferus linnaeus
Aztecus ives
Infauna