The award provides funds to develop a prototype mini acoustically tracked drogue. The drogue is being developed in response to the need to understand the patterns and mechanisms of larval transport, identified as a priority by the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) workshop participants in January 02.
The PI has looked at currently available drogues and has determined that they are not suitable because of their size and limited ability to supply positional information while submerged. The PI plans to research, design, fabricate, and test the prototype mini-drogue. If successful, the proposed instrument would provide insights into aspects of the nearshore circulation such as sub-surface parcel trajectories connecting offshore coastal circulation features to shallow water habitats near shore and will significantly advance our understanding of how coastal circulation processes deliver larvae to coastal ecosystems.
