The Lipidscape

Ecocaster - Ecosystem Forecasting

Right whales and climate - Rapid Climate-Driven Circulation Changes Threaten Conservation of Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales

This animation comes from a project that was designed to forecast copepods and whales in Cape Cod Bay. The simulation runs through the winter and spring of 2009, showing the abundance of three copepod species. The warm colors represent high abundance, and the oscillations are from tidal currents. The fourth frame shows the total caloric content of the three species added together, which is what right whales are interested in.

The "Jelly Ocean Hypothesis" posits that gelatinous zooplankton populations are increasing globally. In addition to bothering beach goers, outbreaks of jellies can shut down nuclear power plants and wipe out fish farms. We know surprisingly little about the population dynamics of most gelatinous species. This animation shows an early attempt at mapping the global seasonal cycle of "jelly factor"--the proportion of gelatinous matter in the zooplankton population. The animation goes through one year.

Copepods are possibly the most abundant animals on earth. At polar latitudes, many of them hibernate in deep water to survive the winter. The hibernating copepods make a deep layer of fatty food for fish and whales, which is a main reason that there are so many productive fisheries and large marine mammal populations at high latitudes. The model shown in this animation is an attempt to map the seasonal cycle of this strategy across the globe. The animation shows the seasonal pattern repeated as the globe rotates.

This video shows one day of photography from the Casco Bay Bridge in Portland ME, where photos are georectified to appear as a top-down view. We can use this perspective to track the movement of water, ice, oils, or anything visible on the sea surface.

Animated map of citizen jellyfish reports, from June through August 2015.