Center for Industrial Mathematics and Statistics » REU 2018 – Modeling the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Interacting Fish Species in the Northeast Continental Shelf

Sara Amato

Lauren Moore

Kaitlin Ragosta

Shelby Stowe

Overview

Industrial Liaison: Dr. Sarah Gaichas, NOAA - Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Andrea Arnold, Dr. Burt Tilley

Knowledge of the population dynamics of marine species is vital to understanding ocean sustainability. This project aims to develop and analyze spatio-temporal, single-species and multi-species models for studying fish population dynamics in the Northeast Continental Shelf, specifically Atlantic Cod and Atlantic Herring. In particular, we formulate partial differential equation and integrodifference models that take into account species interactions between Atlantic Cod and Atlantic Herring. We determine a metric to compare our single-species and multi-species models, then determine whether either species would benefit from being assessed with a multi-species model. All models consider environmental factors that drive movement, including seasonal and long-term temperature fluctuation and spatial dependence on nutrients. We employ statistical approaches such as nonlinear filtering to estimate model parameters and quantify uncertainty in model predictions, comparing the results to trawling data provided by the NOAA-Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Researchers

Sara Amato, Lauren Moore, Kaitlin Ragosta, and Shelby Stowe