Modeling the transport and survival of Japanese sardine larvae in and around the Kuroshio Current

We have numerically modeled the advection and diffusion of sardine eggs and larvae to investigate the larval transport processes of Japanese sardine from the spawning grounds by the Kuroshio.
The results indicated that the offshore drift current induced by the winter monsoon and the location of the spawning ground have significant effects on the survival of the Japanese sardine. The contribution of the drift current, the distance of the spawning ground from the Kuroshio axis, and the eddy diffusivity to the larval retention in the coastal area is approximately expressed by the following equation: where R is the retention rate in the coastal area, a the variance of initial distribution of eggs, T the time after the eggs were spawned, – V₀ the velocity of the wind-induced offshore current, y₀ the distance of the center of the spawning area from the Kuroshio axis, and K the coefficient of horizontal eddy diffusivity.
The year-to-year variation in larval survival rates stimulated by the two-dimensional model are consistent with those estimated previously by using field data of egg and larval abundance during 1978–1988.