Basin-scale advection and population persistence of Calanus finmarchicus

Advection of Calanus finmarchicus in the eastern North Atlantic was analysed using a particle-tracking model based on the Hamburg Shelf Ocean Model (HAMSOM). Quasi-static seasonal mean flowfields were simulated, archived and interpolated to represent a climatological-mean annual cycle. Particles had a simple prescribed depth profile comprising deep overwintering, spring ascent, a shallow-water phase followed by descent to overwintering depth. Export routes for C. finmarchicus from the model area were identified to the south of Greenland and to the north of the Lofoten Basin. Self-sustaining overwintering areas were identified by observing how closely particles returned to their origins after one calendar year. Several such areas were found, notably in the Norway and Lofoten Basins, and in the Færoe–Shetland Channel. The particle tracking was run for up to 10 years to demonstrate persistence of these cycles. Known features of the winter and summer distributions of C. finmarchicus were reproduced by the model. The success of the HAMSOM in simulating both the shallow and deep circulation of the eastern North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea was critical to the identification of these spatio-temporal cycles of C. finmarchicus.