2007 Volume 71 Issue 1 Pages 9-17
An advection and diffusion model for particle tracking in three dimensions and the deployments of satellite-tracked drifters were conducted to examine the role of the Kuroshio front on the transport process of jack mackerel larvae in the East China Sea (ECS) in early spring. Larvae of jack mackerel transported from the shelf area remained largely in the ECS, and survival rate for them was estimated to be very high through the experiments adopting mortality dependent on temperature and salinity. It was also verified that the Kuroshio front played a significant role as a boundary in the transport processes of jack mackerel larvae. Furthermore, trajectories of satellite-tracked drifters released in the Kuroshio frontal region and over the shelf area supported that transport processes are significantly different according to the releasing locations which was suggested by the advection-diffusion model. It was also revealed that passive larvae from the Kuroshio frontal region showed a low survival and a cyclonic flow due to frontal disturbances southwest of Kyushu acts as a main mechanism in transporting them into the waters off western Kyushu (WWK), where has a good feeding condition. Therefore, it is probably important the passive larval transport from the Kuroshio frontal region into the WWK for the good survival.
