A breadth of discovery: aquatic organisms and the thermal integral; right whales and risk and food; ecosystem biomass spectra; and particle tracing

This "Discovery" proposal addresses 4 research foci involving 3 PhD students and 3 MSc students over the next 5 years. **(1) Advance our research related to the growing degree day metric (GDD) by addressing: a) size-at-age variation in marine ectotherms by using the GDD metric to diagnose size-selective fishing among a large range of exploited stocks; i.e. diagnose how size-selective fishing results in reduced size-at-age commensurate with earlier/smaller maturation, and b) by using the GDD metric to explaining size-at-age variation across a taxonomic range of aquatic organisms (beyond fishes) including molluscs, crustaceans, echinoderms, etc., as well as reptiles and amphibians. **(2) Complete research involving the endangered right whale by: a) estimating the spatial variation in energy density of zooplankton food for right whales within Roseway Basin, b) using a 20-year time series of historical plankton samples from the Fundy and Roseway habitats to determine whether inter-annual variation in food energy density can explain variation in whale occupancy, condition and reproduction, c) determining how spatial and temporal variation in the food within each habitat can be attributed to hydrographic properties and circulation, and d) by completing our research on quantifying spatial and temporal risk to right whales of lethal encounters with vessels and fishing gear where the primary task involves state-space models to estimate whale movements among and between major habitats; these results will also serve to strengthen the other analyses above. **(3) Test biomass spectrum models in their ability to explaining spatial and seasonal variation in the ecological structure and functioning of the Northumberland Strait ecosystem with an emphasis on bottom up and top down processes. **(4) Use particle tracing to determine the fate of invasive species from ballast water discharge in freshwater systems and to address larval lobster "connectivity" and source-sink dispersion and transport in St. Georges Bay and within the Northumberland Strait.