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David Holliday

David Holliday

David Holliday’s research aims to investigate the cross-shelf transport of fish larvae when meso-scale eddies occur in the Leeuwin Current.

Two research voyages aboard the Australian National facility R.V. Southern Surveyor in May 2006 and May 2007 specifically targeted two meso-scale anti-cyclonic eddies off the south-western Australian coast. 

The first voyage took 25 days and studied the evolution of an eddy while the second was able to sample an evolved eddy using oceanographic equipment and sampling tools.

David is a PhD candidate at Murdoch University working on WAMSI Node 2 projects. The project is supervised by Associate Professor Lynnath Beckley (Murdoch University) and Dr Ming Feng (CSIRO) as part of the Node 2 project Climate processes, predictability and impacts in a warming Indian Ocean.
    
The major hypotheses are that:

  • fish larvae move further out to sea if a meso-scale eddy in the Leeuwin Current occurs;
  • the transport of neritic larvae into eddies leads to their mortality because they are transported away from coastal nursery habitats; and
  • eddies provide oases in an otherwise oligotrophic ocean which are conducive to larval growth and development.

David has sampled and identified plankton samples from the first voyage and is now analysing data from two net tows, with more data about to be analysed.

Publications
Holliday, D., Stieglitz, T.C., Ridd, P.V. & Read, W.W. (2007).  Geological controls and tidal forcing of submarine groundwater discharge from a confined aquifer in a coastal sand dune system.  Journal of Geophysical Research 112, C04015.

Paterson, H. L., Feng, M., Waite, A. M., Gomis, D., Beckley L. E., Holliday, D., Thompson, P. A. (2007).  Physical and chemical signatures of a developing anti-cyclonic eddy of the Leeuwin Current, Eastern Indian Ocean.  Journal of Geophysical Research 113, C07049.

Conference Papers
Holliday, D., Beckley, L.E. and Feng, M. 2008. Meso-scale circulation of the Leeuwin Current, eddy formation and the istributions of larval fish assemblages.  WAMSI Node 1 annual symposium, CSIRO Floreat, Perth. 

Holliday, D., Beckley, L.E. and Feng, M. 2007. Cross-shelf transport of larval biota during formation of a Leeuwin Current eddy.  Australian Marine Science Association (AMSA) conference, University of Melbourne, Victoria.

Beckley, L.E., Holliday, D., Muhling, B.A., Gaughan, D.J. and Waite, A.M. 2007.  Leeuwin Current eddies and potential impacts upon Western Australian coastal fisheries.  AMSA conference, University of Melbourne, Victoria.

Holliday, D., Paterson, H.L., Beckley, L.E., Waite, A.M., Feng, M., Thompson, P.A. (2007).  Evidence for cross-shelf transport of neritic biota during formation of a Leeuwin Current eddy.  The 2nd Leeuwin Current Symposium, The Royal Society of Western Australia, University of Western Australia, Perth.

Waite, A. M., Feng, M., Picheral, M., Gorsky, G., Holliday, D. , Beckley, L.E., Thompson, P. A., Pesant, S., Paterson, H. L., Duarte, C. M. and Agusti, S. 2007.  Particle trapping by a vortex off Western Australia.  American Society for Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), Santa Fe, New Mexico.