Brandon Brule

I am currently a Master of Science student attending Nova Southeastern University (NSU) studying the drivers of asynchronous vertical migration in mesopelagic fishes. My capstone project involves analyzing abundances and distributions of several species of fishes including members of Myctophidae and Gonostomatidae throughout the mesopelagic Gulf of Mexico. The drivers that cause some members of these families to migrate in smaller groups or not migrate at all is unknown. During my project, I will compare the abundances per depth of each species depending on time of day (day/night) and location within the Gulf of Mexico. Understanding why these fishes move asynchronously would help to more accurately measure the movement of carbon throughout the water column and increase our knowledge on the "biological pump,"  which represents the sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere into oceanic sediment within the deep sea.