Oceanic Fronts Shape Biodiversity of Gelatinous Zooplankton in the European Arctic
Oceanic fronts constitute boundaries between hydrologically distinct water masses and comprise one of the most productive regions of the world’s ocean. Fronts associated with density gradients (active fronts) profoundly structure planktonic communities in adjacent waters, but less is known about the...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941025 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.941025/full |
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crfrontiers:10.3389/fmars.2022.941025 2024-03-03T08:41:12+00:00 Oceanic Fronts Shape Biodiversity of Gelatinous Zooplankton in the European Arctic Mańko, Maciej K. Merchel, Malgorzata Kwasniewski, Slawomir Weydmann-Zwolicka, Agata Ministerstwo Edukacji i Nauki 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941025 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.941025/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Marine Science volume 9 ISSN 2296-7745 Ocean Engineering Water Science and Technology Aquatic Science Global and Planetary Change Oceanography journal-article 2022 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941025 2024-02-03T23:16:55Z Oceanic fronts constitute boundaries between hydrologically distinct water masses and comprise one of the most productive regions of the world’s ocean. Fronts associated with density gradients (active fronts) profoundly structure planktonic communities in adjacent waters, but less is known about the impacts of density-compensated (passive) fronts. Two such fronts are found in the European Arctic, the Arctic Front (AF) and the Polar Front (PF), that both separate warmer and saltier, Atlantic water from the colder, but fresher Arctic water. As scrutinized research on the influence of passive fronts on zooplankton at large spatial and temporal scales had been lacking, we tackled the question of their role in maintaining distinct communities, employing globally unique, 12-year-long gelatinous zooplankton (GZ) and hydrological time series from the European Arctic. The GZ, owing to their fast reproductive cycles and passive dispersal, reflect particularly well the local environment. We therefore compared GZ communities between zones separated by the two fronts, disentangled their drivers, and analyzed community shifts occurring whenever front relocation occurred. We have identified fifteen GZ taxa, distributed among three distinct communities, specific for front-maintained zones, and selected the following taxa as indicators of each zone: W—west of the AF, within the Greenland Sea Gyre, Beroe spp.; C—central, in between the AF and the PF, Aglantha digitale and E—east of the PF, in the West Spitsbergen Shelf Mertensia ovum . Taxonomic composition of these communities, and their specific abundance, persisted throughout time. We also showed that relocation of either front between the sampling years was subsequently followed by the restructuring of the GZ community. Our results indicate that passive oceanic fronts maintain distinct GZ communities, with probable limited exchange across a front, and provide a new perspective for the Arctic ecosystem evolution under progressing Atlantification. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Greenland Greenland Sea Zooplankton Spitsbergen Frontiers (Publisher) Arctic Greenland Frontiers in Marine Science 9 |
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Open Polar |
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Frontiers (Publisher) |
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crfrontiers |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Ocean Engineering Water Science and Technology Aquatic Science Global and Planetary Change Oceanography |
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Ocean Engineering Water Science and Technology Aquatic Science Global and Planetary Change Oceanography Mańko, Maciej K. Merchel, Malgorzata Kwasniewski, Slawomir Weydmann-Zwolicka, Agata Oceanic Fronts Shape Biodiversity of Gelatinous Zooplankton in the European Arctic |
topic_facet |
Ocean Engineering Water Science and Technology Aquatic Science Global and Planetary Change Oceanography |
description |
Oceanic fronts constitute boundaries between hydrologically distinct water masses and comprise one of the most productive regions of the world’s ocean. Fronts associated with density gradients (active fronts) profoundly structure planktonic communities in adjacent waters, but less is known about the impacts of density-compensated (passive) fronts. Two such fronts are found in the European Arctic, the Arctic Front (AF) and the Polar Front (PF), that both separate warmer and saltier, Atlantic water from the colder, but fresher Arctic water. As scrutinized research on the influence of passive fronts on zooplankton at large spatial and temporal scales had been lacking, we tackled the question of their role in maintaining distinct communities, employing globally unique, 12-year-long gelatinous zooplankton (GZ) and hydrological time series from the European Arctic. The GZ, owing to their fast reproductive cycles and passive dispersal, reflect particularly well the local environment. We therefore compared GZ communities between zones separated by the two fronts, disentangled their drivers, and analyzed community shifts occurring whenever front relocation occurred. We have identified fifteen GZ taxa, distributed among three distinct communities, specific for front-maintained zones, and selected the following taxa as indicators of each zone: W—west of the AF, within the Greenland Sea Gyre, Beroe spp.; C—central, in between the AF and the PF, Aglantha digitale and E—east of the PF, in the West Spitsbergen Shelf Mertensia ovum . Taxonomic composition of these communities, and their specific abundance, persisted throughout time. We also showed that relocation of either front between the sampling years was subsequently followed by the restructuring of the GZ community. Our results indicate that passive oceanic fronts maintain distinct GZ communities, with probable limited exchange across a front, and provide a new perspective for the Arctic ecosystem evolution under progressing Atlantification. |
author2 |
Ministerstwo Edukacji i Nauki |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mańko, Maciej K. Merchel, Malgorzata Kwasniewski, Slawomir Weydmann-Zwolicka, Agata |
author_facet |
Mańko, Maciej K. Merchel, Malgorzata Kwasniewski, Slawomir Weydmann-Zwolicka, Agata |
author_sort |
Mańko, Maciej K. |
title |
Oceanic Fronts Shape Biodiversity of Gelatinous Zooplankton in the European Arctic |
title_short |
Oceanic Fronts Shape Biodiversity of Gelatinous Zooplankton in the European Arctic |
title_full |
Oceanic Fronts Shape Biodiversity of Gelatinous Zooplankton in the European Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Oceanic Fronts Shape Biodiversity of Gelatinous Zooplankton in the European Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Oceanic Fronts Shape Biodiversity of Gelatinous Zooplankton in the European Arctic |
title_sort |
oceanic fronts shape biodiversity of gelatinous zooplankton in the european arctic |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941025 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.941025/full |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Greenland Greenland Sea Zooplankton Spitsbergen |
genre_facet |
Arctic Greenland Greenland Sea Zooplankton Spitsbergen |
op_source |
Frontiers in Marine Science volume 9 ISSN 2296-7745 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941025 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
9 |
_version_ |
1792496978854150144 |