Environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community
Abstract Major changes in North Atlantic zooplankton communities in recent decades have been linked to climate change but the roles of environmental drivers are often complex. High temporal resolution data is required to disentangle the natural seasonal drivers from additional sources of variability...
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2021
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab177 https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-pdf/79/3/844/43513536/fsab177.pdf |
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croxfordunivpr:10.1093/icesjms/fsab177 2024-04-07T07:54:32+00:00 Environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community Wells, Seòna R Bresnan, Eileen Cook, Kathryn Eerkes-Medrano, Dafne Machairopoulou, Margarita Mayor, Daniel J Rabe, Berit Wright, Peter J Ji, Rubao Marine Collaborations Research Forum Scottish Government Natural Environment Research Council 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab177 https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-pdf/79/3/844/43513536/fsab177.pdf en eng Oxford University Press (OUP) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ ICES Journal of Marine Science volume 79, issue 3, page 844-854 ISSN 1054-3139 1095-9289 Ecology Aquatic Science Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Oceanography journal-article 2021 croxfordunivpr https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab177 2024-03-08T03:10:30Z Abstract Major changes in North Atlantic zooplankton communities in recent decades have been linked to climate change but the roles of environmental drivers are often complex. High temporal resolution data is required to disentangle the natural seasonal drivers from additional sources of variability in highly heterogeneous marine systems. Here, physical and plankton abundance data spanning 2003–2017 from a weekly long-term monitoring site on the west coast of Scotland were used to investigate the cause of an increasing decline to approximately -80± 5% in annual average total zooplankton abundance from 2011 to 2017. Generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs), with an autoregressive correlation structure, were used to examine seasonal and inter-annual trends in zooplankton abundance and their relationship with environmental variables. Substantial declines were detected across all dominant taxa, with ∼ 30–70% of the declines in abundance explained by a concurrent negative trend in salinity, alongside the seasonal cycle, with the additional significance of food availability found for some taxa. Temperature was found to drive seasonal variation but not the long-term trends in the zooplankton community. The reduction in salinity had the largest effect on several important taxa. Salinity changes could partly be explained by locally higher freshwater run-off driven by precipitation as well as potential links to changes in offshore water masses. The results highlight that changes in salinity, caused by either freshwater input (expected from climate predictions) or fresher offshore water masses, may adversely impact coastal zooplankton communities and the predators that depend on them. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Oxford University Press ICES Journal of Marine Science |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Oxford University Press |
op_collection_id |
croxfordunivpr |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology Aquatic Science Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Ecology Aquatic Science Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Oceanography Wells, Seòna R Bresnan, Eileen Cook, Kathryn Eerkes-Medrano, Dafne Machairopoulou, Margarita Mayor, Daniel J Rabe, Berit Wright, Peter J Environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community |
topic_facet |
Ecology Aquatic Science Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Oceanography |
description |
Abstract Major changes in North Atlantic zooplankton communities in recent decades have been linked to climate change but the roles of environmental drivers are often complex. High temporal resolution data is required to disentangle the natural seasonal drivers from additional sources of variability in highly heterogeneous marine systems. Here, physical and plankton abundance data spanning 2003–2017 from a weekly long-term monitoring site on the west coast of Scotland were used to investigate the cause of an increasing decline to approximately -80± 5% in annual average total zooplankton abundance from 2011 to 2017. Generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs), with an autoregressive correlation structure, were used to examine seasonal and inter-annual trends in zooplankton abundance and their relationship with environmental variables. Substantial declines were detected across all dominant taxa, with ∼ 30–70% of the declines in abundance explained by a concurrent negative trend in salinity, alongside the seasonal cycle, with the additional significance of food availability found for some taxa. Temperature was found to drive seasonal variation but not the long-term trends in the zooplankton community. The reduction in salinity had the largest effect on several important taxa. Salinity changes could partly be explained by locally higher freshwater run-off driven by precipitation as well as potential links to changes in offshore water masses. The results highlight that changes in salinity, caused by either freshwater input (expected from climate predictions) or fresher offshore water masses, may adversely impact coastal zooplankton communities and the predators that depend on them. |
author2 |
Ji, Rubao Marine Collaborations Research Forum Scottish Government Natural Environment Research Council |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wells, Seòna R Bresnan, Eileen Cook, Kathryn Eerkes-Medrano, Dafne Machairopoulou, Margarita Mayor, Daniel J Rabe, Berit Wright, Peter J |
author_facet |
Wells, Seòna R Bresnan, Eileen Cook, Kathryn Eerkes-Medrano, Dafne Machairopoulou, Margarita Mayor, Daniel J Rabe, Berit Wright, Peter J |
author_sort |
Wells, Seòna R |
title |
Environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community |
title_short |
Environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community |
title_full |
Environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community |
title_fullStr |
Environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community |
title_full_unstemmed |
Environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community |
title_sort |
environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community |
publisher |
Oxford University Press (OUP) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab177 https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-pdf/79/3/844/43513536/fsab177.pdf |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
ICES Journal of Marine Science volume 79, issue 3, page 844-854 ISSN 1054-3139 1095-9289 |
op_rights |
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab177 |
container_title |
ICES Journal of Marine Science |
_version_ |
1795671133233610752 |