Restructuring of a zooplankton community by perturbation from a wind-forced coastal jet

The impact of transient wind events on an established zooplankton community was observed during a field survey in a coastal region off northern Norway in May 2002. A transient wind event induced a coastal jet/filament intrusion of warm, saline water into our survey area where a semi-permanent eddy w...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ole-Petter Pedersen, Kurt S. Tande, Chaolun Li, Meng Zhou
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/c36a5438dfab4ceda4c0b1616ff5b3f2
Description
Summary:The impact of transient wind events on an established zooplankton community was observed during a field survey in a coastal region off northern Norway in May 2002. A transient wind event induced a coastal jet/filament intrusion of warm, saline water into our survey area where a semi-permanent eddy was present. There was an abrupt change in zooplankton community structure within 4-7 days of the wind event, with a change in the size structure, an increase in lower size classes less than 1 mm in equivalent spherical diameter (ESD) and a decrease in larger size classes greater than 1.5 mm in ESD. The slope of zooplankton biovolume spectra changed from -0.6 to -0.8, consistent with the size shifting towards smaller size classes. This study shows that even well established zooplankton communities are susceptible to restructuring during transient wind events, and in particular when wind forcing induces horizontal currents or filaments.