Abundance of copepods during POLARSTERN cruise ANT-XXI/2 (BENDIX)

The main emphasis of this study was to analyse the short-term development of abundance, population structure and vertical distribution of the dominant calanoid copepods during a phytoplankton bloom in the coastal area of the eastern Weddell Sea in December 2003. Microcalanus pygmaeus was by far the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Michels, Jan, Schnack-Schiel, Sigrid B, Pasternak, Anna F, Mizdalski, Elke, Isla, Enrique, Gerdes, Dieter
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA 2012
Subjects:
Aetideopsis minor
copepodites
female
Aetideopsis spp.
Aetideus australis
male
Amallothrix dentipes
ANT-XXI/2
AWI_BPP
Bentho-Pelagic Processes @ AWI
Calanoida indeterminata
Calanoides acutus
c1
c2
c3
c4
c5
Calanus propinquus
Candacia sp.
Chiridius sp.
Clausocalanus brevipes
Weddell
Weddell Sea
Polar Biology
Sea ice
Copepods
Online Access:https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.754015
https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.754015
Description
Summary:The main emphasis of this study was to analyse the short-term development of abundance, population structure and vertical distribution of the dominant calanoid copepods during a phytoplankton bloom in the coastal area of the eastern Weddell Sea in December 2003. Microcalanus pygmaeus was by far the most abundant calanoid species. Metridia gerlachei, Ctenocalanus citer, Calanoides acutus, Calanus propinquus and the ice-associated Stephos longipes were also present in considerable proportions. The observed changes in the population characteristics and parameters of these species are described in detail and discussed in the context of the spring phytoplankton bloom. A conspicuous event occurring during the final stage of the study was the development of a strong storm. While the results suggest that this storm did not have any considerable influence on the populations of all other investigated copepod species, it very likely caused pronounced changes in the S. longipes population present in the water column. Before the storm, S. longipes was found primarily in the upper 100 m of the water column, and its population was dominated by adults (mean proportion = 41%) and the copepodite stage I (mean proportion = 30%). After the storm, the abundance increased considerably, and the copepodite stage I contributed by far the largest proportion (53%) of the total population indicating that the early copepodite stages probably had been released from the sea ice into the under ice water layer due to ice break-up and ice melt processes caused by the storm.

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