Remote impacts of 2009 and 2015 El Niño on oceanic and biological processes in a marginal sea of the Northwestern Pacific

The significance of long-term teleconnections derived from the anomalous climatic conditions of El Niño has been a highly debated topic, where the remote response of coastal hydrodynamics and marine ecosystems to El Niño conditions is not completely understood. The 14-year long data from a ship-borne acoustic Doppler current profiler was used to examine the El Niño’s impact, in particular, 2009 and 2015 El Niño events, on oceanic and biological processes in coastal regions across the Korea/Tsushima Strait. Here, it was revealed that the summer volume transport could be decreased by 8.7% (from 2.46 ± 0.39 to 2.24 ± 0.26 Sv) due to the anomalous northerly winds in the developing year of El Niño. Furthermore, the fall mean volume backscattering strength could be decreased by 1.8% (from − 97.09 ± 2.14 to − 98.84 ± 2.10 dB) due to the decreased surface solar radiation after the El Niño events. Overall, 2009 and 2015 El Niño events remotely affected volume transport and zooplankton abundance across the Korea/Tsushima Strait through climatic teleconnections.

Estuarine zooplankton responses to flood pulses and a hypoxic blackwater event

Flood pulses in estuaries following storms and rainfall events, are short-lived but important moments for a range of ecosystem processes including the delivery of resources and promoting productivity. Conversely some flood pulses can lead to adverse outcomes such as poor water quality conditions. The aim of this study was to determine how zooplankton abundance and community composition responded to flood pulses and if they responded differently during a flood pulse that led to hypoxic conditions. To do this we conducted a two-year observational study in the Hunter River estuary, Australia, monitoring zooplankton communities monthly for a period that covered two major flood pulse events including one that caused widespread hypoxia and a major fish kill. The results showed zooplankton abundance was higher or no different following the 2012 flood when dissolved oxygen remained stable compared to pre-flood conditions. During the 2013 flood when hypoxia occurred the abundance of copepods, nauplii and rotifers were at their lowest for the study period. Zooplankton assemblages were not distinctly different following the 2012 flood pulse compared to the pre-flood period but were different during the hypoxic 2013 flood, though quickly returned to resemble pre-flood conditions in the proceeding months. The study provides useful insights in how zooplankton populations may respond to flood events and recover after hypoxic conditions in estuarine ecosystems.

Prediction and classification of suspended sediment and zooplankton signals from acoustic Doppler current profiler backscatter data using artificial neural networks

Characterization of each underwater object has its challenges, especially for small objects. The process of quantifying acoustic signals for these small objects can be done using high-frequency hydroacoustic instruments such as an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) combined with the artificial intelligence (AI) technique. This paper presents an artificial neural network (ANN) methodology for classifying an object from acoustic and environmental data in the water column. In particular, the methodology was tuned for the recognition of suspended sediments and zooplankton. Suspended sediment concentration and zooplankton abundance, which extracted from ADCP acoustic data, were used as input in the backpropagation method along with other environmental data such as effects of tides, currents, and vertical velocity. The classifier used an optimal number of neurons in the hidden layer and a feature selection based on a genetic algorithm. The ANN method was also used to estimate the suspended sediment concentration in the future. This study provided new implications for predicting and classifying suspended sediment and zooplankton using the ADCP instrument. The proposed methodology allowed us to identify the objects with an accuracy of more than 95%.

Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Zooplankton Inhabiting Sandy and Muddy Shore Habitats at Jazan Coastal Area

Few studies were made about zooplankton distribution in Jazan coastal area. The present study dealt with the identification of zooplankton at the sandy shore (AlSalwa coast) and mangrove muddy shore (Turfa peninsula) at the Almarjan coast. Species richness and population density at different seasons were determined for both study areas between May 2016-April 2017. Conductivity, pH, water temperature, and salinity were measured. The relationship between water characters and the seasonal abundance of zooplankton seasons was examined through regression analysis. Ciliates, Rotifers, Nauplius larva, Gammarus sp., Veliger larva, Nematodes, Planaria, Copepods, and Kinorhyncha were recorded for both study areas. The highest species richness and population density were recorded during the summer season for Almarjan sandy shore and Turfa peninsula mangrove. Ciliates were the most abundant zooplankton on the sandy shore, while Kinorhyncha was the least abundant. The zooplankton Nematode was the most abundant at the Turfa Peninsula mangrove, whereas Gnathostomulida was the least abundant. Conductivity, salinity, and water temperature showed a significant regression relationship (P<0.05) with zooplankton abundance. Data was discussed to highlight the role of zooplankton abundance in the mangrove and sandy shore ecosystem.

ZIPLAS: Zooplankton Index for Polish Lakes’ Assessment: a new method to assess the ecological status of stratified lakes

Zooplankton is widely recognized as a key component of pelagic ecosystems and forms the basis for major trophic webs. Although zooplankton has often been used as an indicator of trophic state, it has not been included as an obligatory element of the water assessment systems compliant with the Water Framework Directive. This article introduces the Zooplankton Index for Polish Lakes’ Assessment (ZIPLAS) as a new method to assess the ecological status of stratified lakes based on the zooplankton community. The ZIPLAS evaluates three aspects of zooplankton communities, namely, taxonomic composition and abundance, diversity of the zooplankton community, and stressor-sensitive species, which are combined into a multimetric index. Following are the metrics used to compose multimetric ZIPLAS: percentage share of the Rotifer species indicative of high trophy in the indicative group’s number (IHTROT; %), ratio of Calanoida to Cyclopoida individual numbers (CA/CY), percentage of tecta form in the population of Keratella cochlearis (TECTA; %), Margalef’s index (d), and zooplankton abundance (NZOL; ind./L). ZIPLAS responds clearly to eutrophication indicators—the strongest with Secchi disc visibility (Spearman’s rank correlation R = 0.86) and slightly weaker with the expressed by total phosphorus (R = -0.74), total nitrogen (R = 0.68) and the catchment pressure expressed by the nutrient loads generated by different types of land use (R = -0.58).

Environmental drivers of a decline in a coastal zooplankton community

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.

Macroscale patterns of oceanic zooplankton composition and size structure

Ocean plankton comprise organisms from viruses to fish larvae that are fundamental to ecosystem functioning and the provision of marine services such as fisheries and CO2 sequestration. The latter services are partly governed by variations in plankton community composition and the expression of traits such as body size at community-level. While community assembly has been thoroughly studied for the smaller end of the plankton size spectrum, the larger end comprises ectotherms that are often studied at the species, or group-level, rather than as communities. The body size of marine ectotherms decreases with temperature, but controls on community-level traits remain elusive, hindering the predictability of marine services provision. Here, we leverage Tara Oceans datasets to determine how zooplankton community composition and size structure varies with latitude, temperature and productivity-related covariates in the global surface ocean. Zooplankton abundance and median size decreased towards warmer and less productive environments, as a result of changes in copepod composition. However, some clades displayed the opposite relationships, which may be ascribed to alternative feeding strategies. Given that climate models predict increasingly warmed and stratified oceans, our findings suggest that zooplankton communities will shift towards smaller organisms which might weaken their contribution to the biological carbon pump.

Abundance and Structure of the Zooplankton Community During a Post-eruptive Process: The Case of the Submarine Volcano Tagoro (El Hierro; Canary Islands), 2013-2018

The mesozooplankton community was analyzed over a 6-year period (2013-2018) during the post-eruptive stage of the submarine volcano Tagoro, located south of the island of El Hierro (Canary Archipelago, Spain). Nine cruises from March 2013 to March 2018 were carried out in two different seasons, spring (March-April) and autumn (October). A high-resolution study was carried out across the main cones of Tagoro volcano, as well as a large number of reference stations surrounding El Hierro (unaffected by the volcano). The zooplankton community at the reference stations showed a high similarity with more than 85% of the variation in abundance and composition attributable to seasonal differences. Moreover, our data showed an increase in zooplankton abundance in waters affected by the volcano with a higher presence of non-calanoid copepods and a decline in the diversity of the copepod community, indicating that volcanic inputs have a significant effect on these organisms. Fourteen different zooplankton groups were found but copepods were dominant (79%) with 59 genera and 170 species identified. Despite the high species number, less than 30 presented a larger abundance than 1%. Oncaea and Clausocalanus were the most abundant genera followed by Oithona and Paracalanus (60%). Nine species dominated (&gt;2%): O. media, O. plumifera, and O. setigera among the non-calanoids and M. clausi, P. nanus, P. parvus, C. furcatus, C. arcuicornis, and N. minor among the calanoids. After the initial low abundance of the copepods as a consequence of the eruption, an increase was observed in the last years of the study, where besides the small Paracalanus and Clausocalanus, the Cyclopoids seem to have a good adaptive strategy to the new water conditions. The increase in zooplankton abundance and the decline in the copepod diversity in the area affected by the volcano indicate that important changes in the composition of the zooplankton community have occurred. The effect of the volcanic emissions on the different copepods was more evident in spring when the water was cooler and the mixing layer was deeper. Further and longer research is recommended to monitor the zooplankton community in the natural laboratory of the Tagoro submarine volcano.