{"title":"Resolving abrupt frontal gradients in zooplankton community composition and marine snow fields with an autonomous Zooglider","authors":"Sven Gastauer, Mark D. Ohman","doi":"10.1002/lno.12642","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"An autonomous <jats:italic>Zooglider</jats:italic> navigated across the California Current Front into low salinity, minty waters characteristic of the California Current proper in both summers of 2019 and 2021. Diving to 400 m depth, <jats:italic>Zooglider</jats:italic> transited another near‐surface frontal gradient somewhat inshore. These frontal gradients were generally associated with changes in intensity, size composition, and Diel Vertical Migration responses of acoustic backscatterers. They were also associated with pronounced changes in zooplankton community composition, as assessed by a shadowgraph imaging Zoocam. Zoocam detected a decline in concentrations of copepods, appendicularians, and marine snow in the offshore direction, and an overall shift in community structure to a higher proportion of carnivorous taxa (and, in 2019, of planktonic rhizaria). No taxon was consistently elevated at all the peak frontal gradients, but appendicularians, copepods, and rhizarians sometimes showed front‐related increases in concentration. Such frontal gradient regions represent relatively abrupt transitions to different communities of planktonic organisms and suspended marine snow particles, with consequences for predator–prey relationships and the dominant vectors of particle export into subsurface waters.","PeriodicalId":18143,"journal":{"name":"Limnology and Oceanography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Limnology and Oceanography","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12642","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LIMNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
An autonomous Zooglider navigated across the California Current Front into low salinity, minty waters characteristic of the California Current proper in both summers of 2019 and 2021. Diving to 400 m depth, Zooglider transited another near‐surface frontal gradient somewhat inshore. These frontal gradients were generally associated with changes in intensity, size composition, and Diel Vertical Migration responses of acoustic backscatterers. They were also associated with pronounced changes in zooplankton community composition, as assessed by a shadowgraph imaging Zoocam. Zoocam detected a decline in concentrations of copepods, appendicularians, and marine snow in the offshore direction, and an overall shift in community structure to a higher proportion of carnivorous taxa (and, in 2019, of planktonic rhizaria). No taxon was consistently elevated at all the peak frontal gradients, but appendicularians, copepods, and rhizarians sometimes showed front‐related increases in concentration. Such frontal gradient regions represent relatively abrupt transitions to different communities of planktonic organisms and suspended marine snow particles, with consequences for predator–prey relationships and the dominant vectors of particle export into subsurface waters.
期刊介绍:
Limnology and Oceanography (L&O; print ISSN 0024-3590, online ISSN 1939-5590) publishes original articles, including scholarly reviews, about all aspects of limnology and oceanography. The journal''s unifying theme is the understanding of aquatic systems. Submissions are judged on the originality of their data, interpretations, and ideas, and on the degree to which they can be generalized beyond the particular aquatic system examined. Laboratory and modeling studies must demonstrate relevance to field environments; typically this means that they are bolstered by substantial "real-world" data. Few purely theoretical or purely empirical papers are accepted for review.