Salinity fronts shape spatial patterns in Zooplankton distribution in Hangzhou Bay

Ocean fronts play important roles in nutrient transport and in the shaping ecological patterns. Frontal zones in small bays are typically small in scale, have a complex structure, and they are spatially and temporally variable, but there are limited data on how biological communities respond to this variation. Hangzhou Bay, a medium-sized estuary in China, is an ideal place in which to study the response of plankton to small-scale ocean fronts, because three water masses (Qiantang River Diluted Water, Changjiang River Diluted Water, and the East China Sea current) converge here and form dynamic salinity fronts throughout the year. We investigate zooplankton communities, and temperature, salinity and chlorophyll a (Chl a) in Hangzhou Bay in June (wet period) and December (dry period) of 2022 and examine the dominant environmental factors that affect zooplankton community spatial variability. We then match the spatial distributions of zooplankton communities with those of salinity fronts. Salinity is the most important explanatory variable to affect zooplankton community spatial variability during both wet and dry periods, in that it contributes >60% of the variability in community structure. Furthermore, the spatial distributions of zooplankton match well with salinity fronts. During December, with weaker Qiantang River Diluted Water and a stronger secondary Changjiang River Plume, zooplankton communities occur in moderate salinity (MS, salinity range 15.6 ± 2.2) and high salinity (HS, 22.4 ± 1.7) regions, and their ecological boundaries closely match the Qiantang River Diluted Water front. In June, different zooplankton communities occur in low salinity (LS, 3.9 ± 1.0), MS (11.7 ± 3.6) and HS (21.3 ± 1.9) regions. Although the LS region occurs abnormally in the central bay rather than its apex because of the anomalous influence of rising and falling tides during the sampling period, the ecological boundaries still match salinity interfaces. Low-salinity or brackish-water zooplankter taxa are relatively more abundant in LS or MS regions, and the biomass and abundance of zooplankton is higher in the MS region.