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Vertical profiles of zooplankton community structure in Prydz Bay, Antarctica, during the austral summer of 2012/2013

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Abstract

The abundance and vertical distribution of zooplankton in the mesopelagic zone are important to better understand their role in carbon and energy transfer in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. In the austral summer of 2012/2013, in Prydz Bay, Antarctica, the vertical profiles of zooplankton community structures between 0 and 1500 m were investigated by multivariate analysis of samples collected using a Hydro-Bios MultiNet (200-µm mesh, 0.5 m2 mouth size). Four zooplankton communities belonging to distinct water strata were identified. Group 1 contained samples collected from the surface water strata (<100 m) of four shelf and neritic stations. Group 2 was composed of samples collected from the neritic and shelf regions (<500 m) and the upper layers (0–200 m) of the oceanic region. Group 3 mainly comprised samples collected from the mesopelagic and upper bathypelagic zones (200–1500 m) of shelf and oceanic stations north of the shelf break edge. Group 4 consisted of samples in the 1000–1500 m water stratum of three oceanic stations. The four groups differed more in animal abundance than in species composition. Similarity percentage analysis (SIMPER) showed that zooplankton communities in the upper depth strata (0–200 m) had higher abundance and more pronounced dissimilarity within samples than those below 200 m. A few species (Metridia gerlachei, Rhincalanus gigas, Alacia spp.) showed significant diel vertical migration based on quadratic regression analysis. Sampling depth was the strongest differentiating factor between samples. These results suggest that depth-related differences in environmental characteristics of water masses, such as temperature and salinity, may have the greatest effect upon community structure.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the crew of R.V. Xuelong for their assistance in the field. We are grateful to the Polar Biology Repository of the Marine Biological Museum of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (MBMCAS) for providing samples. We would like to thank Jiuxin Shi for help with water mass analysis. We thank Yong Jiang for assistance with NMDS analysis. This research was supported by polar project of SOA, China (CHINARE2015-01-05-02, CHINARE2016-01-05-02 and CHINARE2016-04-01-05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

    Guang Yang, Chaolun Li, Yanqing Wang & Ye Zhang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Chaolun Li & Ye Zhang

  3. Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

    Chaolun Li

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  1. Guang Yang
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Correspondence to Chaolun Li.

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Yang, G., Li, C., Wang, Y. et al. Vertical profiles of zooplankton community structure in Prydz Bay, Antarctica, during the austral summer of 2012/2013. Polar Biol 40, 1101–1114 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-2037-4

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