Abstract
Although small zooplankton are an important component of both the classical food web and microbial loop, fundamental information about small zooplankton in the Southern Ocean is lacking. This study presents the interannual and horizontal variabilities of small zooplankton and the population structure of the key small copepod species Ctenocalanus citer off Vincennes Bay, East Antarctica. Zooplankton were sampled with a 100 µm mesh net during austral summer from 2016 to 2018. Small copepods numerically dominated all samples, with Oithona spp., Oncaeidae, C. citer and nauplii being particularly abundant (> 75% of total zooplankton abundance). Community structure analysis revealed annual and latitudinal changes in the community, which were driven by the timing of sea-ice retreat and associated with the phytoplankton bloom. The population structure of C. citer showed variability not only with latitude but also between eastern and western areas. The water temperature gradient formed by cyclonic eddies likely influences the developmental period of C. citer, thereby generating the east–west difference in population structure. Spatial differences in the population structure of copepods attributable to cyclonic eddies are likely common during summer in East Antarctica. Our results demonstrate that the development of C. citer population structure is synchronised with short-term fluctuations in phytoplankton size composition following sea-ice retreat, suggesting that the phytoplankton bloom is efficiently used for population growth in the seasonal ice zone. These data suggest that small zooplankton respond rapidly to local environmental changes.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Captain Akira Noda and all crew of the training vessel Umitaka-maru, and all cadets on board participating in the Advanced Course for Marine Science and Technology of TUMSAT, for their invaluable assistance during oceanographic observations. We also thank researchers and graduate students for their excellent support during voyages of Kaiyodai Antarctic Research Expedition (KARE-19, 20 and 21). We would like to thank Dr. Haruhiko Kashiwase for sharing his dataset of SIC with us. We are very grateful to the reviewers who provided valuable feedback on my paper. We dedicate this manuscript to the late Dr. Tsuneo Odate, who had led the Japanese Southern Ocean ecosystem research team for many years. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Grant nos. 15H05239 and 17H06319, PI: M. Moteki), Research Project Funds of NIPR (Grant No. KP308, PI: T. Odate), JARE (Grant No. AP0923 and AP0939, PI: M. Moteki) and Overseas Research Fellowships (K. Matsuno).
Funding
Overseas Research Fellowships,Research Project Funds of NIPR (KP308) and JARE (AP0923 and AP0939), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (15H05239 and 17H06319)
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AT conducted data analyses and wrote the main manuscript text. YO and KM conducted sampling and microscopic analysis. KDT analysed satellite data and prepared Supplementary data. RM and MM conceived of research plan and designed this research. All authors contributed to discussion based on the results and to improving the manuscript.
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Tachibana, A., Ohkubo, Y., Matsuno, K. et al. Interannual and spatial variation in small zooplankton off Vincennes Bay, East Antarctica. Polar Biol 46, 915–932 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-023-03174-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-023-03174-0