Planktonic Copepoda along the Confinement Gradient of the Taranto Sea System (Southern Italy) after Lockdown of Human Activities Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study was conducted in the sea system of Taranto (south Italy) to explore the consequences of the COVID-19 lockdown of all human activities on zooplankton abundance and composition. Copepoda were selected as the best indicators and four different dates were taken to represent the annual variability. The availability of samples from past collections (15 and 30 years ago) allowed comparison with previous situations. The Copepoda community in the most confined part of the system (stations MPI and MPII) was dominated by small-sized species and showed new arrivals, including Acartia tonsa, Centropages hamatus, and Pseudodiaptomus sp. The first inlet of Mar Piccolo (MPI) showed an unusually high number of species in the summer of 2020, just at the end of the lockdown period (March–May 2020). The evident growth of species richness at station MPI, and only during the summer of 2020, suggests a role of the lockdown period on the zooplankton composition. The high species richness in the post-lockdown period was probably the result of ceasing the disturbance caused by ship/boat traffic at the MPI site, which is heavily affected by daily human activities at sea.