The zooplankton of Santa Catarina continental shelf in southern Brazil with emphasis on Copepoda and Cladocera and their relationship with physical coastal processes

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Very few studies have been carried out to exclusively investigate the zooplankton community of Santa Catarina State continental shelf, despite the economic and ecological importance of the area. This coastal region of southern Brazil presents highly relevant oceanographic processes, such as the strong influence of continental inputs, resurgence in the Cabo de Santa Marta Grande and River Plata plume water to the south. Two sampling cruises were carried out, in December 2005 and May 2006, in order to study temporal hydrological variations, and their influence on the biota of the region. Zooplankton samples for analysis were obtained by oblique hauls with Bongo nets at 33 sampling stations arranged in profiles perpendicular to the coast on each cruise. The predominant groups found in the samples were Copepoda, Cladocera, Salpidae and Chaetognatha, which presented higher densities at the stations closer to the coast. In the case of the December 2005 cruise, the salinity and temperature gradients perpendicular to the coast, promoted by the continental inputs to the north of the area and by the upwelling to the south, determined the limits of distribution of Acartia lilljeborgi and Penilia avirostris. However, the temperature and salinity gradients longitudinal to the coast determined on the May 2006 cruise did not explain the species distribution, indicating that biotic forcing mechanisms may have been active in the ecology of the system during this period.

Plankton in waters adjacent to the Laje de Santos state marine conservation park, Brazil: spatio-temporal distribution surveys

“…In this case, it is important to consider the extremes groups: the most abundant, and the most variable ones. Diatomacea dominated the phytoplankton samples while Copepods (Crustacea: Maxillopoda) and cladocerans (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) dominated throughout the sampling cruises, as had occurred in other studies undertaken in Brazilian coastal waters (DOMINGOS-NUNES;RESGALLA JR., 2012;LOPES, 2007;RESGALLA JR., 2011). Copepods and cladocerans high densities in all sites and seasons suggest that these crustaceans may be an Appendix 2 cont.…”

The first continuous plankton sampling by VOR (Towed Oceanographic Vehicle) in southeastern and southern Brazil waters

“…The greater abundance of copepods in the south region was also reported by Nunes & Resgalla Jr. (2012). Cladocera was not observed in the samples of the VOR that it only operates in a narrow depth range, which is outside the preferential distribution of the group even though Resgalla Jr. & Montú (1993) and Muxagata & Montú (1999) reported in the southern coast and southeastern Brazilian.…”

Introduction of a new Indo-Pacific marine cladoceran to the Mediterranean Sea

“…Almost a century later, P. schmackeri was found near the Rio Una do Prelado River on the Brazilian coast (Rocha, 1985). It became established in this region and spread from Guanabara Bay to Rio Grande do Sul (Resgalla & Montú, 1993;Marazzo, 2002;Domingos-Nunes & Resgalla, 2012;Monteiro-Ribas et al, 2012). Moreover, sporadic records are reported in Aqaba Bay (Red Sea), in Madagascar (Indian Ocean) (Onbe, 1999) and in Port Tawfiq at the southern entrance to the Suez Canal (Gurney, 1927).…”

“…According to Kim & Onbe (1989) P. schmackeri prefers warm water with low salinity; in the north-western Pacific and in the south-western Atlantic, the species was recorded in a temperature range 21-27 °C and a salinity range 19-34 (Onbe, 1983;Rocha, 1985;Onbe & Ikeda, 1995;Marazzo, 2002;Domingos-Nunes & Resgalla, 2012;Monterio Ribas et al, 2012). In the present study, it was found in summer, when temperature and salinity are higher (26.4-29.1 °C and 37.39-37.96, respectively) than those mentioned by the above authors.…”

“…m -3 (Kim & Onbe, 1989). Despite the low abundance, the species is common in the coastal waters of Brazil (Domingos-Nunes & Resgalla, 2012) and Japan Sea (Kim & Onbe, 1989). The abundance of P. schmackeri found in İskenderun Bay are within the range of the abovementioned values.…”