What determines the slope of a plankton biomass spectrum?

Zhou, Meng

doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi119

Cited by 119 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In less productive systems a significant proportion of the primary productivity is provided by microbial food webs (Iriarte and González, 2004) and the smaller fraction of phytoplankton (Guidi et al, 2009), therefore leading to steeper NBSS in the size range > 1 to ≈ 200 µm ESD. However, on the mesozooplankton size range, high productivity leads to a higher proportion of herbivores, generally smaller than carnivores, resulting in steeper NBSS (Zhou, 2006;Zhou et al, 2009).…”

Section: Size Spectrum Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From a literature review, Daewel et al (2014) did not find evidence of top-down control on zooplankton at the scale of the Bay of Biscay, yet it may occur at local scale for particular seasons. Within the size range of mesozooplankton (0.2-2 mm ESD), steeper slopes are generally related to lower efficiency of the matter flux, potentially with top-down control and a fewer number of trophic levels, whereas flatter slope areas are associated with efficient transfer under bottom-up control and a higher number of trophic levels (Zhou, 2006;Basedow et al, 2010;Marcolin et al, 2013). So, even if more productive, coastal areas (especially plumes) and to a lesser extent shelf break habitats may have a low transfer efficiency, mid-shelf areas may have a high transfer efficiency, through the structuration of the planktonic food web (Marquis et al, 2011).…”

Section: Productivity and Trophic Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Springtime zooplankton size structure over the continental shelf of the Bay of Biscay

Vandromme

Nogueira²,

Huret

et al. 2014

Ocean Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Linking lower and higher trophic levels requires special focus on the essential role played by mid-trophic levels, i.e., the zooplankton. One of the most relevant pieces of information regarding zooplankton in terms of flux of energy lies in its size structure. In this study, an extensive data set of size measurements is presented, covering parts of the western European continental shelf and slope, from the Galician coast to the Ushant front, during the springs from 2005 to 2012. Zooplankton size spectra were estimated using measurements carried out in situ with the Laser Optical Plankton Counter (LOPC) and with an image analysis of WP2 net samples (200 µm mesh size) performed following the ZooScan methodology. The LOPC counts and sizes particles within 100-2000 µm of spherical equivalent diameter (ESD), whereas the WP2/ZooScan allows for counting, sizing and identification of zooplankton from ∼ 400 µm ESD. The difference between the LOPC (all particles) and the WP2/ZooScan (zooplankton only) was assumed to provide the size distribution of non-living particles, whose descriptors were related to a set of explanatory variables (including physical, biological and geographic descriptors). A statistical correction based on these explanatory variables was further applied to the LOPC size distribution in order to remove the non-living particles part, and therefore estimate the size distribution of zooplankton. This extensive data set provides relevant information about the zooplankton size distribution variability, productivity and trophic transfer efficiency in the pelagic ecosystem of the Bay of Biscay at a regional and interannual scale.

show abstract

Section: Size Spectrum Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Productivity and Trophic Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Springtime zooplankton size structure over the continental shelf of the Bay of Biscay

Vandromme

Nogueira²,

Huret

et al. 2014

Ocean Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…From the OPC data, NBSS was calculated following the procedure of Zhou (2006). First, zooplankton DM (B, mg DM m 3 ) was averaged for every 100 μm ESD size class.…”

Section: Data Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interannual and latitudinal changes in zooplankton abundance, biomass and size composition along a central North Pacific transect during summer: analyses with an Optical Plankton Counter

Fukuda

Yamaguchi

Matsuno

et al. 2012

Plankton Benthos Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

2 but the differences between the three oceanic domains were not significant. However, highly significant latitudinal changes were observed in the mean zooplankton biomass, which ranged from 1.44 to 13.2 mg dry mass m 2 with higher values in the Transitional Domain (TR) than in the Subarctic and Subtropical Domains. The high biomass in the TR was caused by the dominance of large-sized zooplankton with equivalent spherical diameters (ESD) of 2-4 mm, regarded to consist mainly of Neocalanus spp. C5. Both the slope and intercept of the Normalized Biomass Size Spectrum also showed significant latitudinal changes with a moderate slope and low intercept in the TR due to the dominance of large zooplankton with 2-4 mm ESD in biomass. In contrast to these large latitudinal changes, only limited interannual variations were observed for zooplankton abundance and biomass in the central North Pacific during the study period.

show abstract

“…Guidi et al 2009;Frangoulis et al, 2010). Anomalies in the shape of the log-transformed plankton size distribution may also be indicative of excess growth/mortality or gain/losses through consumption or migration (Zhou et al, 2006;Frangoulis et al, 2010). Furthermore, size-based analysis of living particles provides a valuable tool in ecosystem modeling for reducing the complexity of actual food webs and species interactions (Zhou et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size distribution of particles and zooplankton across the shelf-basin system in southeast Beaufort Sea: combined results from an Underwater Vision Profiler and vertical net tows

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The size distribution and mean spatial trends of large particles (>100 µm, in equivalent spherical diameter, ESD) and mesozooplankton were investigated across the Mackenzie Shelf (southeast Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean) in July-August 2009. Our main objective was to combine results from an Underwater Vision Profiler 5 (UVP5) and traditional net tows (200 µm mesh size) to characterize the structural diversity and functioning of the Arctic shelf-basin ecosystem and to assess the large-scale correspondence between the two methodological approaches. The core dataset comprised 154 UVP5 profiles and 29 net tows conducted in the shelf (<100 m isobath), slope (100-1000 m) and basin (>1000 m) regions of the study area. The mean abundance of total particles and zooplankton in the upper water column (<75 m depth) declined exponentially with increasing distance from shore. Vertical and latitudinal patterns in total particle concentration followed those of chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration, with maximum values between 30 and 70 m depth. Based on the size-spectra derived from the UVP5 dataset, living organisms (0.1-10 mm ESD) accounted for an increasingly large proportion of total particle abundance (from 0.1 % to >50 %) when progressing offshore and as the ESD of particles was increasing. Both the UVP5 and net tows determined that copepods dominated the zooplankton community (∼78-94 % by numbers) and that appendicularians were generally the second most abundant group (∼1-11 %). The vertical distribution patterns of copepods and appendicularians indicated a close association between primary production and the main grazers. Manual taxonomic counts and ZooScan image analyses shed further light on the size-structure and composition of the copepod community -which was dominated at ∼95 % by a guild of 10 typical taxa. The size distributions of copepods, as evaluated with the 3 methods (manual counts, ZooScan and UVP5), showed consistent patterns co-varying in the same order of magnitude over the upper size range (>1 mm ESD). Copepods <1 mm were not well quantified by the UVP5, which estimated that only ∼13-25 % of the assemblage was composed of copepods <1 mm ESD compared with ∼77-89 % from the net tow estimates. However, the biovolume of copepods was overwhelmingly dominated (∼93-97 %) by copepods >1 mm ESD. Our results illustrate that the combination of traditional sampling methods and automated imaging techniques is a powerful approach that enabled us to conclude on the prevalence of a relatively high productivity regime and dominant herbivorous food web over the shelf when compared with the low-productive recycling system detected offshore.

show abstract

What determines the slope of a plankton biomass spectrum?

Cited by 119 publications

References 45 publications

Springtime zooplankton size structure over the continental shelf of the Bay of Biscay

Springtime zooplankton size structure over the continental shelf of the Bay of Biscay

Interannual and latitudinal changes in zooplankton abundance, biomass and size composition along a central North Pacific transect during summer: analyses with an Optical Plankton Counter

Size distribution of particles and zooplankton across the shelf-basin system in southeast Beaufort Sea: combined results from an Underwater Vision Profiler and vertical net tows

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About