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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Biology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1274582
This article is part of the Research Topic Ecology of Marine Zooplankton and Micronekton in Polar and Sub-Polar Areas View all 11 articles

Zooplankton vertical stratification in the East-pacific and Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean

Provisionally accepted
Yunzhe Liu Yunzhe Liu 1Yanqing Wang Yanqing Wang 2,3,4,5Yongming Sun Yongming Sun 6Guang Yang Guang Yang 2,3,4,5*Kerrie M. Swadling Kerrie M. Swadling 1,7*
  • 1 Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, College of Sciences and Engineering, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 3 Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 4 Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 5 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, Beijing, China
  • 6 Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography, College of Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 7 Australian Antarctic Program Partnership (AAPP), Hobart, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The vertical structure, including abundance and composition, of zooplankton and associated environmental drivers in Antarctic waters is not well understood, particularly in the mesopelagic and upper bathypelagic layers. Depth-stratified zooplankton samples were collected from 0 to 1500 m during four summers in the East-Pacific and Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean. In addition, analysis of environmental drivers including temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll a concentration, as well as water masses was conducted. Our study indicates that zooplankton diversity may be similar between the two sectors, while zooplankton abundance was higher in the East-Pacific sector during different sampling months and years. Moreover, zooplankton abundance decreased with depth in both sectors. Based on cluster analysis, zooplankton communities were generally divided by either the epipelagic or the deeper layers communities. In both sectors, the epipelagic layer was dominated by cyclopoid copepods, such as Oithona similis and Oncaea curvata, as well as calanoid copepods including Calanoides acutus, Rhincalanus gigas, and Ctenocalanus citer, while copepods and other taxa including Chaetognatha, Amphipoda, and Ostracoda, were important contributors to the deep layer communities. Our statistical analysis revealed that water masses, combined with their physical characteristics such as specific temperature, salinity ranges, and depth, along with biological factors such as chlorophyll a concentration, are important drivers for structuring zooplankton communities. Additionally, the vertical distribution patterns of zooplankton align with the biotic properties of different water masses or layers, such as food availability.

    Keywords: Mesozooplankton, vertical distribution, Antarctic Surface Water, Circumpolar deep water, Antarctic zooplankton survey, Planktonic food webs

    Received: 08 Aug 2023; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Wang, Sun, Yang and Swadling. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Guang Yang, Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Qingdao, 266071, Shandong Province, China
    Kerrie M. Swadling, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, College of Sciences and Engineering, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

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