AUTHOR=Neumann-Leitão Sigrid , Melo Pedro A. M. C. , Schwamborn Ralf , Diaz Xiomara F. G. , Figueiredo Lucas G. P. , Silva Andrea P. , Campelo Renata P. S. , Melo Júnior Mauro de , Melo Nuno F. A. C. , Costa Alejandro E. S. F. , Araújo Moacyr , Veleda Dóris R. A. , Moura Rodrigo L. , Thompson Fabiano TITLE=Zooplankton From a Reef System Under the Influence of the Amazon River Plume JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=9 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.00355 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2018.00355 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=
At the mouth of the Amazon River, a widespread carbonate ecosystem exists below the river plume, generating a hard-bottom reef (∼9500 km2) that includes mainly large sponges but also rhodolith beds. The mesozooplankton associated with the pelagic realm over the reef formation was characterized, considering the estuarine plume and oceanic influence. Vertical hauls were carried out using a standard plankton net with 200 μm mesh size during September 2014. An indicator index was applied to express species importance as ecological indicators in community. Information on functional traits was gathered for the most abundant copepod species. Overall, 179 zooplankton taxa were recorded. Copepods were the richest (92 species), most diverse and most abundant group, whereas meroplankton were rare and less abundant. Species diversity (>3.0 bits.ind-1) and evenness (>0.6) were high, indicating a complex community. Small holoplanktonic species dominated the zooplankton, and the total density varied from 107.98 ind. m-3 over the reef area to 2,609.24 ind. m-3 in the estuarine plume, with a significant difference between coastal and oceanic areas. The most abundant copepods were the coastal species