Near-bottom zooplankton over three seamounts in the east Canary Islands: Influence of environmental variables on distribution and composition.

The near-bottom zooplankton over three seamounts of the eastern Canary Islands (Amanay, El Banquete and Concepción) was analyzed, identifying the environmental variables that explain biomass distributions over them. Zooplankton composition changed between adjacent water masses, except for the two de...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Papiol, Vanesa, Cartes, Joan Enric, Vélez-Belchí, Pedro, Martín-Sosa, Pablo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/318645
Acceso en línea:https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/189803/1/Papiol_et_al_2019_postprint.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/318645
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Near-bottom zooplanktonSeamounts
Medio Marino y Protección Ambiental
Centro Oceanográfico de Canarias
Benthic boundary layer
Canary Islands
Oxygen
Fluorescence
Descripción
Sumario:The near-bottom zooplankton over three seamounts of the eastern Canary Islands (Amanay, El Banquete and Concepción) was analyzed, identifying the environmental variables that explain biomass distributions over them. Zooplankton composition changed between adjacent water masses, except for the two deepest assemblages associated with Atlantic Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) and Mediterranean Water (MW). The highest biomass of total zooplankton and of main taxa (e.g. copepods, chaetognaths, siphonophores) were recorded at the seamount summits, i.e., over Amanay-El Banquete (summit depths of 23–24 m) associated with Surface Water (SF) and over Concepción (150 m) in upper levels of the North Atlantic Central Water (NACW). Biomass minima at the three banks were found at ca. 250–650 m, in the deepest levels of NACW. At ca. 700–1000 m (the level occupied by AAIW) and below 1000 m (MW level) biomass increased again. Near-bottom fluorometry (f5mab, 5 m above bottom) and dissolved oxygen (O2 5mab) were the main variables explaining changes of total zooplankton/main taxa biomass. Biomass minima (250–650 m) coincided with decreases of O2 5mab (3.30–3.99 ml/l at 400–700 m) at deepest depths occupied by NACW. Other variables not included in our models like turbidity (resuspension of particles) may have locally enhanced zooplankton aggregation, as they may locally occur alongside Concepcion at the NACW-AAIW confluence (at ca. 700 m), probably from the effects of internal waves. Our results suggest that observations regarding the attraction of organisms to the stationary substrates of seamounts could be related to elevated chlorophyll fluorescence and O2 5mab concentration. Peaks in those variables apparently enhance zooplankton aggregation.