Cp. Gallienne et Db. Robins, TRANSOCEANIC CHARACTERIZATION OF ZOOPLANKTON COMMUNITY SIZE STRUCTUREUSING AN OPTICAL PLANKTON COUNTER, Fisheries oceanography, 7(2), 1998, pp. 147-158
The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT), sampling between 50 degrees N
and 50 degrees S, is a trans-oceanic research programme to characteriz
e plankton community structure, productivity and bio-optical propertie
s of the upper ocean in relation to ocean provinces and meso-scale fea
tures. As part of a suite of continuous measurements, an optical plank
ton counter (OPC) has been used on the AMT to characterize the surface
distribution of zooplankton based on their abundance and community si
ze structure. Results from the OPC were available in real time, and we
re subsequently validated against microscope counts of zooplankton sam
pled concurrently along the AMT. Zooplankton community size structure
from two sections of the Transect are presented: from the northern edg
e of upwelling off West Africa to the UK shelf and between the Falklan
d Islands and Uruguay, where the Transect traversed a warm core ring.
Results showing the zooplankton community size structure together with
statistical analysis, using principal component analysis (PCA), are c
ompared with the dynamic oceanographic characteristics along the Trans
ect. The application of the OPC for such basin-scale studies provides
a methodology for obtaining data on zooplankton abundance and communit
y structure at the appropriate spatial scales for global-scale modelli
ng of the marine ecosystem.