GAPS AND PATCHES IN THE OCEAN - A ONE-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF PLANKTONIC DISTRIBUTIONS

The Optical Plankton Counter (OPC] was used to count individual animal s in situ, and to produce a one-dimensional spatial-series from which gap relationships could be quantified at the millimeter scale and abov e, using a Distance to Next Encounter (DNE) technique. Both DNE and on e-dimensional neighbor analyses indicated that zooplankton distributio ns in all transects were significantly (p < 0.0001) aggregated into pa tches. Within patches, zooplankton were effectively (r(2) approximate to 0.94) randomly distributed, resulting in important implications for some of the newer foraging models concerning zooplankton. The DNE fre quency distributions all exhibited a distinct pattern that would not b e expected from single Poisson distribution, indicating patchiness at the meter scale. This allowed calculation of various statistics used t o describe in situ patchiness such as: relative percentage of a transe ct occupied by patches (79 to 89 %) and gaps, estimates of patch size (similar to 2 m diameter), and patch densities (7000 to 14 000 organis ms m(-3)).