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Changes in the planktonic copepod community in a landlocked bay in the subtropical coastal waters of Hong Kong during recovery from eutrophication

  • ZOOPLANKTON ECOLOGY
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Abstract

Tolo Harbour is a poorly flushed bay in the northeastern corner of Hong Kong. Eutrophication caused by discharge of untreated and secondarily treated sewage into the bay was first detected during the 1970s. Increased nutrient input led to a noticeable increase in algal biomass and algal bloom occurrences. Nutrient reduction measures, including the construction of a pipeline to export all sewage effluents from Tolo Harbour, were introduced during the late 1980s. Decline in nutrient levels and decrease in the number of algal blooms have been recorded since 1998 when all nutrient reduction measures became fully operational. Zooplankton samples collected during 2003–2004 revealed that Tolo Harbour still contained a higher density and lower diversity of planktonic copepods compared to Mirs Bay, a less-polluted sea area outside Tolo Harbour. A comparison between data collected in this study to those collected during 1988–1990, several years before nutrient reduction measures were to be fully implemented, showed a decrease in copepod densities and an increase in copepod diversity. Small copepods, notably species of Paracalanus and Oithona, dominated the copepod communities in both periods, but there was an increase in species evenness during 2003–2004, caused by an increase in the number of dominant species. These observations confirm that eutrophication may lead to increases in copepod densities accompanied by increased dominance of small species.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Miss Eva Yau, Miss Alle Lie, Miss Vivian Li and Mr. Y. H. Yung for their help during the collection of zooplankton samples. We also thank Mr. Pan Tse and Mr. K. C. Cheung for their technical assistance. The Jiaozhou Bay Marine Ecosystem Research Station (CERN) is also acknowledged for financial support to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China

    G.-T. Zhang & C. K. Wong

  2. Key Lab of Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China

    G.-T. Zhang

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  1. G.-T. Zhang
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  2. C. K. Wong
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Correspondence to C. K. Wong.

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Guest editors: J.-S. Hwang and K. Martens / Zooplankton Behavior and Ecology

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Zhang, GT., Wong, C.K. Changes in the planktonic copepod community in a landlocked bay in the subtropical coastal waters of Hong Kong during recovery from eutrophication. Hydrobiologia 666, 277–288 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0422-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0422-5

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