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Summer distribution of Noctiluca scintillans and mesozooplankton in the Western and Southern East China Sea prior to the Three Gorges Dam operation

  • ZOOPLANKTON ECOLOGY
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Abstract

This research investigated the distribution and abundance of Dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans and mesozooplankton along two transect lines covering the China shelf, slope, the estuaries of the Yangtze River and the Minjiang River, the Northern Taiwan Strait, and the Kuroshio Current region during the summer of 2001. In addition to the regular sampling, 24-h high-frequency sampling at four fixed stations (estuary of the Yangtze River, estuary of the Minjiang River, the Northern Taiwan Strait, and the Kuroshio Current region stations) were also conducted to understand the diurnal vertical migration behavior of zooplankton. Mesozooplankton were dominated by Calanoida (relative abundance, RA 15.74%), Cyclopoida (RA 5.10%), Pteropoda (RA 3.88%), and copepod nauplii (RA 3.42%). Chaetognaths and calanoid copepods were recorded in all samples. Noctiluca scintillans was abundant (RA 51.04%) among all identified organisms in samples at low-salinity stations, particularly in the estuarine region of the Yangtze River. Copepods were the dominant group of mesozooplankton at most stations of the Southwest East China Sea. Our 24-h high-frequency sampling did not reveal any clear diurnal vertical migration behavior of zooplankton. The cluster analysis indicates that differential patterns of the zooplankton community structure in the Southwest East China Sea were related to different water masses. Our results provide useful information on zooplankton community structure in the estuarine region of the Yangtze River and the Southwest East China Sea prior to operation of the Three Gorges Dam.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Professor G. C. Gong and Professor J. Chang for providing us the opportunity to collect plankton samples in the South East China Sea cruise. We would also like to acknowledge Acharya Narendra Dev College (University of Delhi) for granting leave to R. Kumar. We appreciate the assistance of the captain and technicians of the Ocean Research Vessel I in the collection of zooplankton during Cruise 618. We are grateful to the National Science Council of Taiwan, ROC (NSC grant nos. NSC 97-2611-M-019-004 and 99-2611-M-019-009) for financial support to J.-S. Hwang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, 202, Taiwan, ROC

    Li-Chun Tseng & Jiang-Shiou Hwang

  2. Ecosystem Research Lab, Department of Zoology, Acharya Narendra Dev College (University of Delhi), Govindpuri, Kalkaji, New Delhi, 110 019, India

    Ram Kumar

  3. South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou, China

    Qing-Chao Chen

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  1. Li-Chun Tseng
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  2. Ram Kumar
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  3. Qing-Chao Chen
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  4. Jiang-Shiou Hwang
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Correspondence to Jiang-Shiou Hwang.

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

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Tseng, LC., Kumar, R., Chen, QC. et al. Summer distribution of Noctiluca scintillans and mesozooplankton in the Western and Southern East China Sea prior to the Three Gorges Dam operation. Hydrobiologia 666, 239–256 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0587-y

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