Spatio-temporal persistence of zooplankton communities in the Gulf of Alaska

Spatial structuring of mid-trophic level forage communities in the Gulf of Alaska (GoA) is poorly understood, even though it has clear implications for the health of fisheries and marine wildlife populations. Here, we test the hypothesis that summertime (May-August) mesozooplankton communities are spatially-persistent across years of varying ocean conditions, including during the marine heatwave of 2014-2016.  We use spatial ordinations and hierarchical clustering of Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) sampling over 17 years (2000-2016) to (1) characterize typical zooplankton communities in different regions of the GoA, and (2) investigate spatial structuring relative to variation in ocean temperatures and circulation. Five regional communities were identified, each representing distinct variation in the abundance of 18 primary zooplankton taxa: a distinct cluster of coastal taxa on the continental shelf north of Vancouver Island; a second cluster in the western GoA associated with stron...

阿拉斯加湾（Gulf of Alaska, GoA）中营养层饵料生物群落的空间结构目前仍不甚明晰，尽管其对渔业与海洋野生动物种群的健康具有明确的关联影响。本研究验证了下述假说：在包括2014-2016年海洋热浪在内的多种海洋环境条件年份中，夏季（5月至8月）的中型浮游动物（mesozooplankton）群落的空间分布格局在不同年份间具有持续性。我们通过对2000年至2016年共17年间的连续浮游生物记录仪（Continuous Plankton Recorder, CPR）采样数据开展空间排序与层次聚类分析，旨在实现两大研究目标：（1）解析阿拉斯加湾不同区域的典型浮游动物群落特征；（2）探究其空间结构与海洋温度及环流变化的相关性。本研究共识别出5个区域群落，每个群落均对应18个核心浮游动物类群的丰度分化特征：包括温哥华岛以北大陆架海域的沿岸类群专属集群；阿拉斯加湾西部与强……