Spatial and community synchrony of copepods in the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey of the Western North Atlantic

The Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey is a long-term monitoring effort using consistent methodology since 1958. Monthly data is available from routes running across the Western North Atlantic and along the NE US Continental Shelf, through the NES-LTER. Populations of large (all individuals counted) and small (semi-quantitative counts by sub-sampling) copepods exhibit both seasonal and longer term fluctuations. Due to dispersal and oceanographic Moran effects, the copepod populations exhibit various time-and-timescale-specific spatially synchronous features identified by ‘wavelet’ analysis. Positive and negative associations between the fluctuations of different taxa can be investigated using the wavelet approach, with consequences for the community characteristics of the copepods. Spatially synchronized, ‘in-phase’ relationships between locations and between taxa are characteristic of the seasonal productivity cycle, driving changes in total copepod numbers and total biovolume which are important to the food value of the copepods. Proportional in-phase changes in abundance of different taxa produce no change in other community characteristics such as alpha diversity or community size-spectral coefficients. Spatially unsynchronized changes produce changes in beta diversity at the relevant timescale, while maintaining average population stability at large spatial scales. Spatially synchronized, negatively associated changes in populations of large and small copepods can cause widespread changes in alpha diversity, size-spectral coefficients, and mean size of copepods.

Presentation Preference: Oral

Primary Presenter: Lawrence Sheppard, Marine Biological Association (lawshe@mba.ac.uk)

Authors:

Lawrence Sheppard, Marine Biological Association UK  (lawshe@mba.ac.uk)

David Johns, Marine Biological Association UK  (djoh@mba.ac.uk)

Daniel Reuman, University of Kansas  (d294r143@ku.edu)

Rubao Ji, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute  (rji@whoi.edu)