Contrasting currents drive geographic variability in the biomass of Pacific saury (Cololabis saira), zooplankton, and phytoplankton in the northwestern Pacific

Wei, Yuqiu; Cui, Zhengguo; Shi, Yaohui; Shan, Xiujuan; Chen, Bingzhang; Qu, Kun; Xin, Quandong; Jiang, Tao; Chen, Jufa

doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2023.103099

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 77 publications

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“…By definition, plankton drift with currents [7], and their communities show high spatiotemporal variability owing to the tight interplay between environmental factors and water transport [8,9]. On the one side, local physicochemical conditions select for plankton organisms with different physiology, biological cycles and feeding behaviours [9,10]; on the other side, ocean currents can reciprocally segregate or mix different water masses with distinct physicochemical properties which plankton can benefit from, or not [8,9,11]. This variability quickly scales up to fish communities [10,12], whose distribution in space and time is shaped by both evolutionary and ecological factors, from spawning timing and migratory abilities to salinity tolerance and food preferences [13][14][15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal changes of pelagic food webs investigated by environmental DNA metabarcoding and connectivity analysis

Bellardini,

Russo,

Di Tuccio

et al. 2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Environmental DNA metabarcoding (eDNA metaB) is fundamental for monitoring marine biodiversity and its spread in coastal ecosystems. We applied eDNA metaB to seawater samples to investigate the spatiotemporal variability of plankton and small pelagic fish, comparing sites with different environmental conditions across a coast-to-offshore gradient at river mouths along the Campania coast (Italy) over 2 years (2020–2021). We found a marked seasonality in the planktonic community at the regional scale, likely owing to the hydrodynamic connection among sampling sites, which was derived from numerical simulations. Nonetheless, spatial variability among plankton communities was detected during summer. Overall, slight changes in plankton and fish composition resulted in the potential reorganization of the pelagic food web at the local scale. This work supports the utility of eDNA metaB in combination with hydrodynamic modelling to study marine biodiversity in the water column of coastal systems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Connected interactions: enriching food web research by spatial and social interactions’.

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