Summer zooplankton distribution in a Georgia Estuary

✍ Scribed by R. R. Stickney; S. C. Knowles

• Book ID: 104752149
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 740 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-3162
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00390719

✦ Synopsis

Zooplankton were collected with Van Dorn bottles at two estuarine stations near Savannah, Georgia, USA, during summer, 1974, from the surface, 2 m, 4 m, and at the bottom of the water column at 2-h intervals for 11 days. Acartia tonsa occurred at the surface at night and during high and rising tides in higher concentrations than at the same depth during daylight and other tide stages. The highest bottom concentrations of this calanoid copepod occurred at high tide. A negative phototaxic response was also apparent in this species. While not quantitatively sampled by Van Dorn bottles, harpacticoid copepods and Pseudodiaptomus coronatus were distributed in a manner similar to that of A. tonsa. Copepod nauplii, on the other hand, were always more abundant at the surface than at the bottom, with the highest concentration occurring during low tide. The distribution pattern of nauplii appears to be a function of dilution and concentration by tidally induced changes in water volume, whereas more advanced copepod stages follow a complexly controlled distribution pattern linked with tidal mixing dynamics as outlined in a previous study by Jacobs (1968) .