Seasonal patterns in diversity and abundance of the high ant

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TitleSeasonal patterns in diversity and abundance of the high antarctic meroplankton: Plankton sampling using a Ross sea desalination plantAbstractThe Antarctic marine environment is thermally stable, yet shows pronounced seasonality in the light: dark cycle, primary productivity, and the extent of sea-ice cover. ThorsonÅ› Rule, predicting reduced meroplankton diversity at high latitudes, was based on the perceived difficulties in completing larval development at low temperatures and within the short summer period of phytoplankton production. Yet few studies have addressed seasonal patterns in Antarctic meroplankton diversity and abundance, especially in the High Antarctic. Here we circumvented logistical difficulties in conducting winter plankton sampling by using the 100-Î¼m primary filter on the desalination plant at Scott Base in McMurdo Sound, Ross Sea (77^circ51Åš), to sample embryos and larvae. Using samples from an entire calendar year we found no seasonal changes in either embryo or larval operational taxonomic unit (OTU) diversity with season, no seasonal changes in embryo abundance (5000 L -1), but a peak in larval abundance during the period of the summer phytoplankton bloom (maximum 295 larvae 5000 L -1). While some OTUs showed a strong seasonality, there was also a high diversity of both embryos and larvae during the autumn and winter, and some OTUs were present in the meroplankton year-round. Annelids, molluscs, and echinoderms were dominant members of the Ross Sea meroplankton, showing similar prevalence to that seen at Signy (60^circ43Åš) and Adelaide Islands (67^circ34.5Åš). The use of the desalination plant primary filter allows plankton samples to be collected year-round, even in the High Antarctic with permanent sea-ice and 4 months of 24-h darkness. â"' 2011, by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc.AcknowledgementsWe thank L. Sanson, D. Peterson, and K. Rigalsford (Antarctica New Zealand) for approving staff-time for the collection of the seasonal samples and logistic support; the Scott Base engineers, Peter Wederall and Mark Hay, for collecting the samples; the University of Auckland for research funding; and M. Hauber, K. Ruggiero, M. Anderson, A. Clarke, and two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments that improved the manuscript.

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1st AuthorSewell, M.AuthorSewell, M.Jury, J.Year2011JournalLimnology and OceanographyVolume56Number5Pages1667-1681DOI10.4319/lo.2011.56.5.1667URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/recor.....3c16f7772398cdae8f6c591e6Keywordsabundancealgal bloomdarkdesalinationdevelopmental stageechinodermfilterice coverlatitudelight effectlogisticslow temperaturemarine environmentmeroplanktonphytoplanktonprimary productionsamplingseasonal variationseasonalityspecies diversitytaxonomy, AntarcticaEast AntarcticaRoss IslandRoss SeaScott BaseSouthern Ocean, algaeAnnelidaEchinodermataMolluscaOtus, rank5

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TypeArticleCitationSewell, M. and Jury, J. (2011) Seasonal patterns in diversity and abundance of the high antarctic meroplankton: Plankton sampling using a Ross sea desalination plant. Limnology and Oceanography, 56(5): 1667-1681 doi:10.4319/lo.2011.56.5.1667 IdentifierSewell2011bRelevancerank5