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www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/5/4897/2008/
doi:10.5194/bgd-5-4897-2008
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Similar patterns of community organization characterize distinct groups of different trophic levels in the plankton of the NW Mediterranean Sea
1UPMC Univ Paris 6, UMR 7093, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer, Station Zoologique, B.P. 28, 06230 Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France
2CNRS, UMR 7093, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer, Station Zoologique, B.P. 28, 06230 Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France
3CNRS, UMR 7093, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry, Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer, Station Zoologique, B.P. 28, 06230 Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France
4Biology Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
Abstract. Planktonic populations were sampled over a 4 week period in the NW Mediterranean, at a site subject to little vertical advection during the Dynaproc 2 cruise in 2004. The characteristics of the phytoplankton, the tintinnid community and the zooplankton have recently been described (Lasternas et al., 2008; Dolan et al., 2009; Raybaud et al., 2008). Based on these studies we compared the characteristics of 3 well-circumscribed groups of different trophic levels: Ceratium of the phytoplankton, herbivorous tintinnids of the microzooplankton, and large (>500 μm) omnivorous and carnivorous copepods of the metazoan zooplankton. In all three groups, diversity as H' or species richness, was less variable than concentration of organisms. Plotting time against species accumulation, the curves approached plateau values for Ceratium spp, tintinnids and large copepods but only a small number of species were consistently present (core species) and these accounted for most of the populations. For Ceratium core species numbered 10, for tintinnids 11 species, and for large copepods, core species numbered 4 during the day and 16 at night. Ceratium, tintinnids and large copepods showed some similar patterns of community structure in terms of species abundance distributions. Ceratium species were distributed in a log-normal pattern. Tintinnid species showed a log-series distribution. Large copepods communities were highly dominated with night samples showed much higher abundances and greater species richness than day samples. However, species abundance distributions were similar between day and night and were mostly log-normal. The paradox of the plankton, describing phytoplankton communities as super-saturated with species, extends to the microzooplankton and zooplankton.
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Citation: Raybaud, V., Tunin-Ley, A., Ritchie, M. E., and Dolan, J. R.: Similar patterns of community organization characterize distinct groups of different trophic levels in the plankton of the NW Mediterranean Sea, Biogeosciences Discuss., 5, 4897-4917, doi:10.5194/bgd-5-4897-2008, 2008. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
