ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on December 13, 2007
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2008 65(3):462-468; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsm173
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This article appears in the following ICES Journal of Marine Science issue: 4th International Zooplankton Production Symposium: Human and Climate Forcing of Zooplankton Populations [View the issue table of contents]
Seasonal relationships between the copepod community and hydrographic conditions in the southern East China Sea
1 Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan
2 Fishery Research Institute, Keelung, Taiwan
Correspondence to M-A. Lee: tel:+886 2 24622192 5032; fax: +886 2 24634419; e-mail: malee{at}mail.ntou.edu.tw
Lan, Y-C., Lee, M-A., Chen, W-Y., Hsieh, F-J., Pan, J-Y., Liu, D-C., and Su, W-C. 2008. Seasonal relationships between the copepod community and hydrographic conditions in the southern East China Sea. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 462–468.We studied the relationship between seasonal variation of the copepod community and hydrographic conditions in the southern East China Sea (ECS). Hydrographic conditions in the southwestern ECS were influenced by the China Coastal Current (CCC) from late autumn to early spring and by the South China Sea Current (SCSC) during the rest of the year, and in the southeastern ECS by the Kuroshio Current (KC) year-round. We identified 141 species of copepods belonging to 54 genera and 27 families. Diversity and evenness of copepods were higher in waters influenced by the KC and the SCSC, and lower in waters with intrusion of the CCC. The CCC transported dominant copepods such as Paracalanus aculeatus, Paracalanus parvus, and Calanus sinicus into the southwestern ECS in late autumn and winter, whereas the SCSC carried Temora discaudata, Oncaea venusta, and P. aculeatus in spring, and Undinula vulgaris, T. discaudata, and P. aculeatus in summer. In the southeastern ECS, the KC brought in tropical copepods having clear seasonal variations throughout the year. We examined the relationships between indicator copepod species and currents and oceanographic conditions, using canonical correlation analysis.
Keywords: China Coastal Current, copepod, diversity, Kuroshio Current, South China Sea
Received 9 July 2007; accepted 28 October 2007; advance access publication 13 December 2007.