La Tour du Valat

Institut de recherche pour la conservation des zones humides méditerranéennes

Titre :	Temporal variation and patchiness of zooplankton around a restored oyster reef
Auteurs :	J. M. Harding, Auteur
Type de document :	Article
Dans :	Estuaries (24(3) JUN 2001)
Article en page(s) :	453-466
Résumé :	Zooplankton abundance and distribution patterns were determined for six seasonally important invertebrate taxa (bivalve veligers, gastropod veligers, polychaete larvae, barnacle nauplii, calanoid copepod adults and nauplii) and a diurnally important taxon (decapod zoea) around a restored oyster reef in the Piankatank River, Virginia. Data were collected on spatial scales of hundreds of meters and seasonal (May through October), diel (day-night), and tidal (3 h) temporal scales. Significant seasonal and diel patterns in abundance were observed for all taxa. Tidal-influences alone appear to be less important than seasonal and diel patterns for most taxa but the interaction of tidal and diel cues may have caused the observed diel zooplankton distribution patterns in both June and August 1996. Zooplankton taxa around the oyster reef were distributed non-randomly (patchily) regardless of their horizontal location with regard to the reef. Seasonal pulses in zooplankton abundance relate directly to life history patterns and reproductive cycles for individual taxa. Reef benthic fauna have the capacity to directly influence the composition and absolute abundance of the overlying zooplankton community and indirectly influence oyster reef community trophic dynamics.

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