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Vol. 51 No. 8, 2012
Seasonal Succession of Planktonic Copepods in Bight
Environments of Northeastern Taiwan
Chi
Chou1,2, Li-Chun Tseng3, Ching-Hsiewn Ou2,
Qing-Chao Chen4, and Jiang-Shiou Hwang3,*
1Department
of Pathology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Tamsui District, New Taipei
City 251, Taiwan
2Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries
Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 202, Taiwan
3Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean
University, Keelung 202, Taiwan
4South China Sea Institute of Oceanography, Academia
Sinica, Guangzhou 510301, China
Chi Chou, Li-Chun Tseng, Ching-Hsiewn Ou,
Qing-Chao Chen, and Jiang-Shiou Hwang (2012) The seasonality
and parameters of ocean waters have a significant influence on
planktonic copepod species richness and diversity in various marine
environments near and surrounding Taiwan. We conducted 6 sampling
cruises in the bights of Shen-Aou Bay and Fan-Zai-Aou Bay to
investigate seasonal variations in copepod communities in northeastern
Taiwan from Oct. 2007 to Jan. 2009. The sample included 76
species of copepods belonging to 4 orders, 22 families, and 36 genera
identified in these 2 bays in northeastern Taiwan. The most
abundant species were Temora
turbinata (with a relative abundance (RA) of 29.34%), Paracalanus parvus (of 21.98%), Canthocalanus pauper (of 7.86%), Calanus sinicus (of 4.00%), and Acrocalanus gracilis (of
3.93%). A cluster analysis showed that the copepod communities of
northeastern Taiwan fluctuated with season during the study
period. Calanus sinicus showed a significant negative correlation
with seawater temperature (r =
-0.434, p = 0.008) and was
abundant during the period when the China Coastal Current intruded into
northeastern Taiwan, indicating that it is a temperate species.
In contrast, the abundances of 7 copepod species (Acr. monachus, T. discaudata, Macrosetella gracilis, Corycaeus (Corycaeus) speciosus, Cor. (Farranula) concinna, Oncaea media, and Copilia mirabilis) showed significant
positive correlations with seawater temperature, indicating that they
are subtropical and tropical species. Copepod species, the
community structure, and assemblages were distinguished by seasonality
based on seawater temperature. Results suggest that the
planktonic copepod communities in these 2 bays of northeastern Taiwan
are primarily influenced by water temperatures, with seasonal
succession determined by ingress of the China Coastal Current and
Kuroshio Branch Current.
Key words: Copepod, Habitat diversity, East
China Sea, China Coastal Current, Kuroshio Branch Current.
*Correspondence: Tel: 886-935289642. Fax:
886-2-24629464. E-mail:jshwang@mail.ntou.edu.tw
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