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Vol. 63, 2024
(update: 2024.12.27)
Seasonal Variations of the
Zooplankton Community in the Western Gulf of Mexico: is there an
Influence of the Warm Eddy Jumbo?
Elia
Lemus-Santana1,* , Laura Sanvicente-Añorve2, and Miguel
Alatorre-Mendieta3
doi:10.6620/ZS.2024.63-57
1Posgrado
en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México. Av. Universidad 3000, Ciudad Universitaria Coyoacán, C.P.
04510, Mexico City, Mexico. *Correspondence: E-mail:
lesael@ciencias.unam.mx (Lemus-Santana)
2Laboratorio
de Ecología de Sistemas Pelágicos Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y
Limnología. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior
S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, C.P. 04510, Mexico City, Mexico. E-mail:
lesa@unam.mx (Sanvicente-Añorve)
3Laboratorio de
Oceanografía Física, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología.
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior S/N, Ciudad
Universitaria, C.P. 04510, Mexico City, Mexico. E-mail:
energiaoceano@gmail.com (Alatorre-Mendieta)
Received 14 December 2023 /
Accepted 27 November 2024 / Published 27 December 2024
Communicated by Ryuji Machida
In
the Gulf of Mexico, the Loop Current sporadically sheds warm
anticyclonic eddies that travel into the gulf and whose influence on
the zooplankton community of the western region is not known. This
research examined the zooplankton community dynamics in the western
Gulf of Mexico during three seasons: July 2010 (summer), January 2011
(winter), and October–November 2012 (fall), and the possible effect of
the warm eddy called Jumbo, released from the Loop Current in the
middle of 2012 and that approached the western side of the gulf at the
end of the year. We hypothesized shifts in the composition and/or
biomass of the zooplankton fauna collected during the fall period due
to the transport of organisms from elsewhere or because of a rapid
response of zooplankton to warmer environmental conditions. This could
result in a greater similarity of the fall season to the summer rather
than to the winter. Zooplankton samples were taken onboard the
oceanographic vessel Justo Sierra and a total of 82 oceanographic
stations were sampled with a Bongo net; at each sampling station,
temperature and salinity were measured with a CTD profiler. Both
environmental and zooplankton data were treated through a Principal
Coordinate Analysis (PCO) to explore their relationship. Fourteen
zooplankton groups were recognized in all three sampling periods, with
seasonal variations in biomass. The PCO showed that July was
characterized by high-temperature values (~27°C), low chlorophyll
concentration (< 1 mg/m3), the dominance of copepods,
chaetognaths, and luciferids, as well as high biomass values of
crustacean larvae (decapods stomatopods), signaling this season as the
reproductive period. January was characterized by higher chlorophyll
concentration (1–1.3 mg/m3), lower temperatures (18–22°C),
and a high biomass of amphipods, ostracods, and jellyfishes;
October–November registered similar environmental conditions to July,
but the PCO and the associated distance among centroids indicated that
the zooplankton community structure was more similar to January. The
occurrence of the 14 groups in all the seasons, reveals no shifts in
the composition in the study area. Besides, the similarity of the fall
to the winter in the zooplankton structure discarded the hypothesis.
Our results suggest that the zooplankton community follows its natural
seasonal dynamics and shows high resilience to eventual hydrographic
phenomena, such as anticyclonic eddies.
Key words: Anticyclonic eddies,
Temperature trend, Reproduction, Zooplankton resilience, Sea surface
temperature (SST)
Citation:
Lemus-Santana E, Sanvicente-Añorve L, Alatorre-Mendieta M. 2024.
Seasonal variations of the zooplankton community in the western Gulf of
Mexico: is there an influence of the warm eddy Jumbo? Zool Stud 63:57. doi:10.6620/ZS.2024.63-57.
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