The Eddy Jumbo and the Zooplankton Community

Generally, zooplankton organisms respond rapidly to environmental changes due to their short life cycles. Here, we analyzed the potential influence of the warm eddy Jumbo, released from the Loop Current, over the zooplankton structure of the western Gulf of Mexico. We hypothesized that the arrival of Jumbo in would result in a shift of the zooplankton composition. Through the analysis of three sampling periods (summer, fall, and winter) and seasonal variations of 14 zooplankton groups, we concluded that the zooplankton community follow their natural seasonal dynamics showing high resilience to eventual hydrographic phenomena, such as anticyclonic eddies.

Trajectories of the eddies Icarus (black circle) and Jumbo (red circle) between 2011-2013 in the Gulf of Mexico. Images taken and modified from an animation from the Copernicus (2024) website.

Read the full article, published by Zoological Studies, here

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