Document of bibliographic reference 392696

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Book/Monograph

Type of document

Dissertation

BibLvlCode

M

Title

Structure and functioning of zooplankton communities of the Canadian Northeast Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Understanding the underlying structure of ecosystems and the mechanisms of how they function are key goals in ecology. Structure is often defined by partitioning space into biogeographic units with distinct physical and ecological characteristics. Historically for ocean ecosystems, biogeographic regionalization has typically used environmental proxies rather than species distributions as data for the latter were often limited. With recent advances in data aggregation and accessibility of observations of the physical ocean, species distributions, and species traits, conducting data-driven synthesis is increasingly possible. This dissertation describes the spatial distribution of zooplankton community composition for the waters of the Canadian Northeast Pacific Ocean and what the variabilities in community composition mean in terms of the roles of zooplankton in ecosystem functioning. Decades of zooplankton community data were curated and regionalized to identify four bioregions (Offshore, Deep Shelf, Nearshore, and Deep Fjord bioregions) which were persistent despite sampling and taxonomic variability when combining heterogenous data sources. The changes in bottom depth, water properties, and phytoplankton concentrations along the cross-shelf gradient partly explained the variability of zooplankton density, taxonomic composition, and diversity between the bioregions. Association groups of co-occurring species (subarctic, subtropical, widespread shelf, neritic, fjord) were found to be indicative of specific core bioregions but had wider distributions reflecting the connectivity between bioregions. A global zooplankton trait database that includes seven phyla and a broad suite of morphological, biochemical, physiological, and behavioral traits was developed to complement the taxonomic analysis with a functional perspective. The database was also used to evaluate the state of zooplankton trait literature and the accuracy of trait value estimation approaches. The datasets were then synthesized to characterize and compare the bioregions according to functional diversity indices and the community-level trait totals. The species were categorized into eleven functional groups based on traits and the relative contribution of the functional groups to the average zooplankton density and community-level metabolic and feeding rates were found to vary between bioregions. Finally, this dissertation enumerates future directions in data-driven zooplankton bioregionalization, the expansion of the zooplankton trait database, and the advancement of zooplankton functional ecology.

Bibliographic citation

Pata, P.R. (2024). Structure and functioning of zooplankton communities of the Canadian Northeast Pacific Ocean. PhD Thesis. University of British Columbia: Vancouver. xv, 191 pp.

Topic

Marine

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true