Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

CS10 Continental Shelf Processes: Benthos and Pelagos

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001, Time: 3:00:00 PM

Location: Aztec

Brown, H, , San Francisco State University, Department of Biology, San Francisco, CA, USA,

Bollens, S, M, San Francisco State University, Romberg Tiburon Center, Tiburon, CA, USA,

Madin, L, P, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Department of Biology, Woods Hole, MA, USA,

Horgan, E, , Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Department of Biology, Woods Hole, MA, USA,

THE EFFECTS OF WARM WATER INTRUSIONS ON THE MACROZOOPLANKTON AND MICRONEKTON OF GEORGES BANK

The Georges Bank/North West Atlantic GLOBEC (Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics) Program is designed to investigate the biological and physical processes that effect the distribution and abundance of key target species on and around the bank. A total of thirty Broad Scale Survey cruises were conducted between January-June, 1995-99, using a 10m2 MOCNESS with 3mm mesh to collect macrozooplankton and micronekton. A total of 465 stations were occupied, 1388 samples collected, and 1,367,458 organisms identified and enumerated. The most abundant organisms were Neomysis americana, Pleurobrachia pileus, Salpa spp, Themisto gaudichaudii, Meganyctiphanes norvegica and Aglantha digitale, abundances of all these taxa varied seasonally, interannually and geographically. However, only a few of these taxa covaried with mesoscale advective events such as slope water intrusions and warm core rings. Specifically, warm upper slope water or Gulf Stream warm core rings was seen to intrude onto the southern flank of the bank on three separate occasions - April 1995, May 1999 and June 1999 - and to effect Salpa spp., Phronima sp. and Neomysis americana. Both the direct and indirect effects of these warm water intrusions on the abundance and distribution of macrozooplankton and micronekton will be discussed.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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