Factors determining the distribution and betadiversity of mesozooplankton species in shelf and coastal waters of the Bay of Biscay

Xabier Irigoien*, Guillem Chust, Jose Antonio Fernandes, Aitor Albaina, Lucia Zarauz

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this study, we analysed the factors explaining the distribution and betadiversity of mesozooplankton species in shelf and coastal areas in the Bay of Biscay. Nonparametric multiplicative regression models showed that for 35% of the 26 species analysed, the geographical position was the main factor explaining distribution. The variation partitioning results of the betadiversity analysis indicate that niche adaptation (12-25%) and dispersal limitation (14-15%) influence the distribution of mesozooplankton species equally. Therefore, most of the variance (57-66%) remains unexplained suggesting there are other explaining factors not controlled or that a part of the variability is purely stochastic. A log-normal distribution fitted the species rank-abundance better than Hubbells neutral model, which also indicates that the mesozooplankton distribution is not the result of pure neutral communities colonizing randomly from a large species pool. Overall, the combination of results suggests that mesozooplankton species have distribution centres that are often associated with geographical features, and from which they disperse randomly.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1182-1192
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Plankton Research
Volume33
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2011
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the project Ecoanchoa (FEP-Basque Country Government) and Malaspina (Consolider-Ingenio, 2010, CSD2008-00077).

Keywords

  • Bay of Biscay
  • betadiversity
  • habitat models
  • mesozooplankton

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Aquatic Science
  • Ecology

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