Size distribution of particles and zooplankton across the shelf-basin system in southeast Beaufort Sea: Combined results from an Underwater Vision Profiler and vertical net tows

Abstract

The size distribution and mean spatial trends of large particles (>100 μm, in equivalent spherical diameter, ESD) and mesozooplankton were investigated across the Mackenzie Shelf (southeast Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean) in July-August 2009. Our main objective was to combine results from an Underwater Vision Profiler 5 (UVP5) and traditional net tows (200 μm mesh size) to characterize the structural diversity and functioning of the Arctic shelf-basin ecosystem and to assess the large-scale correspondence between the two methodological approaches. The core dataset comprised 154 UVP5 profiles and 29 net tows conducted in the shelf (<100 m isobath), slope (100-1000 m) and basin (>1000 m) regions of the study area. The mean abundance of total particles and zooplankton in the upper water column (<75 m depth) declined exponentially with increasing distance from shore. Vertical and latitudinal patterns in total particle concentration followed those of chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration, with maximum values between 30 and 70 m depth. Based on the size-spectra derived from the UVP5 dataset, living organisms (0.1-10 mm ESD) accounted for an increasingly large proportion of total particle abundance (from 0.1 % to >50 %) when progressing offshore and as the ESD of particles was increasing. Both the UVP5 and net tows determined that copepods dominated the zooplankton community (∼78-94 % by numbers) and that appendicularians were generally the second most abundant group (∼1-11 %). The vertical distribution patterns of copepods and appendicularians indicated a close association between\mbox{primary} production and the main grazers. Manual taxonomic counts and ZooScan image analyses shed further light on the size-structure and composition of the copepod community-which was dominated at ∼95 % by a guild of 10 typical taxa. The size distributions of copepods, as evaluated with the 3 methods (manual counts, ZooScan and UVP5), showed consistent patterns co-varying in the same order of magnitude over the upper size range (>1 mm ESD). Copepods <1 mm were not well quantified by the UVP5, which estimated that only ∼13-25 % of the assemblage was composed of copepods <1 mm ESD compared with ∼77-89 % from the net tow estimates. However, the biovolume of copepods was overwhelmingly dominated (∼93-97 %) by copepods >1 mm ESD. Our results illustrate that the combination of traditional sampling methods and automated imaging techniques is a powerful approach that enabled us to conclude on the prevalence of a relatively high productivity regime and dominant herbivorous food web over the shelf when compared with the low-productive recycling system detected offshore. © 2012 Author(s).