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Spatiotemporal distribution of siphonophores in relation to hydrographical factors in the waters off southern Taiwan

This study aims to investigate temporal and spatial distribution in species compo-sition and abundance of siphonophore in relation to hydrographic variables in the wa-ters off southern Taiwan from January 2005 to October 2006. Zooplankton samples were taken from 200 m to the surface at nine sampling stations with Ocean Research Institute plankton net (1.6 m in opening diameter , 330 £gm in mesh size). In total, 72 zooplankton samples were collected and 58 species of siphonophores belonging to 7 families and 20 genera were found, with the mean abundance of 182.2 ¡Ó 38.3 ind./100m3. The six most dominant species were Chelophyes contorta, Bassia bassen-sis, Abylopsis eschscholtzi, A. tetragona, C. appendiculata and Eudoxoides mitra. Together they accounted for over 70.5 % of the total abundance of siphonophore. The species composition of dominant siphonophores were similar among seasons but their abundance were ranked different. The abundance, species number, and species diver-sity of siphonophores were higher in summer than in winter, but showed no signifi-cant difference among stations. Most species of siphonophores were dominated by sexual generation in the study area. The abundance of siphonophores showed signifi-cant positive correlation with temperature. Different predominant siphonophore spe-cies showed different correlationships with hydrographical factors. Only C. contorta and C. appendiulata were positively correlated with temperature, none of the other siphonophores species was significantly correlated with salinity. The abundance of siphonophore in general and most dominant species were positively correlated to zooplankton abundance, suggesting that food sources might be a key factor affecting the distribution patterns of siphonophore assemblages in the study area. Furthermore, the siphonophores found in this study mostly belong to the widespread oceanic spe-cies, and the composition of dominant species were similar to previous studies in the South China Sea.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0217111-153045
Date17 February 2011
CreatorsKang, Pin-ren
ContributorsKwee-siong Tew, Chang-tai Shih, Wen-tseng Lo
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0217111-153045
Rightscampus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive

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