TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental forcing and larval fish assemblage dynamics in the Lima River estuary (northwest Portugal)
AU - Ramos, Sandra
AU - Cowen, Robert K.
AU - Paris, Claire
AU - Ré, Pedro
AU - Bordalo, Adriano A.
N1 - Funding Information:
A PhD fellowship to Sandra Ramos (SFRH/BD/6968/ 2001) was awarded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). The Viana do Castelo Port Administration is thanked for supplying the research boat and crew used during the project. The authors thank all who participated in field surveys; special thanks to Joana Silva Santos for helping in data collection and to Mário C. Vieira for his expertise in estuary hydrodynamics. We are grateful to David Richardson, Kirsten Grorud and an anonymous reviewer for providing valuable comments to the improvement of the manuscript.
PY - 2006/3
Y1 - 2006/3
N2 - This study investigated the potential control of selected abiotic parameters on an estuarine larval fish assemblage from the Lima River. Surveys were done fortnightly during spring tides, from April 2002 until April 2004, at 11 stations distributed along the estuary from the mouth to 7 km upstream. The surveys consisted of subsurface plankton tows of 5-min duration using a 1-m diameter, 500-μm mesh net and coupled with vertical profile measurements of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH and turbidity. The Lima River estuary exhibited seasonal vertical stratification of salinity during the winter period, when salinity sharply increased with depth and a layer of fresh water was sometimes present at the surface. Temperature was always vertically stratified. Cooler water was typically found near the bottom of the water column, except during winter, when a thermal inversion occurred. A seasonal decrease in abundance and diversity of the larval assemblage was observed during winter, when fish larvae were almost absent from the plankton collections. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) results showed that the first axis represented a temporal gradient and the second axis represented a spatial gradient. Seasonal variations on temperature and precipitation were responsible for the temporal differences on the fish larval assemblages. This study reinforced the concept that interannual climate and hydrodynamic variations have a strong influence on estuarine ichthyoplankton and, consequently, on the recruitment of marine coastal fish populations.
AB - This study investigated the potential control of selected abiotic parameters on an estuarine larval fish assemblage from the Lima River. Surveys were done fortnightly during spring tides, from April 2002 until April 2004, at 11 stations distributed along the estuary from the mouth to 7 km upstream. The surveys consisted of subsurface plankton tows of 5-min duration using a 1-m diameter, 500-μm mesh net and coupled with vertical profile measurements of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH and turbidity. The Lima River estuary exhibited seasonal vertical stratification of salinity during the winter period, when salinity sharply increased with depth and a layer of fresh water was sometimes present at the surface. Temperature was always vertically stratified. Cooler water was typically found near the bottom of the water column, except during winter, when a thermal inversion occurred. A seasonal decrease in abundance and diversity of the larval assemblage was observed during winter, when fish larvae were almost absent from the plankton collections. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) results showed that the first axis represented a temporal gradient and the second axis represented a spatial gradient. Seasonal variations on temperature and precipitation were responsible for the temporal differences on the fish larval assemblages. This study reinforced the concept that interannual climate and hydrodynamic variations have a strong influence on estuarine ichthyoplankton and, consequently, on the recruitment of marine coastal fish populations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33645120870&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33645120870&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/plankt/fbi104
DO - 10.1093/plankt/fbi104
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33645120870
VL - 28
SP - 275
EP - 286
JO - Journal of Plankton Research
JF - Journal of Plankton Research
SN - 0142-7873
IS - 3
ER -