Climate-induced hydrography change favours small-bodied zooplankton in a coastal ecosystem

• Published in: Hydrobiologia Vol. 792; no. 1; pp. 83 - 96
• Main Authors: Mäkinen, K., Vuorinen, I., Hänninen, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-05-2017; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Archipelagoes; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Climate change; Coastal ecosystems; Coastal zone; Coasts; Copepoda; Ecology; Environmental monitoring; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Hydrography; Hydrology; Life Sciences; Marine ecosystems; Ocean temperature; Plankton; Primary Research Paper; Salinity; Surface temperature; Surface water; Taxa; Water temperature; Zoology; Zooplankton; ANE, Baltic Sea; Temperature; Zooplankton; Baltic Sea; Time series; Salinity
• ISSN: 0018-8158; 1573-5117
• DOI: 10.1007/s10750-016-3046-6

In the Baltic Sea, the climate change is expected to reduce salinity and increase temperature, and shift mesozooplankton communities towards dominance of small-bodied brackish-water taxa and cause a decline in large-bodied marine taxa. In this article, we analyse environmental monitoring data, collected in a coastal area in the northern Baltic Archipelago Sea during May–September, over the period of 1967–2013, for trends and relationship between mesozooplankton biomass anomalies, salinity and temperature. During the study period, the surface water temperature increased and salinity decreased. Since the mid-1980s, the community was dominated by small-bodied brackish-water taxa, whereas large-bodied calanoid copepods and marine taxa were mostly scarce or absent from the samples. The observed decline of marine taxa was related to the decline in salinity and, to some extent, to the increase of temperature. The brackish-water taxa were, for the most part, positively influenced by the temperature increase, although possibly other direct or indirect factors, not considered in this study, were also influencing the dynamics. This study adds to the existing knowledge of a possible ongoing shift in the food web structure towards smaller-sized species and emphasizes the significance of long-term environmental monitoring in understanding the dynamics in plankton communities.