Mesopelagic Community off the North Western Portuguese Coast between 1998 and 2000

Antonina dos Santos; Alessandro Marraccini; Cláudia Afonso; Carla Correia; Maria Emília Cunha; Maria de Fátima Quintela

doi:10.15468/i88k14

Mesopelagic Community off the North Western Portuguese Coast between 1998 and 2000

Citation

dos Santos A, Marraccini A, Afonso C, Correia C, Cunha M E, Quintela M D F (2017). Mesopelagic Community off the North Western Portuguese Coast between 1998 and 2000. IPMA - Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera. Sampling event dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/i88k14 accessed via GBIF.org on 2019-10-05.

Description

The objective of this data collection was to study the structure of the mesopelagic ecosistem off the Northwestern Portuguese coast which is composed by planktonic and nectonics organisms. Mesopelagic organisms live during the day concentrating in big numbers in deeper depths while during the night migrates towards the upper layers. The data was collected aiming to study the composition and the Dynamics of the mesopelagic community and their trophic relations with the fish in the area. Data was collected with an Isaac-Kidd midwater trawl in May 1998 and 2000 and February 1999, together with environmental parameters as temperature, salinity, etc. The results showed a strong temporal variability of the abundance of the diferent taxonomic groups in study. The analysis of the results lead to the conclusion that, being the sampling locations and methods used were similar for the studied period, the big variability in the abundances and taxa have been found must be related mainly to the season of the year in which the sampling was performed (winter season for 1999 and late spring for 1998 and 2000).

Sampling Description

Study Extent

Sampling was done off the Northwest Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone in May of 1998 and 2000 and February 1999.

Sampling

Three oceanographic surveys were performed to collect samples with the IKMT net trawl (Isaacs-Kid Midwater Trawl) having on the inside a plankton net with a 500 μm mesh size. The determination of the sampling sites were done with the previous location of the DSL in depth determined with an EK-500 echo sounder and the position of the IKMT net trawl in the water column was monitored with a Furuno 24 kHz echo sounder.

Method steps

The collected samples were were preserved with 4% sodium borate-buffered formalin with sea water. In the laboratory the biomass of the collected samples in the campaigns was determined and the identification of all taxa present (except the Pteropoda) were identified. Whenever the number of individuals in the sample was greater than 500, it was fractionated with the aid of a Folson Plankton Spliter. The abundance was determined considering the number of individuals per 15 minutes of trawling.

Taxonomic Coverages

Animalia
rank: kingdom
Arthropoda
rank: phylum
Annelida
rank: phylum
Cnidaria
rank: phylum
Chaetognatha
rank: phylum
Malacostraca
rank: class
Euphausiacea
rank: order
Hexanauplia
rank: class
Copepoda
rank: subclass
Calanoida
rank: order
Cyclopoida
rank: order
Poecilostomatoida
rank: order
Decapoda
rank: order
Crustacea
rank: subphylum
Amphipoda
rank: order
Polychaeta
rank: class
Hydrozoa
rank: class
Siphonophorae
rank: superorder
Ostracoda
rank: class
Mysida
rank: order
Lophogastrida
rank: order
Cirripedia
rank: subclass
Isopoda
rank: order
Branchiopoda
rank: class
Diplostraca
rank: order
Cladocera
rank: infraorder
Sagittoidea
rank: class
Aphragmophora
rank: order
Thaliacea
rank: class
Dolioda
rank: order
Salpida
rank: order
Appendicularia
rank: class
Copelata
rank: order
Actinopterygii
rank: class
Stomiiformes
rank: order
Pisces
rank: superclass
Myctophiformes
rank: order
Anguiliformes
rank: order
Perciformes
rank: order

Geographic Coverages

Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone

Bibliographic Citations

Contacts

Antonina dos Santos
originator
position: Researcher
IPMA
Rua Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho, 6
Lisboa
1449-006
PT
email: antonina@ipma.pt

Alessandro Marraccini
originator
position: Research Assistant
IPMA
Rua Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho, 6
Lisboa
1449-006
PT

Cláudia Afonso
originator
position: Research Assistant
IPMA
Rua Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho, 6
Lisboa
1449-006
PT

Carla Correia
originator
position: Research Assistant
IPMA
Rua Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho, 6
Lisboa
PT

Maria Emília Cunha
originator
position: Researcher
IPMA

Maria de Fátima Quintela
originator
position: Technician
IPMA

Antonina dos Santos
metadata author
position: Researcher
IPMA
Rua Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho, 6
Lisboa
1449-006
PT
email: antonina@ipma.pt
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2238-9315

Alessandro Marraccini
metadata author
position: Research Assistant
IPMA

Antonina dos Santos
author
position: Researcher
IPMA
PT
email: antonina@ipma.pt
userId: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UjA6Xp0AAAAJ&hl=pt-PT

Antonina dos Santos
administrative point of contact
position: Researcher
IPMA
Rua Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho, 6
Lisboa
1449-006
PT
email: antonina@ipma.pt