Zum Inhalt springen

Copepod Assemblages at the Base of Mangrove Food Webs during a Severe Drought

  • Carolina Coelho Campos
  • Hortência de Sousa Barroso
  • Genuario Belmonte
  • Sergio Rossi
  • Marcelo de Oliveira Soares
  • Tatiane Martins Garcia

Abstract

The effect of severe drought on the functional groups that sustain the base of the mangrove food webs in semi-arid areas is largely unknown. We therefore analyzed the intra-annual variation in the assemblages and functional groups of copepods in a shallow, low-inflow estuary of the Brazilian semi-arid coast when the most severe drought ever occurred. The lowest density was found in April (upstream region) and the highest in August (downstream region). Three main functional groups were identified, sorted by spawning strategy, and further subdivided according to feeding strategy, trophic regime, and diel vertical migration behavior. The community was significantly influenced by the extreme drought period, presenting a temporal homogenization in terms of composition, and an expressive and unexpected increase in density in the dry period, possibly due to phytoplankton blooms resistant to hypersalinity and the occurrence of copepod species adapted to stressful conditions. The few stress-tolerant species sustaining the food webs with seasonal variations were observed simplifying the trophic variability. The results indicate that hypersalinity can induce changes in the zooplankton community, increasing copepod mortality risk and, so, promoting alteration in the trophic estuarine dynamic.

Zitiere diese Aktivität

Campos C.C., Barroso H.d.S., Belmonte G., Rossi S., Soares M.d.O. and Garcia T.M. (2022) Copepod Assemblages at the Base of Mangrove Food Webs during a Severe Drought. Water 14(22): 3648. 10.3390/w14223648

Details

Forschungsschwerpunkte
Datum 12.11.2022
Journal Water
Issue 22
Volume 14
Seiten 3648
Open Access Open Access (open)
Open Access Status Open Access (open)
Eprints_link https://cris.leibniz-zmt.de/id/eprint/5055
Peer-Reviewed

Forschungs-Spektrum

Die Inhalte auf dieser Seite werden von den Autor:innen selbst gepflegt.