Latitudinal and archipelago effect on the composition, distribution, and abundance of zooplanktonic organisms in the Gulf of California

Abstract

The upper Gulf of California is one of the most energetic regions owing to its tidal range and strong tidal currents, making the upper gulf and the archipelago zone highly turbulent regions; the abundance of zooplankton should be associated with mixing phenomena. We aimed to determine the latitudinal distribution of zooplanktonic organisms in this region and the influence of the islands on their distribution and abundance using historical data. Distribution of abundance followed the current patterns, the archipelago influences abundance favorably but does not affect diversity. Latitudinal zooplankton richness had a quasi-parabolic shape. A decrease in richness was observed at 27.5°N, in the archipelago region, with maximum richness at 26.5°N and 28.5°N. The distribution of latitudinal ranges is consistent with geometric constraints models; taxa with wide ranges are in the central area, while those with narrow ranges are near the boundaries and the Upper Gulf. Zooplankton responds in some way to the existence of the southern boundary as shown by the decrease of richness in this region. At the whole scale of the Gulf, the distribution of richness followed geometric constraints model, while at smaller scales, distribution and abundance are conditioned by the hydrodynamics of the Gulf. We compared zooplankton spatial distribution with Sea Level Anomaly, Sea Surface Temperature, and Chlorophyll-a concentrations from Copernicus to establish relationships between these factors. We performed Cluster and Redundancy Analysis to characterize similarities between stations in terms of biomass and taxon composition and to assess the importance of environmental variables on the distribution of zooplankton.