Seasonal Succession of Zooplankton Populations in Two Dissimilar Marine Embayments on the Oregon Coast
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ANABSTRACTOF THE THESIS OF STEVEN THOMAS ZIMMERMAN for the DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Name of student) (Degree) in OCEANOGRAPHY presented on ): (Major) (Date) TITLE: SEASONAL SUCCESSION OF ZOO PLANKTON POPULATIONS IN TWO DISSIMILAR MARINE EMBAYMENTS ON THE OREGON COAST Redacted for Privacy Abstract approved: H. F. Frolander Zooplankton tows and hydrographic observations were made in two bays on the Oregon coast.Five stations were sampled weekly in Yaquina Bay from May,1969through September,1970. Three stations were sampled weekly in Netarts Bay from October,1969 through January,1961. Zooplankton collections were made with a a Clarke-Bumpus sampler towed in a series of oblique steps. A#6 mesh (.239 mm aperature) net was used, A one year period from October,1969through September, 1970 was used to make a compar- ison of location and succession of zooplankton populations in the two bays. Yaquina Bay is a dredged estuary receiving seasonally high river flow. A salinity gradient is found year round from the mouth to the head end of the bay.During the winter, when rainfall is high, salinities at the head end are very low.Netarts Bay has no large river flow and salinities are never greatly decreased due to large tidal mixing.The flushing time of Netarts Bay is very short and tidal exchange is high throughout the bay,Yaquina Bay has a rela- tively longer flushing time and tidal exchange is not as high in the head end of the bay as in Netarts Bay. Because of these physical differences large indigenous popula- tions of the estuarine copepods Acartia tonsa, Acartia clausi, and Eurytemora americana were found in Yaquina Bay.Indigenous popu- lations made a much smaller contribution to Netarts Bay, and only Eurytemora americana developed a population which was apparently confined to the bay. Indigenous upstream populations of Acartia clausi and Acartia tonsa did not appear to mix with the more downstream populations in Yaquina Bay. A bimodal size distribution for each of these species was found with larger animals nearer the mouth of the bay.Both the upstream and downstream summer populations of A. clausi were very abundant.Both of these populations may have been derived from animals which overwinter in the mid-bay region.There was no large downstream population of A. tonsa during the summer, Other holoplanktonic species which did not develop indigenous, estuarine populations made similar contributions to both bays. Most abundant among these categories were Pseudocalanus minutus, Paracalanus parvus, Oithona similis, Acartia longiremis and barnacle larvae,Acartia clausi was the most abundant species in both bays. Meroplankton made a greater contribution to Netarts Bay than it did to Yaquina Bay. During the summer when upwelling caused higher food avail- ability animal numbers were very high in both bays.The bulk of these numbers were contributed by a small number of species and summer diversity was low.During the winter diversity increased as new species were carried into Oregon waters from the south by the Davidson current.Numbers of animals in all categories were low during the winter. Because wind patterns caused upwelling during the summer and a nortnerly flow of water during the winter, there was a succession observed in the species collected.Several animals were found almost exclusively during the warmer (summer) months. Among these were the copepods Centropages abdominalis, Acartia longiremis, Pseudo- calanus minutus, Eurytemora americana and the cladocerans Podon leukarti and Evadne nordmanni. Other animals such as the copepods Acartia danae, Corycaeus anglicus, Ctenocalanus vanus, and Clausocalanus sp. were found almost exclusively during the colder months. Seasonal Succession of Zooplankton Populations in Two Dissimilar Marine Embayments on the Oregon Coast by Steven Thomas Zimmerman A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 1972 APPROVED: Redacted for Privacy Professor of Oceanography in charge of major Redacted for Privacy Head of 'Department ofceanography Redacted for Privacy Dean of Graduate School Date thesis is presented Typed by Cheryl Curb and Opal Grossnicklaus for Steven Thomas Zimmerman DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT ERVIN A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS Someday, someone should give Joan Flynn an honorary degree for all of the work which she has produced in the cause of zooplank. ton science at Oregon State University. My debt to Joan, who has put in so many hours on this project, is a great one.And I must specifically thank the two scientists who most helped this work to take form: Dr. Herbert F. Frolander who patiently guided and aidedme in bringing it to fruition; and Dr. Charles B. Miller who not so pa- tiently, but generously, turned me into a more critical and sophisti- cated scientist. There are several others who unselfishly reducedmy labors. Foremost is Lewis Bowen who opened up his home and kitchen tome before and after I had done battle with the sea.Also to be mentioned are Derek Poone, flick Goche' and Chuck Glanzman who helped me in my collections and Ade Matson who worked for hours producing methods to reduce my data and never expected any favors in return. FinallyI wish to thank Dean Satterlee, Bob Ervin, Bruce Danby and Don Spriggs.I do not thank them so much for the help theygave me in the towing of Clarke-Bumpus nets, as for the wonderful times we had together doing science. Lastly, to those of you who are reading this in preparation to beginning research on Netarts Bay, you will come to realize how much we owe to Victor Swanson for making it possible. And did you think I would forget Helena? She is my wife, whose mark is one everything I now do better because of her. This thesis was supported in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (maintained by the U. S. Department of Commerce) Institutional Sea Grant 2, 35187. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 DESCRIPTION OF YAQUINA AND NETARTS BAYS 7 LOCATION OF SAMPLING STATIONS 16 METHODS 19 COMPARISON OF METHODS 25 EFFECT OF WEATHER 27 Winds 27 Precipitation 32 The Effect of Precipitation on the Salinity of Yaquina Bay 35 The Effect of Precipitation on the Salinity of Netarts Bay 36 Atmospheric Temperature 39 CLASSIFICATION OF THE BAYS 44 EXCHANGE RATIOS AND FLUSHING TIMES 46 STATISTICAL VARIABILITY 50 Subsampling 51 Replicate Tows 55 Tidal Heights and Daily Difference 55 Similarity of the Samples 59 GENERAL BIOLOGICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSiON 62 Species List 62 Diversity 64 Holoplankton- -Copepoda 70 Family Acartiidae 72 Family Calanidae 103 Family Paracalanidae 108 Family Pseudocalanidae 114 Family Centropagidae 133 Family Temoridae 127 Family Metriidae 137 TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont.) Page Family Oithonidae 137 Family Corycaeidae 144 Holoplankton - - Other 147 Marine Cladocera 147 Larvacea and Larval Ascidacea 1 5Z Me roplankton 153 Barnacle Nauplii and Cyprids 155 Crab Zoea and Megalopa 1 58 Pelecypod Veligers 160 Variations in Total Numbers 161 Contributions and Ranks of the Most Abundant Animals 165 Correlation of Indigenous Populations with Flushing and Tidal Exchange 169 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 172 Comparison of Netarts and Yaquina Bay Zooplankton Populations 172 Seasonal Indicator Species 178 BIBLIOGRAPHY 182 LIST 0 F FIGURES Figure Page 1. Index map showing the location of the area studied. 8 2. Map of Yaquina Bay showing the location of stations sampled.The first five (Bridge, Buoy 15, Buoy 21, Buoy 29, Buoy 39) were the most frequently sampled. 9 3. Map of Netarts Bay showing the location of the stations sampled (Baymouth, Mid Bay, Upperbay). 12 4. Processed wind data for Newport, Oregon from March through December, 1969.The mean for each month is the center point of each rectangle.Each rectangle represents the 95% confidence interval around the mean. 30 5. Processed wind data for Newport, Oregon for 1970. The mean for each month is the center point of each rectangle.Each rectangle represents the 95% confi- dence interval around the mean. 31 6. Daily rainfall data for Newport and Tillamook, Oregon. Data are concurrent with the period of zooplankton sampling in each bay (Newport, May, 1969September, 1970; Tillamook, October, 1969-December, 1970. 33 7. Weekly salinity values collected at five stations in Yaquina Bay from May, 1969 through September, 1970. 37 8. Weekly salinity values collected at three stations in Netarts Bay from October, 1969 through December, 1970. 38 9. Weekly water temperatures observed at five stations in Yaquina Bay from May, 1969 through September, 1970. 40 10. Weekly water temperatures observed at three stations in Netarts Bay from October, 1969 through December, 1970. 41 11. Diversity values for five stations in Yaquina Bay from May, 1969 through September, 1970. 67 Figure Page 12. Spatial distribution of four copepod specieson 30 July, 1969 from 1000 to 1600 hr.Stations were located from ten miles at sea to Buoy 39 in Yaquina Bay (From Frolander etaL, 1971), 74 1 3. Density of Acartia clausi at five stations in Yaquina Bay from May, 1969 through September, 1970, 77 14. Logarithmic plot of densities of Acartia clausi at five stations in Yaquina Bay from May, 1969 through September, 1970, 78 15. Mean (n1 5) cephalothorax length of Acartia clausi females taken from two stations in Yaquina Bay from March through September, 1970. 81 16. Density of Acartia clausi at three stations in Netarts Bay fromOctober, 1969 through February, 1971. 84 17. Density of Acartia tonsa at five stations in Yaquina Bay from May, 1969 through September, 1970. 89 18. Logarithmic plot of densities of Acartia tonsa at five stations in Yaquina Bay from May, 1969 through September, 1970, 90 19. Density of Acartia tonsa at three stations in Netarts Bay from October, 1969 through February, 1970. 96 20. Density of Acartia longiremis at five stations inYaquina Bay from May, 1969 through September, 1970.