Download Ecological Analysis

CMarZ Overarching question
The Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ)
will address the overarching question:
“What are the patterns of zooplankton
biodiversity throughout the world ocean,
and how are they generated and
maintained?”
CMarZ Hypotheses
The hypotheses that will guide the design, development, and implementation of
CMarZ include:
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H1. Zooplankton biodiversity differs among biogeographical regimes and
provinces, and is related to ecosystem stability and productivity.
H2. Population genetic continuity among geographic regions is more
extensive for deep-sea species than for surface dwelling ones.
H3. Environmental heterogeneity increases the frequency of endemic and
cryptic species.
H4. High zooplankton biodiversity results in foodwebs with more complex
biotic relationships.
H5. Natural and anthropogenic changes are decreasing endemism and
significantly altering biogeographical distributions of marine zooplankton.
H6. Many zooplankton species occur at low abundances over broad
geographical distributions, crossing geological and oceanographic dispersal
barriers.
Taxonomic information is essential to
analysis of zooplankton (and ocean) ecology
• Community structure and energy flow are not
defined by biomass alone
• Species function differently and have different
effects on how ecosystems work
• Species are the units of adaptation – the
intersection of genome and environment
• Changes in species diversity signal changes in
environment
• Baseline biodiversity data needed to asses
effects of anthropogenic and global climate
change.
Functional importance of taxonomic
structure for marine ecosystems:
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Marine bioinvasions:
Global elemental cycles – carbon pump:
Food web efficiency and stability:
Pelagic speciation models:
Phylogenetic relationships:
Patterns of endemism:
Molecular clocks:
Management of marine ecosystems:
Indicators of ecosystem health:
Fisheries oceanography:
Ecological Analysis: Progress to Date
Majority of CMARZ related projects
presented here are ecological in nature
• Biodiversity relative to environment:
– Cruise to Sargasso Sea (Wiebe)
– Benguela current communities (Verheye)
– MAR-ECO (Melle)
– Japanese time-series (Sugisaki)
– Chinese coastal surveys (Sun)
Trophic structure or
Human interactions…..
– Black & Caspian Seas
(Kideys)
– Indonesian reef
communities (Cornils)
– Japanese time-series
• Adaptation to
seasonal changes…
– Antarctic zooplankton
life cycles (Schiel)
• Longer term
changes…
– Benguela current
– Japanese time-series
– Inner-space speciation
in Celebes Sea
(Madin)
Should CMARZ have a formal role
in ecological analysis?
• Are taxonomic goals enough?
• Should CMARZ broaden its role? How?