The Effect of the North Atlantic Subpolar Front as a Boundary in Pelagic Biogeography Decreases with Increasing Depth and Organism Size

Authors

Michael Vecchione, Smithsonian Institution
Tone Falkenhaug, Institute of Marine Research - His, Norway
Tracey Sutton, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
April Cook, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Astthor Gislason, Marine Research Institute - Reykjavik, Iceland
Hege Overbo Hansen, Institute of Marine Research - His, Norway
Mikko Heino, Institute of Marine Research and Hjort Centre for Marine Ecosystem Dynamics - Bergen, Norway; University of Bergen - Norway
Peter I. Miller, Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Uwe Piatkowski, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel - Germany
Filipe M. Porteiro, University of the Azores - Horta, Portugal
Henrik Soiland, Institute of Marine Research and Hjort Centre for Marine Ecosystem Dynamics - Bergen, Norway
Odd Aksel Bergstad, Institute of Marine Research - His, Norway

ORCID

0000-0002-5280-7071

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Progress in Oceanography

ISSN

0079-6611

Publication Date

11-2015

Abstract

Broad-scale patterns in the distribution of deep-sea pelagic species and communities are poorly known. An important question is whether biogeographic boundaries identified from surface features are important in the deep mesopelagic and bathypelagic. We present community analyses of discrete-depth samples of mesozooplankton and micronekton to full-ocean depth collected in the area where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is crossed by the Subpolar Front. The results show that the distributional discontinuity associated with the front, which is strong near the surface, decreases with increasing depth. Both the frontal separation near the surface and the community convergence at increasing depths were clearer for mesozooplankton than for micronekton.

DOI

10.1016/j.pocean.2015.08.006

Volume

138

Issue

Part A

First Page

105

Last Page

115

Comments

©2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Additional Comments

Census of Marine Life field project #: MAR-ECO 2001-2010; NERC Consortium grant #: ECOMAR; NSF grant #: OCE 0623551

NSUWorks Citation

Michael Vecchione, Tone Falkenhaug, Tracey Sutton, April Cook, Astthor Gislason, Hege Overbo Hansen, Mikko Heino, Peter I. Miller, Uwe Piatkowski, Filipe M. Porteiro, Henrik Soiland, and Odd Aksel Bergstad. 2015. The Effect of the North Atlantic Subpolar Front as a Boundary in Pelagic Biogeography Decreases with Increasing Depth and Organism Size .Progress in Oceanography , (Part A) : 105 -115. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/745.