[Submission]: Zooplankton Community Abundance Index PCA

[BBeltz1]

Primary Contact

[email protected]

Secondary Contact

No response

Data Name (This will be the displayed title in Catalog)

Zooplankton Community Abundance Index PCA

Indicator Name (as exists in ecodata)

New Indicator

Family (Which group is this indicator associated with?)

• Oceanographic
• Habitat
• Lower trophic levels
• Megafauna
• Social
• Economic

Data Description

These data represent a community level analysis of zooplankton abundance on the Shelf using a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of annual mean zooplankton abundance anomaly data. Included are the first two components of the PCA to be plotted as a time series.

Introduction to Indicator (Please explain your indicator)

This indicator represents a community level analysis the zooplankton abundance by EPU and suggests regime shifts and reorganization of the community as the PCA components cross the x-axis.

Key Results and Visualization

Plotted as a time series of PCA components 1 and 2, there appears to be a ~10-year periodicity in community structure and the most recent data suggest that the cycle including the past 10+ years may be coming to an end, which suggest a reorganization of the community. In the past, these reorganization events coincided with regime shifts in recruitment patterns and fish condition of commercially important species.

Implications

The data suggest a shift in zooplankton community structure may be occurring at the present, which can have implications for higher trophic levels as have been documented in the literature.

Spatial Scale

By EPU

Temporal Scale

Annual

Synthesis Theme

• Multiple System Drivers
• Regime Shifts
• Ecosystem Reorganization

Define Variables

Units and definitions are included in the data set under 'Units'

Indicator Category

• Published Methods
• Extensive analysis, not yet published
• Syntheses of published information
• Database pull
• Database pull with analysis
• Other

If other, please specify indicator category

No response

Data Contributors

Ryan Morse, Harvey Walsh

Point(s) of Contact

Ryan Morse ([email protected])

Affiliation

NEFSC

Public Availability

Source data are publicly available.

Accessibility and Constraints

Please email [email protected] for further information and queries of copepod staged abundance data