Micro- and mesozooplankton in Southwest Greenland waters - Juni 1999, May and July 2000. Technical Report No. 53

Plankton samples and oceanographic data
were obtained during transect studies across
fishing banks over the West Greenland shelf
areas in June 1999, May, and July 2000. The
study investigates the distributions of species, stage, size, abundance and biomass of
micro- and mesozooplankton in relation to
hydrography, phyto- and protozooplankton.
The role of current transport for life cycles
of key plankton species is investigated using
an ocean circulation model for Greenland.
The role of micro- and mesozooplankton in
carbon cycling and fish production in the
pelagic food web over the southwest Greenland shelf are analyzed and related to findings from studies in other areas of the
North Atlantic.
Simple (or complex) food web models will
not be useful for assessments of the effects
of climate change on fish populations. More
promising ways towards predictions of
changes in fish production at higher trophic
levels under climate change seems to be development of coupled bio-physical models
of larval recruitment, hybrid recruitment
models, and studies of indicator species.
In the present study we identified the following research areas in particular relevant for
understanding species distributions, current
transport, and life cycles of the West Greenland micro-, meso- and meroplankton: 1)
better understanding of calanoid larval dormancy, 2) species identification (e.g. nauplii
of C. finmarchicus vs. C. glacialis) using
genetic identification, 3) vertical migrations,
and 4) trophic interactions.
The ocean circulation model developed for
Greenland will be useful for future research
in the coupling between climate, ocean circulation and ecosystem changes. It should
be further developed to treat baroclinic effects prognostic in order to describe oceanographic features like the dynamics of fronts
and upwelling/downwelling of different
watermasses.