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JPR Advance Access published online on February 9, 2008
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbn017
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Scale patterns of diel distribution of the copepod Cyclops abyssorum in a regulated lake: the relative importance of physical and biological factors

Alessandro Ludovisi1, Chiara Todini, Piera Pandolfi and Maria Illuminata Taticchi

Dipartimento di Biologia Cellulare e Ambientale, Università di Perugia, Via Elce di Sotto, 06122 Perugia, Italy

1 Corresponding author: Dipartimento di Biologia Cellulare e Ambientale, Università di Perugia, Via Elce di Sotto, 06122 Perugia, Italy. Tel.: +39 75 5855707, Fax: +39 75 5855733, e-mail address: mistu{at}unipg.it; alessandro.ludovisi{at}gmail.com.

Received on October 31, 2007; revised on December 3, 2007; accepted on January 5, 2008


  Abstract

The relative importance of hydrological and biological factors in driving the diel distribution of the copepod Cyclops abyssorum from small to large scale is here evaluated in a lake where a complex hydrodynamics is at work and a clear environmental gradient is present. A set of statistical tools (which include the proposed "partial variance") are used for characterising the scale patterns of distribution and their daily trend. A day-night aggregation/dispersion process is observed at any of the spatial scales and directions considered. The value of the fractal dimension of the copepod distribution (D-horizontal =1.89) suggests that short-range effects prevail over long-range ones in affecting the overall complexity of distribution. The geostatistical analysis shows that individuals form isotropic swarm-like assemblages of a few meter diameter during daytime which relax during night. The cohesion among population members of different age and sex also shows a daily fluctuation, with separation distance increasing vertically during daytime and horizontally during night. The present study shows how visual predation affects the whole structure of patchiness and explains the diel spacing among population fractions, whereas food availability prevails over water transport in driving the copepod distribution at a large scale.

Key Words: zooplankton patchiness • multiscale analysis • biological-physical drivers • DVM • fractal dimension

Communicating Editor: RP Harris


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