Amazon river plume influence on planktonic decapods in the tropical Atlantic

Claudeilton Severino de Santana (1) , Simone Maria de Albuquerque Lira (1, 2) , Humberto L. Varona (3) , Sigrid Neumann-Leitão (1) , Moacyr Araujo (3, 4) , Ralf Schwamborn (1)

1 Laboratory of Zooplankton, Department of Oceanography, DOCEAN, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil.
2 Laboratory of Plankton Ecology, Department of Biology, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil.
3 Laboratory of Physical Oceanography, Department of Oceanography, DOCEAN, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil.
4 Brazilian Research Network on Global Climate Change, Rede CLIMA, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.

The western tropical Atlantic is strongly influenced by the Amazon, receiving the full discharge from the largest river basin of the world. In order to ascertain the coastal-oceanic gradient in abundance and composition of planktonic decapod communities along the Amazon River Plume (ARP) and its retroflection, 33 plankton samples were obtained along three sampling transects: Coastal and oceanic area influenced by the ARP (Coastal IARP and Ocean IARP, respectively), and oceanic waters without ARP influence (Ocean). A total of 13,117 specimens, belonging to 33 taxa, were analyzed. The distribution of planktonic decapod communities was strongly influenced by the Amazon discharge, showing the following patterns: (1) The coastal-oceanic gradients in decapod abundance are similar to other shelf areas of eastern South America, with higher abundance in the area under ARP influence, (2) meroplanktonic decapods dominate in coastal and some oceanic areas due to the offshore transport of coastal organisms along the ARP retroflection, and (3) the ARP is clearly responsible for the observed differences in community structure between the three transects. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of coastal and shelf environments as main sources of planktonic decapods for pelagic ecosystems in the tropical Atlantic during the period of strong North Brazil Current retroflection.

Mots clés: Decapod crustacean larvae; Mesoscale distribution; Amazon River-Ocean Continuum; North Brazilian Current retroflection; Western tropical Atlantic

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie; Océanographie

Claudeilton Severino de Santana, Simone Maria de Albuquerque Lira, Humberto L. Varona, Sigrid Neumann-Leitão, Moacyr Araujo, et al.. Amazon river plume influence on planktonic decapods in the tropical Atlantic. Journal of Marine Systems, 2020, 212, pp.103428. ⟨10.1016/j.jmarsys.2020.103428⟩. ⟨hal-03353372⟩