Ecology Project: Zooplankton - Copepod

Abstract
The impact of El Nino and Global Climate Change affects the growth and development
of most marine organisms in Southern California. The ecological niches of animals are altered
by the change of biotic and abiotic factors which are influenced by the consequences of the two
events. Zooplanktons (copepods) are one of the affected organisms which live in the ocean and
spread through a wide range of area. The influences are included their physiological system,
habitat, food sources, etc. In this paper, the impact of El Nino and Global Climate Change of
copepods will be discussed and compared. The factors of their fundamental niche will be listed
and went through a contrast between normal and abnormal conditions.

Introduction
Copepods, which are transparent microscopic organisms that are composed by rings
and segments. They are a group of zooplankton under the class Maxillopoda and the phylum
Arthropoda. They have a pair of antennae and their body size ranges from 1 to 2 millimeters.
There are about 13,000 species of copepods and most of them live in freshwater habitat. The
optimal temperature of their living environment is from 2 to 22 degree celsius. They are
transported by the strong water currents under the water as well as their own locomotions.
Their major diet includes a wide range of microorganisms, which include diatoms,
microplankton and other kinds of zooplankton. They are the primary consumers that consume
phytoplankton as one of their major in-take as well.
Copepods live in a coastal upwelling zone which is in a multigenerational system. The
life cycle of copepods depend on the temperature of water, food resources, and season of
upwelling. The more food resources and the more moderate temperature in water, the more
advantages copepods have. Since phytoplankton is one of the major food sources for copepods,
they prefer to live at the euphotic zone. There are also some species of copepods live in the
benthic zone (located at the bottom of ocean), and consume detritus in order to survive. The
life cycle of copepods are restricted on metabolic performance by the physiological system in
order to control their reproduction and life cycle (Conover, 1988). For example, temperature
change and availability of the food resources impacts the efficiency of copepods to reproduce
and grow. Due to these restrictions, Conover proposed that there are three life cycles evolved:
multi-generation, multi-year, and annual. These three life cycles indicate the habitat of
copepods in coastal environment, the population size, and the availability of food resources.
Upwelling season happens during June to December due to abundance of food
resources and moderate temperature. Coastal upwelling is a process in which the warmer
surface water is replaced by the colder water and nutrients from the deep. The upwelling
system has a large impact on the growth and development on phytoplankton and copepods.
Due to the Coriolis effect and Ekman transport, the system causes a wind-water interaction.
The Coriolis effect is the force that caused by the rotation of Earth which changes the

direction of a moving object when it rotates.Therefore, the wind and currents tend to flow to
the right in the North and left in the South of the equator.
Due to the friction at the surface of ocean, winds move the water as it blows across the
ocean. The direction and speed of moving water will change with depth. When surface ocean
water moves at the angle to the wind, the water below the surface will turns a bit. This makes a
spiral of moving water. The Ekman transport is a result of the net motion of the surface water
that is affected by the direction of wind, to bring on the surface water flow offshore. By the
surface waters moving away from the coast, it will be replaced by the colder water from the
deep. This upwelling system creates the uprise of nutrients and minerals to the upper portion of
ocean.
The supply of nutrient is one of the most important factor for the growth of
phytoplankton. With the light supply from the sun and the dissolved carbon dioxide, the
organic compound will be produced through the process of photosynthesis. The growth of
phytoplankton is the main food resources for copepods; however, copepods must spend the
entire day to feed themselves due to the process of diel vertical migration. Copepods move up
to the photic zone at night and return to the deeper water during day time. This behavior avoids
predators and UV damage during the day as well as conserving energy. Copepods are also
capable of ontogenetic vertical migration and seasonal vertical migration which are different
types of vertical migration. The copepods are found at different depths depend on seasonal and
spend different stages of their life cycle at different depths.
This upwelling system is a circulation patterns that involving offshore, onshore and
alongshore transport have enough regular structure on daily, seasonal and annual time scales
that organism may well have evolved mechanism that allow the maintenance of populations in
upwelling zones (Barber and Smith, 1981). This indicates that the copepods are dominating the
temperate coastal upwelling ecosystem. According to the multigenerational cycle, which was
described by Conover in 1988, there are three variation of life cycle of copepods. The variation
in the species of copepods are presented before the upwelling season, during the upwelling
season, and after the upwelling season. Before upwelling season indicates that awakening and
maturation events of copepods during when the population size is small. During the upwelling
season indicates the mating season of copepods which is when the population size is
increasing. Different species of copepods will have asexual reproduction that develop offspring
without fertilized or sexual reproduction that fertilized eggs hatches into a larva. Male
copepods detect, track, and capture female copepods so that they can impregnate the female.
Copepods need to go through 6 molts before becoming an adult. After the upwelling season,
they will begin as an end of the reproduction. As a result, copepods utilize the abundant food
resources of coastal upwelling systems to have an adaptation in order to transport into the
system to other regions since they have diel and ontogenetic vertical migration behaviors.

El Nino impacts

El Nino, also known as El Nino Southern Oscillation, refers to cycle of the unusual
warm and cold temperature on the surface of ocean water in the Pacific Ocean. It happens four
to five years on average period during winter due to the rise in surface pressure in Indian
Ocean. The air pressure goes to the central and eastern Pacific Ocean during fall season. The
trade winds head from west to east causing the rise of warm air. El Nino creates an effect on
replacing the cold water and nutrients on surface water. These reduce the occurrence of
upwelling. Also, the precipitation and amount of hurricanes will increase.
The spatial distribution of copepods is influenced by salinity, acidity, temperature,
dissolved oxygen, and benthic structure. Those are the abiotic factors. Biotic factors are
predator abundance and prey availability. This indicates that the migration behavior of
copepods have changed. In addition, this has increased competition for resources because
predators form dense aggregations during night time, decreasing on feeding rates, and lowering
population size.
The environmental conditions of copepods are very important. Seasonal variation and
distribution will be affected which leads to the change of mating season. The effect of El Nino
causes the temperature of surface ocean water to increase. This could reduce the copepod
production rate because of the unusual strong seasonal, environmental changes and the high
adaptability (Jeffries, 1962;Uye & Fleminger, 1976). Due to abnormal temperature and salinity,
copepods reproduce eggs before they migrate. This may affect their reproduction and the rate
of development.
The habitat distribution of copepod was assumed to be at coastal upwelling zone where
temperate climate supports their growth and reproduction. The sufficient supply of
phytoplankton acts as their food source in the euphotic zone which directly shines by the
sunlight. During El Nino, the declined intensity of upwelling reduces the uprise of nutrient
from the bottom of ocean which reduces the production of phytoplankton. As a result, during
the 1997 to 1998 El Nino, the nitrate concentration was 4.5 times lower compared to the
normal conditions, which diminished the nutrient levels for growing phytoplankton in the
photic zone (Peterson, Keister, and Feinberg, 2002). The limitation of food source was one of
the factors which determines the habitat of copepod species. Whereas the other factor affecting
its habitat distribution would be the invasion of warm water during El Nino.
Although nutrient levels in the ocean are lowered by the reduction of upwelling, nitrate
and ammonium are still the most important ingredients to support the growth of phytoplankton.
Rain storms that are brought by El Nino create massive floods and water from the terrestrial
land. During El Nino, flooding water on land would bring the chemicals that are dissolved in
soil to the ocean. Industrial fertilizers that are used by the human will also be flooded down in
the sea which will then increase the nitrate concentration and assist the growth of
phytoplankton. However, since the ammonium nitrate that contains in industrial fertilizer is
processed with special chemicals, it might not be suitable for all species of phytoplankton.
Therefore, it may not enhance the growth of diverse types of phytoplanktons.
Due to the reduction of upwelling during El Nino, warm water is pushed onshore with
warmer temperature and lower nutrient level. Although the total amount of copepods are

expected to be diminished during El Nino period, it did not show a significant difference on the
total number of copepods during the 1982-1983 El Nino.
During El Nino year, the amount of cold-water species were reduced, however, by the
replacement of warm-water species, the total number of copepods went back to its normal
range with the existence of more diverse species present in the ocean. The decline of upwelling
creates a settled habitat for the coastal zone species to survive and reproduce at a more constant
manner. As a result, 90 species were recorded during El Nino year 1982-1983 and only 77
species were notified during non-El Nino year 1984 (Hernndez-Trujillo, Sergio, and Eduardo,
2002). This implies that the reduction of diverse species was because of the addition and
displacement of new warm-water species. The high diversity portion during the El Nino period
was located at latitude 23N in Baja California and creates a diverse copepod community.
An El Nino cycle usually takes about four to five years followed by an one to two years
El Nino period. El Nino profoundly influences on the growth and development of copepods.
During El Nino year, cold-water species were mostly replaced by the abundant biomass of
subtropical copepods, which affected the habitat distribution of one species to another. The
decrease in intensity of upwelling is one of the factor which decreases the renewal of nutrient
levels in the photic zone , and hence reduces the production of phytoplankton and development
of copepods. The other factor would be the change in temperature of surface water which
induces the departure of cold-water species.
The departure of cold-water species and the arrival of subtropical species took about
one year to return back to normal population size. Take C. marshallae and P. mimus as
examples, both of them are cold-water copepod which used to live within the coastal areas. C.
marshallae population size turned back to normal during July 1998, and P. mimus turned back
to normal not until 1999 which was two years after the presence of El Nino (Peterson, Keister,
and Feinberg, 2002). The ecological system has returned to its initial sea surface temperature
during March 1998 and the first upwelling was recorded during May. The transitional condition
happened after the first upwelling when there was a presence of mixture of cold-water species
and subtropical species which happened during June 1998. At the same time, warm species
copepods were abundant until 1999. This indicates that El Nino affects the habitat and
community of both subtropical and cold-water copepod which take time to recover from the
effect of El Nino.

Global climate change impacts

Although El Nino happens every four to five years, the Earth is sick and steadily
deteriorating. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the
temperature on Earth has increased since 1880 due to the increased levels of greenhouse gases.
As the temperature increases, the ice melts rapidly which causes the sea level to rise. NASA
records that the salinity of ocean is rising which affects the currents. The density of saltier
water is heavier than the density of normal water. As a result, when the salty water freezes, the
ocean water remains constant. Instead, the ice is melting more rapidly and the salt mixes with

the water to become much saltier and heavier. Moreover, the ocean absorbs much more heat
and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which forces the marines have to either adapt or die.
Ocean animals, humans and other terrestrial animals, breathe in oxygen and give off carbon
dioxide. As a result, ocean absorbs much more carbon dioxide which makes the water becomes
more acidic.
The main cause of the global warming is human activity. The greenhouse effect refers
to sunlight passing through the atmosphere and warming up the Earths surface and the heat is
trapped and radiated back to the space. Some of the heat is absorbed by the greenhouse gases,
such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere and radiate back to the Earths surface, which warms
up the surface of the Earth. Greenhouse gases includes the water vapor, carbon dioxide from
natural and human activities, methane from natural and human activities, nitrous oxide from
soil cultivation, and chlorofluorocarbons from the industrial activities. Unfortunately, they
cause the long-term effects of global climate change, such as the rising temperature on Earth,
the patterns of the precipitation on sea and land. Some places will occur droughts and heat
waves, and the hurricanes will become more stronger and intense. Sea level will continue to
rise and ice melting will cause the rise in sea levels.
The effects of global climate change are threatening the biodiversity as well as the
marine ecosystems. It is because of the temperature affects the nutrient abundance and the
reproduction. Phytoplankton is the major food of copepods. As climate change causes the
patterns of precipitation and evaporation change, the rainfall causes runoff of nutrients from
soil to the ocean water. The nutrients from the soil is the fertilizer which contains nitrogen. The
excess of nitrogen helps to support the bacteria and some production of phytoplanktons. Also,
the increase of temperature causes the ocean water to absorb much more carbon dioxide, which
helps the growth of phytoplankton. However, copepods are very sensitive to temperature that
affects their physiological needs, reproduction, and distribution. Under cold, well-mixed and
turbulent conditions, surface waters are depleted with nutrients, the phytoplankton community
is dominated by centric diatoms, and the ratio of new production to total community
production is high (Richardson, 2008). The population size of the copepods are increased.
However, under warm, stratified and stable conditions, nutrients are reduced in surface water,
the phytoplankton community is dominated by picoplankton and flagellates, and
trophodynamics depend on recycled nitrogen (Richardson, 2008). This indicated that copepods
have insufficient food web due to nutrient enrichment and limited growth of phytoplankton.
Global warming has changed the life cycle of copepods. Some copepods that favor in
warm-water will move north where is in higher latitude. Other portion of copepods which favor
in cold-water will migrate to the south. Due to the change in temperature, their food web as
well as their seasonal activities (i.e. reproduction and migration in habitat) change . As the
population size of copepods increase, their survival rate become more stable; however, when
the temperature of ocean water becomes warmer, the time of reproduction in surface water will
be shorter, and the encounter between prey and predator reduce the number of copepods.
In addition, ocean water absorbs too much carbon dioxide and rises the acidity of ocean
water. The ocean acidification will affect copepods swimming and reproductive behaviors,

such as ability to detect, track and capture female copepods in order to mate successfully. This
indicates that the population size of copepods is majorly controlled by the climate change
rather than the effect of predation. Therefore, in order for copepods to survive, they are
required to alter their adaptation under the climate in different time range.

Comparison
There are various similarities and differences between El Nino and global climate
change. Recently, there is increasing attention to these two important events which highly
affect the marine system and human.The connection between El Nino and global climate
change can be linked by the increasing of water temperature.
El Nino reduces the intensity of upwelling which lowers the neutralization of cold
water from the bottom. It creates a condition which temperature increases on the sea surface
and affects the lifestyle of marine organisms. At the same time, global climate change induces
the effect of global warming which would also increase the temperature in the Earth as well as
the temperature in the sea water. Under the same condition, marine animals will either migrate
to cooler water or to change their living behavior.
The effect of global warming increases the content of carbon dioxide in the air which
will increase the dissolving rate of carbon dioxide in the ocean. When evaporation happens
normally during the day, seawater that contains carbon dioxide will also be evaporated and rain
down from the sky. The rainwater will have a lower pH than the normal rainfall and finally
become acid rain. Acid rain will high affect the ecologic system of marines. When comparing
this to El Nino, both of them would have the involvement of rainfall (especially there will have
excessive rainfall during El Nino). The rainwater that comes from El Nino is from the normal
evaporation of seawater which has no pollutants and extra amount of carbon dioxide. The
excessive amount of rainfall from El Nino will not directly affect the ecosystem of marine
organisms whereas the rainfall creates by global warming will affect deeply to the whole
ecosystem.
The effect of global climate change coincides with the impact of El Nino in an ongoing
perspective which affects the future distribution of the marines. If greenhouse effect becomes
more and more serious, the warmer the planet would be. The rise of content of carbon dioxide
in the air would increase which will then dissolve into the ocean water and decreasing the pH
in the ocean. Rainfall will happen due to the effect of El Nino and acid rain will happen
vigorously during each El Nino period. This will result in the disturbance of marine organisms,
and the impact of El Nino will be increasingly unpredictable and go without control. In order to
prevent the occurrence of the above horrible prediction, human should reduces the emission of
greenhouse gases as well as to reduce the consumption of energy which will produce harmful
pollutants that affect the surrounding. The effect of Global Climate Change is controllable
under the oversee of human activities whereas El Nino is uncontrollable due to the nature of
natural phenomenon. Human should increases the awareness on both events which create

various impacts on the ocean, and try to minimize the harmful effects that have done on
marines.

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