Science Advisory Report 2008/038
2007 State of the Ocean: Chemical and Biological Oceanographic Conditions in the Newfoundland and Labrador Region
Summary
- The inventories of nitrate, the principal limiting nutrient, which had remained relatively stable or decreased throughout much of the last eight years, have increased throughout much of the region.
- The abundance of phytoplankton at Station 27 is near the long term average and similar to levels measured in 2006. However, the magnitude of the change from 1999–2007 is not statistically significant nor was the variation reflected along the oceanographic transects where the timing of the surveys can influence our estimates of abundance.
- In 2007, the overall abundance of zooplankton at Station 27 was above the long term average in 10 of the 16 dominant species groups, including C. hyperboreus, Metridia spp. and euphausiids. This resulted in the second highest biomass of zooplankton recorded since the start of monitoring activities.
- The abundance of most large copepods species was at or near the long term mean on the Newfoundland shelf, although two cold water species on the Grand Banks (C. hyperboreus and C. glacialis) have shown a decrease since 2002-2003.
- Many of the small copepods on the Grand Banks reached their highest abundance levels since the start of the monitoring program, a pattern that was not echoed further North on the Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves where abundance was near or below normal.
- Although the overall abundance of carnivorous and omnivorous zooplankton was generally slightly below the long term average, we noted a trend of decreasing abundance since 2004-2005 in many species throughout much of the region. A similar trend was observed in many of the non-copepod herbivores. In addition to a general decrease in recent years, most taxa in this category were below the average long term abundance levels.
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