Composición, distribución y abundancia relativa de copépodos pelágicos calanoideos y no calanoideos en aguas ecuatorianas durante el evento La Niña en septiembre de 2001

Abstract

El presente trabajo es una contribución para el conocimiento de la oceanografía biológica de la región ecuatorial tropical donde se manifiestan estas importantes perturbaciones climáticas.

The present study is based on the plankton samples collected in the cruise carried out by the Oceanographic Institute of the Equatorian Navy during september 2001. For this study 10 zooplankton samples was analyzed and corresponding to five coastal stations, located approximately in a transect between 81 W and from 1° N to 3°S. 8,208 organisms belonging to 23 families, 43 genus and 97 copepods species were identified. For each station was obtained the percentages of males and females, and the total average for the five stations too. Of the total of identified species 72.51% corresponded to females specimens and 27.49% to males specimens. The distribution of the copépodos species was associated to the conditions oceanographic that were presented during september of 2001. The copepods species of the south of the coast of the Ecuador, they were conformed mainly by species of cold waters, associated to a strong influence of the Humboldt Current that would have contributed to the displacement of characteristic species of cold waters, from the costs of Chile and Perú toward the costs of Ecuador. While in waters of intermediate temperatures, they were species conformed mainly by a transition fauna between cold waters of the south and the warm of the north. On relationship to the station more to the north, the copepods were conformed mainly by species of warm waters. This way, new expectations about the study of biological indicators in the oceanography one could wait, with the analysis and study of the climatic variability and their effect in the populations of the plankton in the ocean.