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Impact of Climate Change on Estuarine Zooplankton: Surface Water Warming in Long Island Sound Is Associated with Changes in Copepod Size and Community Structure

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Abstract

In coastal ecosystems with decades of eutrophication and other anthropogenic stressors, the impact of climate change on planktonic communities can be difficult to detect. A time series of monthly water temperatures in the Central Basin of Long Island Sound (LIS) from the late 1940s until 2012 indicates a warming rate of 0.03 °C year−1. Relative to the early 1950s, there has been a concurrent decrease in the mean size of the dominant copepod species Acartia tonsa and Acartia hudsonica, an increase in the proportion of the small copepod Oithona sp., and the disappearance of the two largest-sized copepod genera from the 1950s. These changes are consistent with predictions of the impact of climate change on aquatic ectotherms. This suggests that even in eutrophic systems where food is not limiting, a continued increase in temperature could result in a smaller-sized copepod community. Since copepods dominate the zooplankton, which in turn link primary producers and upper trophic levels, a reduction in mean size could alter food web connectivity, decreasing the efficiency of trophic transfer between phytoplankton and endemic larval fish.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the NMFS/NOAA Milford Laboratory for providing the temperature data. We thank Matthew Lyman and Katie O’Brien-Clayton of the CTDEEP for their assistance in collecting zooplankton samples. We thank the captains of the R/V John Dempsey and R/V Patricia Lynn, Rodney Randall and Kurt Gotschall, as well as the captain of R/V Victor Loosanoff, Robert Alix, and his crewmate, Werner Schreiner. For assistance with statistical analysis, Professor Jeff Bird of Queens College and Professor Stephen Baines of SUNY Stony Brook were invaluable. We thank Lydia Norton, University of Connecticut, for the assistance in sizing copepods. Lastly, we would like to thank the thesis committee members of the first author, Professor John Waldman, Professor Greg O’Mullan, Professor John Marra, and especially Dr. Julie Rose, for their patience and insightful comments. Analysis of the zooplankton samples by Dam and McManus and of copepod sizes for the years 2010–2011 was funded by a contract with the CTDEEP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, NY, 11367, USA

    Edward Rice & Gillian Stewart

  2. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, 1080 Shennecossett Road, Groton, CT, 06340, USA

    Hans G. Dam

  3. Earth and Environmental Sciences, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Edward Rice & Gillian Stewart

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  1. Edward Rice
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Correspondence to Gillian Stewart.

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Communicated by Darcy Lonsdale

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Rice, E., Dam, H.G. & Stewart, G. Impact of Climate Change on Estuarine Zooplankton: Surface Water Warming in Long Island Sound Is Associated with Changes in Copepod Size and Community Structure. Estuaries and Coasts 38, 13–23 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-014-9770-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-014-9770-0

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