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Thaliacean community responses to distinct thermohaline and circulation patterns in the Western Tropical South Atlantic Ocean

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Abstract

In western boundary current systems, strong currents transport oligotrophic oceanic waters towards the coast. Thaliaceans may have an advantage in these systems due their ability to filter small particles such as the bacterioplankton, typically responsible for the primary production in oligotrophic waters. Here, we evaluated the structure of the thaliacean community present in the tropical South Atlantic Ocean western boundary current system to test the hypothesis that species distribution and abundance are structured by the circulation and thermohaline features. For that purpose, we used data collected though 40 mm mesopelagic trawls above the slope and around oceanic seamounts and islands. Results reveal distinct patterns in the thaliacean community structure. Over the continental slope, under the influence of the strong North Brazilian Undercurrent, Pyrosoma atlanticum was highly abundant. Soestia zonaria was also present but in a lesser amount. Offshore, around oceanic islands and Seamounts under the influence of the central branch of South Equatorial Current, Doliolida spp. were the dominant thaliacean, co-occurring with P. atlanticum in lower abundance. Mesh selectivity is a potential drawback in these results since the coarse aperture may have lost smaller species and early life stages.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

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Funding

We are grateful to the French oceanographic fleet for funding the survey ABRAÇOS 1 and the officers, crew and scientific team of the R/V Antea for their contribution to the success of the operations. The present study was not possible without the support of all members from LABZOO and other laboratories from UFPE and UFRPE. We thank to CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) and CNPq (Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), which provided Research Scholarships to E.G.T., B.B.S. and S.N.L. This work is a contribution to the LMI TAPIOCA (www.tapioca.ird.fr), CAPES/COFECUB program (88881.142689/2017–01), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 projects PADDLE (Grant agreement No. 73427) and TRIATLAS (Grant agreement No. 817578).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MARBEC, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IFREMER, IRD, 34200, Sète, France

    Everton Giachini Tosetto & Arnaud Bertrand

  2. Institut de Recherche Pour Le Développement, 34200, Sète, France

    Everton Giachini Tosetto & Arnaud Bertrand

  3. Departamento de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, 50670-901, Brazil

    Everton Giachini Tosetto, Barbara Barkokébas Silva, Sigrid Neumann-Leitão & Arnaud Bertrand

  4. Instituto Socioambiental E Dos Recursos Hídricos, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Belém, PA, 66077-830, Brazil

    Xiomara Franchesca García Díaz

  5. Departamento de Pesca E Aquicultura, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, 52171-900, Brazil

    Arnaud Bertrand

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  1. Everton Giachini Tosetto
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Giachini Tosetto, E., Barkokébas Silva, B., Franchesca García Díaz, X. et al. Thaliacean community responses to distinct thermohaline and circulation patterns in the Western Tropical South Atlantic Ocean. Hydrobiologia 849, 4679–4692 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-05007-3

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