Estimating the copepod biomass in the North West African upwelling system using a bi-frequency acoustic approach.

ABSTRACT: The Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) is one of the most productive Large Marine Ecosystems worldwide. Assessing the abundance, biomass and distribution of zooplankton in the southern part of this system, off the coast of West Africa, remains challenging due to limited sampling efforts and data availability. However, zooplankton is of primary importance for pelagic ecosystem functioning. We applied an inversion method with combined analysis of acoustic and biological data for copepod discrimination using a bi-frequency (38 and 120 kHz) approach. Large copepods with equivalent spherical radii > 0.5 mm were identified using differences in the mean volume backscattering strength (MVBS). Regarding abundance measured by net sampling, copepods strongly dominated the zooplankton commu

SUBMITTER: Diogoul N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11379317 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature