Case history and persistence of the non-indigenous diatom Coscinodiscus wailesii in the north-east Atlantic

The introduction of non-indigenous marine plankton species can have a considerable ecological and economic effect on regional systems. Their presence, however, can go unnoticed until they reach nuisance status and as a consequence few case histories exist containing information on their initial appearance and their spatio-temporal patterns. Here we report on the occurrence of the non-indigenous diatom Coscinodiscus wailesii in 1977 in the English Channel, its subsequent geographical spread into European shelf seas, and its persistence as a significant member of the diatom community in the north-east Atlantic from 1977-1995.

Continuous Plankton Records - Persistence In Time-Series And The Population-Dynamics Of Pseudocalanus-Elongatus And Acartia-Clausi

Rates of population increase in early spring and the sizes of overwintering stocks were calculated for the planktonic copepods Pseudocalanus elongatus and Acartia clausi for a set of areas covering the open waters of the north-east Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea for the period 1948 to 1979. For both species, the rates of population increase were higher in the open ocean than in the North Sea and appear to be related to temperature. The overwintering stocks in the North Sea were larger than those in the open ocean and are probably related to phytoplanton concentration. P. elongatus shows higher overwintering stocks and lower rates of population increase than A. clausi, resulting in different levels of persistence in the stocks of the two species. It is suggested that this difference in persistence is responsible for differences between the two species with respect to geographical distribution in summer and different patterns of year-to-year fluctuations in abundance.

Continuous Plankton Records - Persistence In Time-Series Of Annual Means Of Abundance Of Zooplankton

Time-series of annual means of abundance of zooplankton of the north-east Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, for the period 1948 to 1977, show considerable associations between successive years. The seasonal dynamics of the stocks appear to be consistent with at least a proportion of this being due to inherent persistence from year-to-year. Experiments with a simple model suggest that the observed properties of the time-series cannot be reproduced as a response to simple random forcing. The extent of trends and long wavelength variations can be simulated by introducing fairly extensive persistence into the perturbations, but this underestimates the extent of shorter wavelength variability in the observed time-series. The effect of persistence is to increase the proportion of trend and long wavelength variability in time-series of annual means, but stocks can respond to short wavelength perturbations provided these have a clearly defined frequency.