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Temporal and spatial changes in the abundance and size structure of copepods in the southern Benguela : 1988 to 2000

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 24-26).

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sebhatu, Mussie G
Other Authors: Verheye, Hans M
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Oceanography 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Sebhatu, Mussie G
author2 Verheye, Hans M
author_browse Sebhatu, Mussie G
Verheye, Hans M
author_facet Verheye, Hans M
Sebhatu, Mussie G
author_sort Sebhatu, Mussie G
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references (leaves 24-26).
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/6503
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:56.154Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Oceanography
publisherStr Department of Oceanography
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/6503 Temporal and spatial changes in the abundance and size structure of copepods in the southern Benguela : 1988 to 2000 Sebhatu, Mussie G Verheye, Hans M Moloney, Coleen Applied Marine Science Includes bibliographical references (leaves 24-26). Copepod abundance data were collected during the annual pelagic fish spawner and recruit stock assessment surveys, in summer and winter from 1988 to 2000. These data were used to examine temporal and spatial variability in abundance and community structure of copepods in the southern Benguela, by estimating changes in abundance (No. mol) of individual species and size-classes. The relative abundance of Calanus agulhensis, Calanoides carinatus, Centropages brachiatus, Metridia lucens. Oithona spp., On cae a spp., copepod nauplii and other small copepods show that these taxa were important in driving total copepod abundance changes in the region. A general linear model (GLM) was used to help control for different factors that might affect interannual variability in copepod abundance: season, area, chlorophyll concentrations and sea surface temperature. The southern Benguela was divided into six sub-areas. Results of the GLMs show the largest abundances of copepods on the northern and central West Coast, fewer copepods on the central and eastern Agulhas Bank and fewest copepods on the south West Coast and western Agulhas Bank. Relative abundance time-series of four cope pod size-classes (cyclopoid copepods «900 μm total length (TL )), small calanoid copepods (900-1000 μm TL), medium calanoid copepods (1000-2000 μm TL) and large calanoid copepods (2000-5000 μm TL)) show that there was a possible change in control mechanism of copepods in 1996 from bottom-up to top-down. Moreover, in winter 1999 there was a unique event during which the abundance of various species showed a marked decline, but returned to normal levels in 2000. The time series of relative abundance showed reduced numbers of all four size-classes in 1992 1994. These findings indicate that factors affecting interannual variability of copepods are complex, but that, similar to previous findings, the southern Benguela system has not undergone a major change over the past two to three decades in terms of total copepod abundance in the different sub-areas. 2014-08-13T19:54:51Z 2014-08-13T19:54:51Z 2004 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6503 eng application/pdf Department of Oceanography Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Applied Marine Science
Sebhatu, Mussie G
Temporal and spatial changes in the abundance and size structure of copepods in the southern Benguela : 1988 to 2000
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Temporal and spatial changes in the abundance and size structure of copepods in the southern Benguela : 1988 to 2000
title_full Temporal and spatial changes in the abundance and size structure of copepods in the southern Benguela : 1988 to 2000
title_fullStr Temporal and spatial changes in the abundance and size structure of copepods in the southern Benguela : 1988 to 2000
title_full_unstemmed Temporal and spatial changes in the abundance and size structure of copepods in the southern Benguela : 1988 to 2000
title_short Temporal and spatial changes in the abundance and size structure of copepods in the southern Benguela : 1988 to 2000
title_sort temporal and spatial changes in the abundance and size structure of copepods in the southern benguela 1988 to 2000
topic Applied Marine Science
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6503
work_keys_str_mv AT sebhatumussieg temporalandspatialchangesintheabundanceandsizestructureofcopepodsinthesouthernbenguela1988to2000