Seasonal variation of the neustonic zooplankton community in southern waters of Korea

We investigated the seasonal variation of the neustonic zooplankton community in the surface layer (above 30 cm in depth) of 16 stations in southern waters of Korea from April 2002 to April 2003. In the neustonic community, copepods accounted for 59% of total organisms, as the most predominant group, while other dominant groups were invertebrate larvae, cladocerans, tunicates and fish eggs. Pontellid copepods, a major group of neustonic zooplankton, showed a marked seasonal variation and displayed a significant positive correlation with temperature (P < 0.05). Fish eggs appeared from spring to early summer in the inshore waters while tunicates and oceanic copepods (Eucalanus spp. and Euchaeta spp.) were dominant in the offshore waters during high temperature periods. This suggests that the distribution pattern of the neustonic zooplankton is seasonally affected by the hydrological conditions of in- and offshore waters. The abundance of zooplankton was higher in the surface layer (< 15 cm) than in the subsurface layer (15–30 cm), and was also higher at night than during the daytime. Of the dominant copepod families, the density of acartiid and pontellid copepods was higher in the surface layer than the subsurface layer. The density of acartiid and corycaeid copepods was significantly higher during daytime than nighttime. This indicates that the surface layer in temperate regions may provide a favorable habitat for neustonic copepods despite the dynamic environmental fluctuations.