Gulf and Caribbean Research

Alternate Title

The Seasonal Occurrence and Abundance of Chaetognatha in Mississippi Sound

Authors

Mohammed Saeed Mulkana, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory
Thomas D. McIlwain, Gulf Coast Research LaboratoryFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The Chaetognatha as “biological indicators’’ have attracted attention from various fields of oceanography and fisheries biology because various species of Chaetognatha are associated with different water masses, and their distribution and numerical abundance are used to infer biological productivity and movements of water with their inherent temperature, salinity, sediment load pH, and other variables (Legark and Zoppi 1961, Redfield 1950). The Chaetognatha populations, therefore, tend to fluctuate following the seasonal changes and the influx of water masses from different sources.

The present work is a study of seasonal changes in the numerical abundance of the Chaetognatha species during a yearly cycle in Mississippi Sound. A comparison is made with the seasonal abundance of calanoid copepods, an important zooplankton component, for a possible correlation.

First Page

264

Last Page

271

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.18785/grr.0402.10

Recommended Citation

Mulkana, M. S. and T. D. McIlwain. 1973. The Seasonal Occurrence and Abundance of Chaetognatha in Mississippi Sound. Gulf Research Reports 4 (2): 264-271.
Retrieved from https://aquila.usm.edu/gcr/vol4/iss2/10
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18785/grr.0402.10