Robinson Kelly L, Sponaugle Su, Luo Jessica Y, Gleiber Miram R, Cowen Robert K
Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA.
Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.
Sci Adv. 2021 Nov 19;7(47):eabk2904. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abk2904.
Despite the ecological importance of microscale (0.01–1 meter) and fine-scale (1 to hundreds of meters) plankton patchiness, the dimensions and taxonomic identity of patches in the ocean are nearly unknown. We used underwater imaging to identify the position, horizontal length scale, and density of taxa-specific patches of 32 million organisms representing 36 taxa (200 micrometers to 20 centimeters) in the continental and oceanic environments of a subtropical, western boundary current. Patches were the most frequent in shallow, continental waters. For multiple taxa, patch count varied parabolically with background density. Taxa-specific patch length and organism size exhibited negative size scaling relationships. Organism size explained 21 to 30% of the variance in patch length. The dominant length scale was phylogenetically random and <100 meters for 64% of taxa. The predominance of micro- and fine-scale patches among a diverse suite of plankton suggests social and coactive processes may contribute to patch formation.
尽管微尺度（0.01 - 1米）和细尺度（1至数百米）浮游生物斑块在生态上具有重要意义，但海洋中斑块的尺寸和分类特征几乎无人知晓。我们利用水下成像技术，确定了亚热带西部边界流的大陆和海洋环境中代表36个分类群（200微米至20厘米）的3200万个生物体的分类群特异性斑块的位置、水平长度尺度和密度。斑块在浅海大陆水域最为常见。对于多个分类群，斑块数量随背景密度呈抛物线变化。分类群特异性斑块长度与生物体大小呈现负尺度缩放关系。生物体大小解释了斑块长度21%至30%的方差。主导长度尺度在系统发育上是随机的，64%的分类群小于100米。在各种各样的浮游生物中，微尺度和细尺度斑块占主导地位，这表明社会和共同作用过程可能有助于斑块的形成。
