Distribution of dominant zooplankton species along a latitudinal gradient in China sea during spring

Dominant species of zooplankton community vary with latitude. Though China possesses a vast coastal area in northwestern Pacific, studies on the latitudinal dominant species gradient are rare. We collected zooplankton samples from Haizhou Bay (34.56°–35.19°N, 119.51°–120.30°E), Yueqing Bay (28.14°–28.38°N, 121.10°–121.21°E) and Dongshan Bay (23.65°–23.90°N, 117.45°–117.60°E) in May 2012 and May 2013 to preliminarily characterize the latitudinal dominant species distribution. All the samples were collected vertically using a 0.505 mm mesh plankton net with 0.8 m in mouth diameter from bottom to surface. Calanus sinicus, Aidanosagitta crassa, Labidocera euchaeta, Zonosagitta nagae, Acartia pacifica and Paracalanus parvus were found to be dominant. C. sinicus was the most dominant species and the unique one occurred in all three bays. With latitude decreasing, both the abundance and proportion of C. sinicus declined sharply. Cluster analysis showed that the 6 dominant species could be divided into 3 groups, based on their occurrences in the three bays. Our results suggested that the distribution of dominant species along the coast of China has a significant latitudinal gradient. C. sinicus which widely distributes in the coastal water of the northwestern Pacific can well adapt to the temperature at different latitudes. The high abundance in Haizhou Bay indicated that C. sinicus was an exemplary warm-temperate species, and more commonly occurs in the north of China seas. The ecological characteristics of dominant species change from warm-temperate type in high-latitudinal bays to warm water type in low-latitudinal bays.