Evaluation of functional trait diversity for marine zooplankton communities in the Northeast subarctic Pacific Ocean

摘要: Functional trait diversity relates variation in the structure of biological communities to function and ecosystem processes. Zooplankton occupy a central position marine food webs, modulating energy availability higher trophic levels, while themselves affected by environmental variation. The use traits with functional potentially enables more mechanistic understanding regulation zooplankton than is possible taxonomic alone. Traits for 42 species from northeast subarctic Pacific were assembled literature applied 16-year time series oceanographic Line P. We on body size, ontogeny, habitat feeding behaviours. Six major groupings identified via trait-based cluster dendrogram. Several indices also calculated, compared analogous indices. Analogue significantly correlated. Both types revealed some year-specific “anomalies” which associated broad-scale climatic regime shifts. propose that approach may represent an additional ecological tool we can gain further linkages changing ocean, part because are often based easily measured morphological characters.