TY - JOUR AU - Pereda Femenías, Raúl Eduardo AU - Peréz, Daniel AU - Paredes, Felidor PY - 2021/09/24 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Ecological characterisation of planktonic communities in three western fjords of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field JF - Anales del Instituto de la Patagonia JA - AIP VL - 49 IS - SE - DO - 10.22352/AIP202149008 UR - https://analesdelinstitutodelapatagonia.cl/article/view/978 SP - AB - <p>This study presents the first data on the pelagic communities of the fjords Tempano, Bernardo, and Ofhidro, and contributes to the ecological knowledge of phyto- and zooplancton, which is of great importance to understand the cold-water coastal ecosystem occidental of patagonian ice field. Therefore, the objective of this study was to characterize the pelagic community (phytoplankton and zooplankton) by determining its taxonomic composition, relative abundance, biodiversity and distribution in three fjords within the patagonian ice field; fjords Tempano (48.72°S-74.04°W), Bernardo (48.57°S-73.93°W) and Ofhidro (48.40°S-73.84°W). In February 2020 an expedition was carried out on board the L/M AGÜILAF, and during this expedition 18 phytoplankton and 18 zooplankton samples were collected.</p><p>A total of 25 taxa of pelagic organisms, 13 phytoplankton species and 12 zooplankton taxa were recorded. In the phytoplankton samples, <em>Dinophysis</em> sp. was the most frequent species, being recorded in 83% of the samples. In the zooplankton samples, the most frequent holoplanktonic taxa was Copepoda, which was recorded in 72% of the total samples, and the most frequent meroplanktonic taxa was the larvae of barnacles (33%). The pelagic community of the Ofhidro fjord was characterized by the highest values of abundance and biodiversity in both phytoplankton (2,543 ± 1,603(SD) cell per town; 12 species expected) and zooplankton (367 ± 17 (SD) ind. per town; 12 taxa expected). These patterns may be organized by the presence of freshwater and ice discharges from glaciers present in some investigated fjords.</p> ER -