Identification of plankton habitats in the North Sea

The definition of an ecological niche makes it possible to anticipate the responses of a species to changing environmental conditions. Broad tolerance limits and a paucity of readily observable niches in the pelagic zone make it difficult to anticipate responses of the plankton community related to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology and evolution Vol. 14; no. 10; pp. e70342 - n/a
Main Authors: Plonus, Rene‐Marcel, Floeter, Jens
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.10.2024
John Wiley and Sons Inc
Wiley
Subjects:
Algorithms
Anthropogenic factors
Automation
Chlorophyll
Climate change
Climate prediction
Clustering
Community Ecology
Dipoles
Ecological niches
Ecosystem Ecology
Environmental changes
Environmental conditions
habitat maps
Habitats
Hydrography
Machine learning
Machinery condition monitoring
Niches
North Sea
Observational learning
Offshore energy sources
Pelagic zone
Plankton
plankton distributions
plankton–habitat associations
Spatial Ecology
Trophic levels
Upwelling
Wind farms
Wind power
North Sea
plankton–habitat associations
North Sea
machine learning
plankton distributions
habitat maps
ISSN:2045-7758, 2045-7758
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The definition of an ecological niche makes it possible to anticipate the responses of a species to changing environmental conditions. Broad tolerance limits and a paucity of readily observable niches in the pelagic zone make it difficult to anticipate responses of the plankton community related to anthropogenic or environmental changes. Plankton distributions are closely linked to climate change and shape the seascape for higher trophic levels, so monitoring plankton distributions and defining ecological niches will help to understand and predict ecosystem responses. Here we apply a machine learning autoencoder and a density‐based clustering algorithm to high‐frequency datasets sampled with a ROTV Triaxus in the North Sea. The results indicate that in this highly dynamic environment, local hydrography prevents niche‐based separation of plankton species at the sub‐mesoscale, despite the availability of different habitats. Plankton patches were associated with naturally occurring frontal systems and anthropogenically induced upwelling‐downwelling dipoles in the vicinity of offshore wind farms (OWFs). The definition of pelagic habitats and ecological niches is a critical prerequisite for the successful management of the marine ecosystem. Here we propose a fully automatic method to monitor and quantify pelagic habitats in the southern North Sea based on physical and biological data alike.
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ISSN:2045-7758
2045-7758
DOI:10.1002/ece3.70342