A potential source of recruitment of Acartia pacifica nauplii: viable benthic resting eggs

Abstract

Many estuarine and coastal planktonic copepods depend on the hatching of benthic resting eggs for recruitment of nauplii to the water column population. The distribution and abundance of viable resting eggs of Acartia pacifica in the Xiamen Bay were determined by the presence of nauplii in the laboratory. The number of viable eggs varied temporally and spatially. The maximum number 9.2x10(4) m(-2) of viable eggs was in summer. In spring the average abundance of viable eggs was 5.6 x 10(4) m(-2). The abundances of viable eggs in fall and winter were similar, respectively 2.7x10(4) and 3.3x10(4)m(-2), which were the lowest in the year. The numbers of viable eggs inside the stations of the Xiamen Bay were higher than those outside the stations. The viable eggs were found at all depths (0 similar to 10 cm), although not in every station. The maximum number did not necessarily occur in the uppermost centimeter of the sediments but often occurred several centimeters below the water-sediment interface. The accumulation of viable eggs in the seabed of a subtropical bay constitutes a potential source of recruitment of nauplii into the pelagic population.