Tintinnid diversity in the tropical West Pacific Ocean

Abstract

In order to investigate the tintinnid diversity, vertical distribution and latitudinal variation in the tropical West Pacific Ocean, water samples of different depths from surface to 200 m were collected along four transects. Totally 124 tintinnid species in 39 genera were detected. Most species preferred to live in the surface and subsurface waters. High tintinnid species richness, abundance and diversity index mainly occurred at depths slight shallower than the layer of deep chlorophyll maximum. Species richness, abundance and Shannon’s diversity index were significant positive correlation with temperature and chlorophyll a in vivo fluorescence, but significant negative correlation with salinity and depth. The correlations between most dominant species and environmental factors were not significant. Tintinnid diversity was extremely high in this area, species richness ranged from 25 to 52 at each station, Shannon’s diversity indexes were higher than 3 at most sampling positions from surface to 75 m. Proportions of redundant species were high, accounted for 87.90% of species pool and 60.38% of total abundance, indicating high capacity to response to changes in resource composition and predation pressures of tintinnid communities in the tropical West Pacific Ocean.