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Diel vertical migration of Sagitta setosa as inferred acoustically in the Black Sea

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Abstract

Swimming trajectories of chaetognaths Sagitta setosa Müller in the Black Sea were studied using an echosounder operating at 120 and 200 kHz and an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) operating at 150 kHz. S. setosa were acoustically discriminated with respect to vertical migration and swimming speed, according to dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration and the timing of migrations. S. setosa formed a concentration layer thicker than Calanus euxinus did (1–3 m). The migration was completed in about 2.5–4 h, upward migration starting before C. euxinus and downward migration after C. euxinus. Adult Sagitta swam fast only in the well-oxygenated layer (subsurface maximum DO). The DO was found to be a significant (p<0.05) variable by partial correlation between the speed and hydrographical parameters. This feature constituted an oxygen-dependent influence on S. setosa’s vertical swimming and distinguished S. setosa from C. euxinus. Chaetognaths migrated daily between the nearsurface and the oxycline or the suboxic zone (OMZ, see Fig. 3b for the layers characterized by DO). Whether the deepest depth limit of migration was the oxycline or the OMZ depended on the relative abundance of adult and immature (young) individuals in the concentration layer. In July and September, individuals belonging to a new generation did not migrate but stayed in subsurface water day and night.

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Acknowledgements

This work was carried out within the NATO TU-Fisheries and Black Sea projects. The IMS-METU was funded by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK); by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO as part of the Science for Stability program; and by a project (METU-AFP-99-06-01-01) linked with other programs of TUBITAK/Turkey and NATO-SfP and a project funded by TUBITAK (YDABAG-100Y071). The hydrographical data were obtained from the Physical and Chemical Oceanography Department of the IMS-METU. I thank the crew of R.V. “Bilim” for assistance at sea. Dr. S. Besiktepe provided zooplankton data (April, September 1995 and June 1996; Besiktepe and Unsal 2000; Besiktepe 2001). I also thank Mr. V. Myroshnychenko for providing me with a PC program to extract echo intensity from ADCP data and Drs. Mark C. Benfield and Karen Fisher for their valuable comments and correction of English of the text. I am much indebted to anonymous referees for their constructive comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Institute of Marine Sciences, Middle East Technical University, POB 28, Erdemli, 33731, Mersin, Turkey

    Erhan Mutlu

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Correspondence to Erhan Mutlu.

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Communicated by O. Kinne, Oldendorf/Luhe

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Mutlu, E. Diel vertical migration of Sagitta setosa as inferred acoustically in the Black Sea. Mar Biol 149, 573–584 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-005-0221-0

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