Plankton Trophic Levels in

the North Atlantic

Oscar Hover
Scientific Background

Phytoplankton - primary producers

Zooplankton - secondary producers, graze on phytoplankton

Phytoplankton capture energy from the sun and produce organic molecules.

The carbon and energy are moved through the ocean ecosystem, often beginning with
consumption by zooplankton.

We can study the carbon transfer between these trophic levels by analyzing
phytoplankton and zooplankton abundances.
Question and Hypothesis

How does the ratio of zooplankton to phytoplankton abundance vary over space
in the surface ocean in the North Atlantic?

Hypothesis: The ratio will not change substantially over space and will remain
relatively constant.
Data

Data from Copernicus (European Union’s Earth observation system)

Phytoplankton data:

- Satellite data from MODIS of surface color gives chlorophyll α concentration

- Used as a proxy for phytoplankton concentration
- Vertically integrated over the euphotic zone using Vertically Generalized
Production Model (VGPM) to compute net primary production
- Dataset contains net primary productivity in mg/m^2 per day
http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/ocean.productivity/references/L&O%201997a.pdf
Data II

Zooplankton data:

- Compiled from COPEPOD data (net tows from many research cruises)
- Integrated over depth of 200 m
- Dataset contains zooplankton abundance in g/m^2

Limitations: Data sets are not perfectly lined up in time

- Many NaNs to deal with

- Info about sampling techniques was difficult to find
https://catalogue.marine.copernicus.eu/documents/QUID/CMEMS-GLO-QUID-001-033.pdf
Data Analysis

Data needed were all in one netCDF file available to download, so all the data were
imported as one xarray

Workaround to isolate variables: convert to dataframe, remove indices, remove columns,

assign indices

Isolated latitude, longitude, zooplankton abundance, and phytoplankton abundance into

separate flat numpy arrays for easier wrangling

Mapped zooplankton abundance and phytoplankton abundance separately using cartopy

(PlateCarree)
Data Analysis II

Created new variable, “ratio,” comparing primary production and zooplankton abundance

Mapped ratio

Performed linear regression on primary production and zooplankton data to measure

relationship

Is the relationship significant?

Ratio looked like it changed with latitude, so I split the data into two halves: Northern
North Atlantic and Southern North Atlantic (original r-squared value was around 0.23)
Results

R-squared values were about 0.28 and 0.48 (N and S) - better than total North Atlantic

Ratio changed drastically with latitude though it was fairly constant over longitude

More zooplankton compared to phytoplankton at higher latitudes

Conclusion: Carbon transfer through planktonic trophic levels is

faster/more efficient at higher latitudes in the North Atlantic.
Sources

Dataset https://data.marine.copernicus.eu/product/GLOBAL_MULTIYEAR_BGC_001_033/download

Paper on VGPM http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/ocean.productivity/references/L&O%201997a.pdf

More on VGPM and MODIS

https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/ocean-productivity-phytoplankton-size-estimates-satellit
e

Zooplankton validation framework

https://catalogue.marine.copernicus.eu/documents/QUID/CMEMS-GLO-QUID-001-033.pdf