Comparative analysis of mesozooplankton size fraction structure in bivalve aquaculture embayments in Atlantic and Pacific Canadian coastal regions
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Coastal embayments are dynamic ecosystems facing environmental and anthropogenic pressures, including bivalve aquaculture and climate change. Mesozooplankton, essential for transferring energy from primary producers to higher trophic levels, serve as indicators of habitat changes. Size structure is a critical trait that reflects local community dynamics, trophic interactions, and ecosystem conditions, offering insights into the functioning and resilience of aquatic environments. This study examines the spatio-temporal variation in mesozooplankton size structure across nine bivalve aquaculture embayments in Atlantic and Pacific Canada from 2020 to 2022. Using high-resolution imaging (FlowCam®) to measure individual zooplankton, we assessed the effects of location, tide, sampling day, season, and aquaculture pressure on the size distribution variation among and within bays. Results indicate that bays with similar size distributions tend to have larger mesozooplankton, while those with more variable distributions are dominated by medium-sized individuals. Significant associations between environmental factors and size variation were observed in four of eleven sampling events. Notably, St. Peters Bay, with the highest aquaculture pressure, showed significant variation associated with station location and sampling day. However, the tide effect was significant only in two sampling events. Seasonal analysis revealed that colder months generally exhibited larger median sizes, with some exceptions influenced by local conditions. Despite high levels of aquaculture pressure in some bays, no consistent association between aquaculture pressure and size variation was found, highlighting the influence of local environmental factors. This study underscores the importance of monitoring mesozooplankton size structure as a bioindicator for effective ecosystem management and targeted conservation strategies.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".