This study was carried out within the framework of projects DOSMARES (ref. CTM2012-2180-CO3-02) and SCAPA (ref. CTM2013-45089) from the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spanish Government. S. Romero-Romero was supported by a FPU fellowship (ref. 12/00851) from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports
This research was funded by the project Malaspina 2010 Circumnavigation Expedition (Consolider-Ingenio 2010, CSD2008-00077) and cofounded by the Basque Government (Department Deputy of Agriculture, Fishing and Food Policy). We thank Simon Benoit for technical assistance in "Marmap", Maximino Delgado for phytoplankton identification, Angel Borja for useful comments, and the crew of R/V Hesperides and all participants in the Malaspina Expedition for their help and contributions. E.V. was supported by a PhD Scholarship granted by the Inaki Goenaga-Technology Centres Foundation. This is contribution 835 from AZTI Marine Research Division. ; Villarino, E., Watson, J.R., Jönsson, B., Gasol, J.M., Salazar, G., Acinas, S.G., Estrada, M., Massana, R., Logares, R., Giner, C.R., Pernice, M.C., Olivar, M.P., Citores, L., Corell, J., Rodríguez-Ezpeleta, N., Acuña, J.L., Molina-Ramírez, A., González-Gordillo, J.I., Cózar, A., Martí, E., Cuesta, J.A., Agustí, S., Fraile-Nuez, E., Duarte, C.M., Irigoien, X., Chust, G.
Global patterns of planktonic diversity are mainly determined by the dispersal of propagules with ocean currents. However, the role that abundance and body size play in determining spatial patterns of diversity remains unclear. Here we analyse spatial community structure - β-diversity - for several planktonic and nektonic organisms from prokaryotes to small mesopelagic fishes collected during the Malaspina 2010 Expedition. β-diversity was compared to surface ocean transit times derived from a global circulation model, revealing a significant negative relationship that is stronger than environmental differences. Estimated dispersal scales for different groups show a negative correlation with body size, where less abundant large-bodied communities have significantly shorter dispersal scales and larger species spatial turnover rates than more abundant small-bodied plankton. Our results confirm that the dispersal scale of planktonic and micro-nektonic organisms is determined by local abundance, which scales with body size, ultimately setting global spatial patterns of diversity. ; This research was funded by the project Malaspina 2010 Circumnavigation Expedition (Consolider-Ingenio 2010, CSD2008-00077) and cofounded by the Basque Government (Department Deputy of Agriculture, Fishing and Food Policy). We thank Simon Benoit for technical assistance in "Marmap", Maximino Delgado for phytoplankton identification, Angel Borja for useful comments, and the crew of R/V Hesperides and all participants in the Malaspina Expedition for their help and contributions. E.V. was supported by a PhD Scholarship granted by the Iñaki Goenaga−Technology Centres Foundation. This is contribution 835 from AZTI Marine Research Division.