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Zooplankton of Lebanon
Citation
Lakkis S., 2011. Le Zooplancton Marin du Liban (Méditerranée orientale): Biologie, Biodiversité, Biogéographie. Publ.Université Libanaise, Beirut, Lebanon,No 23:566p. https://marineinfo.org/id/dataset/3474
Contact: Lakkis, Sami

Access data
Archived data
Availability: Creative Commons License This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Description
This dataset contains data of zooplakton species which were found in Lebanese waters. The study area extends over 150 km between the south of Lebanon and offshore Tripoli city in the North. Monthly, seasonally and annual cruises were carried out between 1965 and 2007. Surface and vertical plankton samples were taken at standard depths 0m, 0-25m, 0-100m, 0-200m. Data are available as a classification of the frequency of occurance. more

The Levantine Basin of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Lebanese seawaters fall in the warm temperate zone. This marine area is characterized with a heavy ologrtrophic water body and high temperature and salinity. The surface temperature averages vary from 17 °C in February and a maximum of 30°C in August, whereas the offshore surface salinity displays little fluctuations between 39.25 in April and 39.75 in September. These values of T/S are the highest in the whole Mediterranean. Despite of these extreme hydrological conditions, the Lebanese seawater show a highly diversified plankton community contrasting with poor plankton biomass.

Most of the Mediterranean zooplankton groups are present in the area from the Protozoans up to Protochordates and Fish larvae. The zooplakton constitutes the secondary producer of organic substance, the phytoplankton being the primary producer. The zooplankton community, as that of the Levantine Basin present a high biodiversitry with low biomass and showing pronounced seasonal variations in quality and quantity of the zooplankton. The maximum development of zooplankton is observed in May June, just following the spring phytoplankton bloom. In winter, zooplankton is poor in quantity but very diversified corresponding with the mixing and turn over of water layers leading to the vertical homothermal conditions. During summer, the stratification of the water masses in the layer 35-75 m creating the thermocline may lead to the impoverishment of zooplankton in quantity and quality. The majority of zooplankton organisms display short biological life cycle and some of them showing more than one annual generation. Several species that migrated through the Suez Canal, or invaded the Lebanese waters are of Indo-Pacific and/or Erithrean origin, called Lessepsians. Many of them have established permanent populations competing with local and native species.

Many zooplankton species display vertical migrations due to hydrologic, physiologic and trophic factors.Usually the herbivorous zooplankton stay in the euphotic zone (100-0 m ) rich in phytoplankton, whereas the carnivorous species live in the deeper seawater. However the diurnal vertical migration practiced by many species has a physiological and ecological reasons, namely the action of the light, the nutrition and reproduction.

Generally, the LevantineBasin, including the Lebanese seawater is a zone show low primary productivity rate , inducing poor zooplankton and thus little fisheries rentability.


Scope
Themes:
Biology > Plankton > Zooplankton
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, Biodiversity, Interannual variability, Introduced species, Microzooplankton, Oligotrophic, Vertical distribution, EurOBIS calculated BBOX, MED, Lebanon, Calanoida, Ctenophora, Cyclopoida, Foraminifera, Heteropoda Lamarck, 1812, Hydroidolina, Polychaeta, Scyphomedusae

Geographical coverage
EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box
Coordinates: MinLong: 35,4333; MinLat: 33,9167 - MaxLong: 35,5833; MaxLat: 34,5667 [WGS84]
MED, Lebanon Stations [Marine Regions]
Levantine basin
Coordinates: MinLong: 34,5667; MinLat: 33,9167 - MaxLong: 35,5834; MaxLat: 35,4334 [WGS84]

Temporal coverage
July 1965 - June 2007

Taxonomic coverage
Calanoida [WoRMS]
Ctenophora [WoRMS]
Cyclopoida [WoRMS]
Foraminifera [WoRMS]
Heteropoda Lamarck, 1812 [WoRMS]
Hydroidolina [WoRMS]
Polychaeta [WoRMS]
Scyphomedusae [WoRMS]

Parameter
Frequency of occurrence

Contributors
Lebanese University; Faculty of Sciences, Marine Research Centredata creatordata owner
Lakkis, Sami
National Council for Scientific Research; National Center for Marine Sciences; Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Plankton (NCMS/LNCSR)researcher
Zeidane, Raymonde
Novel-Lakkis, Vanda

Related datasets
Published in:
EurOBIS: European Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more
MedOBIS: Mediterranean Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more
Other relation:
Phytoplankton of Lebanon, more

Publication
Based on this dataset
Lakkis, S. (2011). Le zooplancton marin du Liban (Méditerranée orientale): biologie, biodiversité, biogéographie. Publications de l’Université Libanaise: Beyrouth. 564 pp.
Describing this dataset
Lakkis, S. (2007). Dataset and database biodiversity of plankton community in Lebanese seawater (Levantine Basin, East Mediterranean), in: Vanden Berghe, E. et al. (Ed.) Proceedings Ocean Biodiversity Informatics: International Conference on Marine Biodiversity Data Management, Hamburg, Germany 29 November to 1 December, 2004. VLIZ Special Publication, 37: pp. 99-112
Lakkis, S. (2004). Plankton dataset from Lebanese seawater, in: Ocean Biodiversity Informatics, Hamburg, Germany: 29 November to 1 December 2004: book of abstracts. pp. 75

Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Data origin: Monitoring: field survey
Metadatarecord created: 2012-11-22
Information last updated: 2013-01-30
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