Seasonal Changes in the Size Distribution of Copepods Is Affected by Coastal Upwelling

Water temperature controls the physiology, growth rate, distribution, and behavior of most plankton populations in the sea and thus affects the energy transfer in marine ecosystems. The present study focuses on the influence of seasonal changes in sea surface temperature on phytoplankton and the size distribution of copepods in the Arraial do Cabo Upwelling System (Brazil), where a wind-driven coastal upwelling can lead to multiple distinct bottom-up cascade effects on the food web. To address the potential effect of the seasonal changes, environmental data were obtained and the abundance of plankton determined from monthly samples collected in triplicate from 2010 to 2014. The samples were analyzed on a Benchtop FlowCAM (FC), and copepods (