Icthyoplankton Community Patterns In Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina

Climate fluctuations can have noticeable impacts on marine fish community diversity and population density.  Icthyoplankton were collected from 1986 to the present via neuston net on the Piver’s Island Bridge over the Beaufort Inlet.  These samples were then sorted by species and enumerated, with the samples being stored in ethanol.  Preliminary analyses (1986-2001) of fish showed inter annual variation in both richness (2.82-4.11) and Shannon-Wiener index (2.27-2.68).  The lowest year for both richness and Shannon index was 1995 while the highest was 1988.  The most abundantly caught species were Leiostomus xanthurus, Lagodon rhomboides, Micropogonius undulatus, Brevoortia tyrannus, and Myrophis punctatus.  The most frequently occurring species were P. lethostigma, L. rhomboides, M. undulatus, L. xanthurus, and M. punctatus.  Future areas of this experiment will include examining the data from 2001-2013 as well as testing for correlations between climate change and inter annual variations in species community.  To consider this we will study the effects of water temperature data, variations in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and changes in partial pressure of oxygen.