A biological assessment of zooplankton in St. Pauls Inlet, an estuarine environment in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

Abstract

St. Pauls Inlet is a fjordal estuary in Gros Morne National Park, Canada. During the summers of 2009 and 2010 four sites within the inlet were sampled for zooplankton as part of Memorial University’s Community-University Research for Recovery Alliance (CURRA) project. Objectives were:  Determine patterns in zooplankton species composition o Compare to species data from previous survey o Relate to observed longitudinal salinity gradients o Compare composition with that of estuaries regionally  Estimate zooplankton abundance o Compare with abundances seen in estuaries globally Zooplankton species were primarily marine cyclopoida and calanoida, with some brackish-water cladocerans. Cluster Analysis and NMDS showed no strong longitudinal patterns in species assemblages in either season. Only 10 % faunal similarity was observed with estuarine Lake Melville in Labrador, Canada. St. Pauls Inlet does not appear to be a highly productive system, based on low zooplankton abundance (< 4 inds/l), compared with other global sites.