July 2, 2026 Dataset Open Access

Meta data: Salinity, turbidity and chlorophyll drive zooplankton succession in a temperate estuary under anthropogenic pressure

Biederbick, Johanna; Möllmann, Christian; Russnak, Vanessa; Koppelmann, Rolf

This repository contains abiotic data and abundance/biomass data on zooplankton collected in the Elbe estuary. 

Title: Salinity, turbidity and chlorophyll drive zooplankton succession in a temperate estuary under anthropogenic pressure

Estuarine zooplankton are vital primary consumers and essential for estuarine ecosystem functioning and productivity, but they face strong physico-biochemical gradients and often anthropogenically altered habitats that impact their succession. Detailed zooplankton community studies are scarce and outdated for the turbid and dredged Elbe estuary in northern Germany. We provide a comprehensive overview of micro-, meso- and macrozooplankton dynamics in the tidal Elbe River by examining their spatio-temporal succession relative to environmental factors. Using redundancy analyses, we analyzed zooplankton assemblages and abiotic conditions at six stations along a salinity gradient during seasonal sampling in 2021 and 2022. Salinity and chlorophyll a emerged as key factors structuring community patterns, with turbidity further affecting the spatial distribution. An autotrophic zone with high chlorophyll a levels and low turbidity was confined to a shallow freshwater zone upstream of the dredged Hamburg Harbor region, supporting a community dominated by freshwater micro- and mesozooplankton, such as rotifers and cladocerans, peaking in spring and summer. Eurytemora affinis was the most abundant copepod year-round throughout the estuary, exhibiting a marked tolerance to high turbidity. Coastal meso- and macrozooplankton taxa such as Acartia spp., Paracalanus parvus, and Mesopodopsis slabberi colonized only the lower estuarine zone due to their affinity for high salinities. Compared to earlier studies, overall zooplankton abundance has declined, potentially in response to climatic changes and environmental alterations from recent hydrological interventions. This study enhances our understanding of the environmental drivers shaping estuarine zooplankton dynamics, which is essential for their conservation in the face of global change.