Historical observations of zooplankton groups in Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea

Due to global warming, historical information and data mining are essential to estimate changes in various ecological systems. Zooplankton represents a key group since they are directly involved in capturing and sequestering carbon from the surface to the bottom of the oceans. They incorporate the feeding of different groups of organisms located in the upper levels of the trophic webs. This study presents historical observations of some zooplankton groups in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and the Caribbean Sea (CS) from 1977 to 1987, a period in which 14 cruises were made, with 416 stations. Zooplankton organisms were captured using a CalCOFI-type net with a mesh size of 212 μm. Sea surface temperature, surface currents, and chlorophyll-a concentrations were obtained from international databases. A total of 27 groups of zooplankton were identified in each cruise; among them, the copepods represented the most abundant group, with more than 50% of the relative density values. Cladocera, Mollusca, and Appendicularia were grouped, showing high relative density values, while the groups that led the lowest density values were Phoronida, Platyhelminthes, and Hemichordata. These data represent one of the first zooplankton collections in Mexican waters of the GoM and CS.