The
results I obtained where much different from what I had expected.
Each oceanic sample contained mostly amphipods and had few
copepods. This could be due to a few reasons.
Firstly,
amphipods are located in cooler waters, which can explain why they were
only found in New England. The lack of copepods can be due to
the
fact that I was only able to obtain a couple samples from each spot and
both times it was during the day. Therefore, the zooplankton
was
going to be dwelling on the bottom and harder to reach. I was
also never able to go into the water as it was freezing.
The
fact that my two Nahant sites were substancially different in diversity
leads me to believe that my results are not viable. In order
to
be more successful, several more samples would need to be taken at each
location and at different times of the day. Additionally, it
would be more beneficial to do this in the summer, when New England
waters are tolerable.
