Biodiversity patterns of epipelagic copepods in the South Pacific Ocean: Strengths and limitations of current data bases

when extracting the -110˚−-170˚ longitudinal band, indicating a more similar expected com- position of Copepoda or the existence of distinctive species assemblies (communities) with a variable degree of mix; however, they covered large areas over each side of the basin, indicating the existence of different communities (Fig 7). These distinct communities can also be defined in terms of their dominant species which are shown in S2 Table. Some of these dominant spe- cies are shared between current systems, although their presence also reflects a wide distribu- tion over the SPO basin. Data coverage, biogeographic patterns, and dominant species This assessment was carried out in association with the major current systems illustrated in Fig 1. The general circulation of the SPO is dominated by the subtropical gyre, that has an ele- vated mean dynamic topography at its center [74] (near 15˚ to 20˚S [75]). The South Equato- rial Current represents the westward flow of the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre, that terminates entering the Coral Sea and bifurcating at the east of the Great Barrier Reef between 15˚ and 22˚S [76] to form the southerly East Australian Current [77], that strengthens as it flows along the coast of Australia [77]. Southward of ~33˚S, it begins to separate into filaments, forming the East Australian Current extension and the Tasman Front [77] that consists of a series of current jets flowing eastward, mainly between 33˚ and 35˚S [78]. These appears to be a large component of subtropical water feeding into the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre

Fig 4. Getis-Ord G statistic of alpha diversity of Copepoda at the western and eastern sides of the SPO based on species occurrence data obtained from OBIS portal for the period 1993–2019. High and low values of richness are displayed in red and blue color, respectively. Color intensity denotes clusters’ significance. Transparent squares are the 1˚ sampled cells used for Kriging interpolation, whereas the grey dotted line delimits the South Pacific Ocean. Map projection is WGS 84/PDC Mercator (EPSG 3832). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306440.g004 PLOS ONE Biodiversity of copepods in the South Pacific PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306440 July 11, 2024 11 / 28