Distribution fields for aquatic ecosystem components: method of identification of correlation zones

1. Data from the two multidisciplinary surveys of Lake Kinneret (Israel), including acoustic surveys of fish concentrations and concurrent sampling of plankton at stations, were used to reconstruct fish and plankton distributions. No significant lake-wide correlations for the distribution fields were found. With respect to patchiness of the fish and plankton distributions, we hypothesized that they might be correlated in localized zones. 2. A method is suggested for the identification of areas where there are strong correlations of two distribution fields. The method is based on outlining zones where the gradients of the two fields of interest are in the same direction (or are opposite). Only areas larger than the autocorrelation circles (or ellipses) for the fields are considered. The correlation of the fields is calculated for each of the zones selected. 3. The method was used in analysing data from the multidisciplinary surveys. We were able to detect areas of the lake where there were correlations for fish and plankton distributions. Analysis of specific conditions inside the correlation zones made it possible to construct hypotheses concerning the causes for the observed patterns of fish and plankton distributions.