Microzooplankton grazing activity in the temperate and sub-tropical NE Atlantic: summer 1996

Stelfox-Widdicombe, Claire E; Edwards, Elaine; Burkill, Peter H.; Sleigh, M. A.

doi:10.3354/meps208001

Cited by 47 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The significant grazing pressure that we observed is consistent with the results of previous work within the JGOFS and BOFS studies of prymnesiophytedominated phytoplankton communities in the North Atlantic spring bloom (Burkill et al 1993, Verity et al 1993b, Fileman & Leakey 2005. These studies and others include reports of microzooplankton dominance of total phytoplankton herbivory and microzooplankton consuming significant portions of phytoplankton daily production in the North Atlantic (Gifford et al 1995, Stelfox-Widdicombe et al 2000.Increases in microzooplankton abundance and grazing mortality by Day 8 of the experiment in the 2 high temperature treatments were consistent with the known effects of increased temperature on protistan Mar Ecol Prog Ser 388: [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] 2009 physiological rate processes (Eppley 1972, Rose & Caron 2007. We also observed increases in both the abundance and grazing rates of microzooplankton within the 2 high pCO 2 treatments relative to ambient pCO 2 treatments.…”

supporting

confidence: 81%

Effects of increased pCO2 and temperature on the North Atlantic spring bloom. II. Microzooplankton abundance and grazing

Rose¹,

Feng²,

Gobler³

et al. 2009

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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The North Atlantic spring bloom is one of the largest annually occurring phytoplankton blooms in the world ocean. The present study investigated the potential effects of climate change variables (temperature and pCO 2 ) on trophic dynamics during the bloom using a shipboard continuous culture system. The treatments examined were (1) 12°C and 390 ppm CO 2 (ambient), (2) 12°C and 690 ppm CO 2 (high pCO 2 ), (3) 16°C and 390 ppm CO 2 (high temperature), and (4) 16 °C and 690 ppm CO 2 (greenhouse). Individually, increasing temperature and pCO 2 initially resulted in significantly higher total microzooplankton abundance and grazing rates over the ambient treatment mid-experiment, with significantly greater increases still in the greenhouse treatment. By the end of the experiment, microzooplankton abundance was highest in the 2 low temperature treatments, which were dominated by small taxa, while the larger ciliate Strombidium sp. numerically dominated the high-temperature treatment. Microzooplankton community composition was dominated by small taxa in the greenhouse treatment, but total abundance declined significantly by the end after peaking mid-experiment. This decrease occurred concurrently with the growth of a potentially unpalatable phytoplankton assemblage dominated by coccolithophores. Our results suggest that indirect effects on microzooplankton community structure from changes in phytoplankton community composition as a result of changing temperature or pCO 2 were likely more important than direct effects on microzooplankton physiology. Similar changes in trophic dynamics and whole plankton community composition may also be important for future climate-driven changes in the North Atlantic spring bloom assemblage.KEY WORDS: Microzooplankton · Herbivory · Temperature · pCO 2 · North Atlantic spring bloom · Climate change Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 388: [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] 2009 also be an important food source for mesozooplankton and, as such, can contribute to carbon transfer to higher trophic levels (Sherr et al. 1986, Atkinson 1996, Schnetzer & Caron 2005.The annually occurring and spatially extensive spring bloom of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean has been extensively studied since the early days of oceanography (e.g. Sverdrup 1953). The US Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS;Ducklow & Harris 1993), US Marine Light Mixed Layer research initiative (MLML;Plueddemann et al. 1995), UK Biogeochemical Ocean Flux Study (BOFS;Savidge et al. 1992), UK Plankton Reactivity in the Marine Environment program (PRIME; Savidge & Williams 2001), and French 'Programme Océan Multidisciplinaire Méso Echelle' (POMME; Memery et al. 2005) have all been large-scale efforts to combine physical, chemical, biological, and modeling approaches to understand ecosystem dynamics throughout the stages of the bloom. This phytoplankton bloom is initiated by a reduction in mixed layer depth and is typified by an i...

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supporting

confidence: 81%

Effects of increased pCO2 and temperature on the North Atlantic spring bloom. II. Microzooplankton abundance and grazing

Rose¹,

Feng²,

Gobler³

et al. 2009

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…In this context, several authors have reported positive net phytoplankton growth rates in long-term incubations using the dilution method in oligotrophic waters (e.g. Stelfox-Widdicombe et al 2000, Quevedo & Anadón 2001; however, these rates showed a large degree of spatial variability and, in some experiments, negative net growth rates were measured (see Fig. 2 in Quevedo & Anadón 2001).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential causes for the unequal contribution of picophytoplankton to total biomass and productivity in oligotrophic waters

Fernández

Marañón

Morán

et al. 2003

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Size-fractionated chlorophyll a and primary production measurements during 7 latitudinal cruises (56 stations) in the Atlantic Ocean indicate that in subtropical and tropical regions the relative contribution of large (L) (> 2 µm) phytoplankton to total (T) chlorophyll a biomass (B) is smaller (BL:BT ratio = 0.25 ± 0.01 SE) than their contribution to total primary production (P) (PL:PT ratio = 0.45 ± 0.02). This implies a lower assimilation number for picoplankton than for larger cells: 1.5 ± 0.2 and 3.7 ± 0.3 mg C mg chlorophyll a h -1 , respectively (n = 90). During short-term time-course experiments in subtropical and tropical waters of the North Atlantic, a > 50% reduction in the abundance of picoplankton, mainly Prochlorococcus spp., took place as early as the first 2 h of incubation. This suggests that long incubation times in bottle experiments can lead to underestimations of primary production rates, at least in oligotrophic waters. The phytoplankton size-structure remained fairly constant throughout the experiments, suggesting that the high PL:PT ratios in these environments cannot be due to enhanced loss rates of small-sized phytoplankton as a result of bottle enclosure. Our results indicate that the observed disagreement between BL:BT and PL:PT ratios is not necessarily an experimental artifact, but could be related to a higher light utilization efficiency of larger phytoplankton.KEY WORDS: Primary production · Size-fractionated chlorophyll · Picoplankton · Oligotrophic waters · Atlantic OceanResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

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“…The grazing impact and feeding activity of planktonic ciliates have been investigated in many studies (Pierce & Turner 1992 and references therein) using different approaches, either offering labeled or unlabeled prey, or prey analogues to single ciliate species (Rassoulzadegan 1982, Jonsson 1986, Bernard & Rassoulzadegan 1990, Kivi & Setälä 1995 or using the dilution method (Landry & Hassett 1982) at the community level (Burkill et al 1987, Paranjape 1987, Gifford 1988, Stelfox-Widdicombe et al 2000. The cell content method has been employed in laboratory experiments to estimate ingestion and digestion of single species of ciliates (Dolan & Coats 1991, Dolan & 2imek 1997.…”

Section: Resale or Republication Not Permitted Without Written Consenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planktonic ciliates in the oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea: longitudinal trends of standing stocks, distributions and analysis of food vacuole contents

Pitta¹,

Giannakourou²,

Christaki³

2001

Aquat. Microb. Ecol.

114

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Microzooplankton grazing activity in the temperate and sub-tropical NE Atlantic: summer 1996

Cited by 47 publications

References 43 publications

Effects of increased pCO2 and temperature on the North Atlantic spring bloom. II. Microzooplankton abundance and grazing

Effects of increased pCO2 and temperature on the North Atlantic spring bloom. II. Microzooplankton abundance and grazing

Potential causes for the unequal contribution of picophytoplankton to total biomass and productivity in oligotrophic waters

Planktonic ciliates in the oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea: longitudinal trends of standing stocks, distributions and analysis of food vacuole contents

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