Migrant biomass and respiratory carbon flux by zooplankton and micronekton in the subtropical northeast Atlantic Ocean (Canary Islands)

Ariza, Alejandro; Garijo, Juan Carlos; Landeira, José María; Bordes, Fernando; Hernández‐León, Santiago

doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2015.03.003

Cited by 80 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 90 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…data), probably carnivore species, by Lobianchia species ( i.e. L. dofleini 43% of the diet: Ariza et al , ). Estimates of mesopelagic fish trophic levels indicated that these species feed through a continuum spanning the third trophic level, in general agreement with the findings of Cherel et al () and Flynn & Kloser (), limited to lanternfishes, from the Southern Ocean.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Trophic ecology of Lampanyctus crocodilus on north‐west Mediterranean Sea slopes in relation to reproductive cycle and environmental variables

Fanelli

Papiol

Cartes

et al. 2014

Journal of Fish Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examined the population structure, reproductive cycle and feeding pattern of the lanternfish Lampanyctus crocodilus in the Balearic Basin (north-west Mediterranean Sea) from a depth of 450 to 1800 m and at a seasonal scale. Juveniles were mainly located at shallower depths, but also at deepest stations in autumn, while adults mostly inhabited intermediate depths with their centre of population density (CPD) located at 800-1000 m of depth. The migration of adults to deeper depths was detected in late summer to autumn, probably linked to the occurrence of nepheloid layers at c. 1200 m, which in turn enhances the biomass of the zooplankton prey. The diet was mainly based on euphausiids and mysids, with marked seasonal variations both on the upper (450-800 m) and lower (1000-1800 m), where suprabenthic gammariids and pelagic decapods were also dominant. Stomach fullness increased from winter to autumn on the US, while it had a maximum in spring on the LS, in parallel with high consumption of gelatinous zooplankton, which is probably more available after the phytoplankton bloom in late winter. Reproduction occurred in winter, confirmed by the higher percentage of mature females and high gonadosomatic indices (I(G)) at both depth ranges. Hepatosomatic indices (I(H)) showed an inverse trend to I(G) on the US, except in autumn, and was almost parallel on the LS, probably attributable to the migration of adults, which determined different temporal schemes in energy use and storage for reproduction on the US v. LS. Consistent with the different patterns observed at the two depth ranges, environmental drivers of fullness (i.e. feeding intensity) and I(G) (as a proxy of reproductive cycle) differed on the US and LS. The biomass of mysids and euphausiids was the greatest explanatory variables of fullness on the US and LS, pointing to the increasing feeding intensity when a resource was more available. I(H) also explained fullness, suggesting that greater feeding intensity in pre-reproductive periods enabled energy storage in the liver. I(G) was linked directly (i.e. mysids) or indirectly (i.e. surface primary production recorded 2 months before sampling) to food availability, implying a rapid response to vertical food inputs by deep-sea predators. Also, I(G) in L. crocodilus was related to population density, which suggests aggregations for reproduction. Estimates of L. crocodilus trophic levels, and of other accompanying mesopelagic fishes, indicated that the species feed through a continuum spanning the third trophic level, confirming the key role of mesopelagic fishes in transferring organic carbon between trophic levels. Trophic niche segregation among mesopelagic species was pronounced and non-overlapping groups could be distinguished because of the different vertical distribution and migratory behaviour. The study highlights the important role of the benthic boundary layer in sustaining benthopelagic communities in the deep Mediterranean Sea and the need to study the biology of a species throughout its whole ...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Trophic ecology of Lampanyctus crocodilus on north‐west Mediterranean Sea slopes in relation to reproductive cycle and environmental variables

Fanelli

Papiol

Cartes

et al. 2014

Journal of Fish Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Oligotrophic waters dominate in the western sector [23] while upwelling near the North African coast and its interaction with the Canary Current and the islands favors the existence of diverse habitats in the transition from the highly productive shelf waters to the oceanic region [24,25]. Additional environmental variability is provided by the influence of diazotrophy (atmospheric nitrogen fixation) in the subtropical region, generally more important in the western waters but occasionally affecting also waters near Canary Islands [26][27][28][29][30]. Zooplankton composition and biomass in this region reflect the productivity of the surface waters (for example, References [21,25]) and previous studies on the vertical migrations of zooplankton [12,25] and mesopelagic fish [31] showed a measurable impact of these movements on carbon fluxes and export to deep ocean layers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trophic Diversity of Plankton in the Epipelagic and Mesopelagic Layers of the Tropical and Equatorial Atlantic Determined with Stable Isotopes

Bode

Hernández‐León

2018

Diversity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Plankton living in the deep ocean either migrate to the surface to feed or feed in situ on other organisms and detritus. Planktonic communities in the upper 800 m of the tropical and equatorial Atlantic were studied using the natural abundance of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes to identify their food sources and trophic diversity. Seston and zooplankton (>200 µm) samples were collected with Niskin bottles and MOCNESS nets, respectively, in the epipelagic (0-200 m), upper mesopelagic (200-500 m), and lower mesopelagic layers (500-800 m) at 11 stations. Food sources for plankton in the productive zone influenced by the NW African upwelling and the Canary Current were different from those in the oligotrophic tropical and equatorial zones. In the latter, zooplankton collected during the night in the mesopelagic layers was enriched in heavy nitrogen isotopes relative to day samples, supporting the active migration of organisms from deep layers. Isotopic niches showed also zonal differences in size (largest in the north), mean trophic diversity (largest in the tropical zone), food sources, and the number of trophic levels (largest in the equatorial zone). The observed changes in niche size and overlap (up to 71% between the mesopelagic layers but <50% between the epipelagic and upper mesopelagic layers) support the prevalence of in situ feeding at deep layers in tropical and equatorial zooplankton.

show abstract

“…Nevertheless, they have been considered to play only a minor role in the global biogeochemical cycles in the oceans because their biomass is much smaller than that of bacteria and zooplankton (Conover, 1978;del Giorgio and Duarte, 2002). Recent studies, however, suggest that carbon exported downward by the respiration, defecation and mortality of micronektonic fishes and squids that undertake diel vertical migration between the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones can contribute much to the total downward carbon flux, e.g., 26-54% in the western equatorial Pacific Ocean (Hidaka et al, 2001), 15-17% in the northeastern Pacific Ocean (Davison et al, 2013), and 12-32% in the subtropical Atlantic Ocean (Ariza et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Routine metabolic rates of pelagic marine fishes and cephalopods as a function of body mass, habitat temperature and habitat depth

Ikeda¹

2016

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Routine metabolic rates of pelagic marine fishes and cephalopods as a function of body mass, habitat temperature and habitat depth Tsutomu Ikeda 16-3-1001 Toyokawa-cho, Hakodate 040-0065, Japan a b s t r a c t Cephalopods and fishes are major components of marine micronekton and nekton, so an understanding of their physiology and roles in ocean biogeochemistry is important. I compiled the routine respiration rates (50 datasets on 41 cephalopod species; 102 datasets on 90 fish species) from various depth horizons (b1300 m) of the world's oceans and analyzed these rates as a function of body mass [wet mass (WM), dry mass (DM), carbon (C) or nitrogen (N)], habitat temperature and habitat depth using multiple regression. Stepwise-regression analyses revealed that body mass was the most important parameter, followed by habitat temperature and habitat depth, and these variables explained 89.7-93.8% and 94.7-95.8%, respectively, of the variance in the respiration data of fishes and cephalopods. The addition of a taxon category (order or family) as a fourth variable improved these correlations only slightly (95.6-95.7% and 95.7-96.2%, respectively). The resultant regression equation showed higher respiration rates in cephalopods than fishes relative to the DM, C or N body mass (by a factor 1.5-to 1.7-fold), but not to the WM body mass. The O:N ratios (respiration/ammonia excretion, by atoms) reported for 6 cephalopods (median: 13.2) and 35 fishes (24.2) suggested the predominance of protein as a metabolite in the former and carbohydrate or lipid in the latter. The present results are discussed in light of the methodological constraints and standing hypothesis for the relationship between the metabolic rate and temperature. The empirical models established in the present study can be used to assess the roles of cephalopods and fishes in C and N cycles in pelagic ecosystems based on the organisms' body mass spectra, ambient temperatures and depth distributions.

show abstract

Migrant biomass and respiratory carbon flux by zooplankton and micronekton in the subtropical northeast Atlantic Ocean (Canary Islands)

Cited by 80 publications

References 90 publications

Trophic ecology of Lampanyctus crocodilus on north‐west Mediterranean Sea slopes in relation to reproductive cycle and environmental variables

Trophic ecology of Lampanyctus crocodilus on north‐west Mediterranean Sea slopes in relation to reproductive cycle and environmental variables

Trophic Diversity of Plankton in the Epipelagic and Mesopelagic Layers of the Tropical and Equatorial Atlantic Determined with Stable Isotopes

Routine metabolic rates of pelagic marine fishes and cephalopods as a function of body mass, habitat temperature and habitat depth

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About