Ecological implications of fecal pellet size, production and consumption by copepods

The volume of fecal pellets produced by the calanoid copepods Temora turbinata and Eucalanus pileatus increases with increasing weight of the copepod. Pellets produced by nauplii of E. pileatus are eaten by adult females of the same species at about the same rates as phytoplankton which has a volume simil ar to that of the pellets (105 µm3). Pellet production rates of juveniles, being generally in the range of 80 to 120 pellets produced • copepod-1 • 24 h-1, change little with increasing body weight...

Comment: On phytoplankton perception by calanoid copepods

Author Posting. © Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Limnology and Oceanography 61 (2016): 1163–1168, doi:10.1002/lno.10294.Three publications recently reported that calanoid copepods, feeding on phytoplankton cells by using a feeding current, perceived such cells by mechanoperception. There was no evidence of remote chemically-mediated perception of those cells. These observations differ from earlier findings that feeding-current producing calanoids are able to detect phytoplankton cells by chemoperception at a distance from their particle-collecting setae of their cephalic appendages. The results on mechanoperception and the earlier published data on chemoperception will be presented and discussed. In addition, the concentration of chemicals within the phycosphere of food cells will be re-examined. We conclude that chemoperception of phytoplankton cells by calanoid copepods in a feeding current is feasible

Zooplankton abundance in relation to state and type of intrusions onto the southeastern United States shelf during summer

The vertical distribution of zooplankton on the continental shelf of northeastern Florida was determined in and around upwelling events and related to concentrations of particulate matter. Doliolida and the cladoceran Penilia avirostris were significantly more abundant in upwelled water \u3c22°C and the cyclopoid genus Oncaea more abundant at warmer temperatures. The abundance of doliolida, Oithona and Oncaea in intrusions and the thermocline was significantly higher in older than in recently upwelled waters. The vertical sequences of the abundance of zooplankton and particulate matter (2-114 μm ESD) were identical. Zooplankton maxima co-occurred primarily with maxima in phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll a) and only partly with primary productivity

The Chemical and Biological Effect of a Gulf Stream Intrusion Off St. Augustine, Florida

During a 3-day anchor station in shelf waters off St. Augustine, Florida we observed the effect of an intruding mass of deeper Gulf Stream water. The shelf waters were relatively low in nutrients and salinity while the Gulf Stream waters were high in salinity and nutrients. Onshore currents correlated with increases in nitrate and chlorophyll concentrations. The advection of higher nutrient Gulf Stream water coincided with high chlorophyll (∼ mg chl a m−3) concentrations and dense populations of Phaeocystis pouchetii (up to 3.12 × 10°1−1). Zooplankton sampling was impossible in the bottom layer because of the dense Phaeocystis bloom. The dominant zooplankton in the upper layer was the doliolid Dolioletta gegenbauri f. tritonis. Concentrations reached 1561 m−3

A Modelling Study of Developmental Stage and Environmental Variability Effects on Copepod Foraging

We used a stochastic Lagrangian model to study how behaviour contributes to copepod grazing success. The model simulates distinct foraging behaviours of Clausocalanus furcatus, Paracalanus aculeatus, and Oithona plumifera. Three sets of simulations were performed to investigate the effects of (a) prey-size preference; (b) variation in prey-size spectra; and (c) turbulence intensity on these species’ grazing rates. The size preference simulations demonstrate that, compared with copepodites, mature females have cell ingestion rates that are an order of magnitude lower, while carbon uptake is reduced by 35%. A prey spectrum that is skewed towards cells ,\u3c6 μm promotes copepodite success because the basal metabolic needs of the adult females require a prey concentration of 850–1000 cells ml-1. Variations in turbulence intensity reveal distinct ecological niches, with stronger mixing favouring O. plumifera and stable conditions favouring C. furcatus. Differences in theoretically derived and simulated prey-encounter rates demonstrate that the hopping behaviour of O. plumifera provides an order of magnitude increase in prey encounter, whereas the feeding behaviour of C. furcatus can result in localized depletion of prey. These simulations highlight the importance of species-specific feeding behaviour in defining oceanic copepod distributions