Rates of ingestion and their variability between individual calanoid copepods: Direct observations
- Skidaway Inst. of Oceanography, Savannah, GA (United States)
- Alfred-Wegener-Institut fuer Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven (Germany). Inst. fuer Fernerkundung (IFE)
The goals of this study were to determine rates of ingestion and fecal pellet release, and their variability, for individual planktonic copepods over extended periods of time (>20 min). Ingestions and rejections of individual cells of the diatom Thalassiosira eccentrica by a adult females of the calanoid Paracalanus aculeatus were directly quantified by observing individual copepods continuously at cell concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 1.2 mm{sup 3} l{sup {minus}1}. Average ingestion rates increased with increasing food concentration, but were not significantly different between 0.3 and 1.0 mm{sup 3} l{sup {minus}1} (9.8 and 32.7 {mu}g Cl{sup {minus}1}) of T.eccentrica. Rates of cell rejections were low and similar at 0.1 and 0.3. but were significantly higher at 1.0 mm{sup 3} l{sup {minus}1}. The coefficients of variation for average ingestion rates of individual copepods hardly differed between food concentrations, ranging from 17 to 22%, and were close to those for average fecal pellet release intervals which ranged from 15 to 21%. A comparison between individuals at each food concentration found no significant differences at 1.0; at 0.1 and 0.3 mm{sup 3} l{sup {minus}1}, respectively, ingestion rates of four out of five females did not differ significantly from each other. Average intervals between fecal pellet releases were similar at 0.3 and 1.0 mm{sup 3} l{sup {minus}1}. Fecal pellet release intervals between individuals were significantly different at each food concentration; these significant differences were attributed to rather narrow ranges of pellet release intervals of each individual female. Potential sources/causes of variability in the sizes and rates of copepods in the ocean are evaluated.
- Research Organization:
- Skidaway Inst. of Oceanography, Savannah, GA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-92ER61419
- OSTI ID:
- 161058
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/61419-T1; ON: DE96003396; CNN: NSF OCE 90-00144
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Feeding, growth, and food conversion of the marine planktonic copepod Calanus helgolandicus
Biotransformation and assimilation of dietary lipids by Calanus feeding on a dinoflagellate