Zooplankton ecology and pelago-benthic coupling
ObjectivesThe aims of the present study are the analyses of zooplankton communities in the Bellingshausen Sea during the transition from the summer to the winter state. To characterize the "autumn state" our research focussed on the following issues: horizontal and vertical distribution, p...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
2002
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/6966/ https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.17514 |
| Summary: | ObjectivesThe aims of the present study are the analyses of zooplankton communities in the Bellingshausen Sea during the transition from the summer to the winter state. To characterize the "autumn state" our research focussed on the following issues: horizontal and vertical distribution, population structure, maturity of gonads, reproduction, gut content, feeding activity (natural phyto-plankton suspension, ice algae), as well as the significance of zooplankton for the particle flux with special emphasis on calanoid copepods and metamorphed larvae of benthic animals.Work at seaThe major gear employed for the distributional studies of mesozooplankton was the multiple opening and closing net equipped with five nets of 55 µm each. Stratified vertical hauls on the shelf and slope stations covered the entire water column between the surface and maximal 700 m, while at oceanic stations, the net was deployed down to 1000m. The depth ranges were defined according to the temperature profiles at the respective station. Sampling was carried out in the high Antarctic Bellingshausen sea on a transect off Adelaide island towards the continental slope of the Antarctic Peninsula. Additional sampling was carried out in the sea-ice zone in the southern Bellingshausen sea. Altogether, 24 hauls were carried out resulting in a rich set of more than 120 samples. The net samples were preserved in 4% buffered formalin, at some stations in 100% ethanol for molecular genetic purposes.In order to study interactions between the pelagic and the benthos, we deployed the multiple opening and closing net, the mulibox corer (MUC) and the box corer (GKG) at four so-called process stations, and ran additionally feeding and defecation experiments. The MUC allows the simultaneous sampling of up to 12 cores, including the above benthic surface water column. Both the upper 5cm sediment obtained with each core and the above water column were deep frozen (-80°C and 30°C respectively); the water sample was sieved through 55µm mesh size before. Where ... |
|---|