MESOZOOPLANKTON COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND GRAZING IMPACT IN THE POLAR FRONTAL ZONE OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN

• Main Author: Kim Sarah Bernard
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Austral; Antarc*; Mesozooplankton; Prince Edward Islands; South African National Antarctic Programme
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.214.4524; http://eprints.ru.ac.za/237/1/Kim_Bernard_MSc.pdf

Mesozooplankton community structure and grazing impact in the Polar Frontal Zone (PFZ) of the Southern Ocean were investigated during two cruises of the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP), the Marion Offshore Ecosystem Variability Study I & II (MOEVS). During the first cruise (MOEVS I), a meso-scale oceanographic grid survey was conducted in the upstream region of the Prince Edward Islands (PEI) in austral autumn (April) 2001. Mesozooplankton samples, collected using a Bongo net (fitted with 200 and 300? m mesh nets) at depths between 200 and 300 m, were separated into three size fractions: 200-500?m; 500-1000? m; 1000-2000?m by reverse filtration. Total surface (depth <5 m) chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration (measured fluorometrically) during the study ranged between 0.11 and 0.34? g l-1 and was always dominated by picophytoplankton (<2.0?m). Total mesozooplankton abundance and biomass during the survey ranged between 49 and 1512 ind. m-3 and between 0.7 and 25 mg Dwt. m-3, respectively. Throughout the survey, the