Distribution and abundance of larvaceans in the Southern Ocean ...

• Main Author: Lindsay, MC
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: University Of Tasmania 2023
• Subjects: Southern Ocean; Copepods
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25959/23205857; https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Distribution_and_abundance_of_larvaceans_in_the_Southern_Ocean/23205857

Larvaceans (also known as appendicularians) are zooplankton that inhabit most oceans, coastal waters and estuaries, and are often found in abundances that are second only to copepods among the meso-zooplankton. They form a gelatinous house‚ÄövÑvp through which they circulate seawater to filter very small particles onto mucopolysaccharide mesh. This concentrates sub-micron and micron-sized protists to 100 -1000 times the ambient concentrations. The house is discarded when the mesh clogs which can occur several times per day. These contribute significantly to the large particles of marine detritus known as marine snow‚ÄövÑvp. In addition, larvaceans form tightly compacted, rapidly sinking faecal pellets that contribute to carbon export‚ÄövÑvp from surface waters. Thus larvaceans play a rather unusual role in marine microbial food-webs, by transferring matter across many orders of magnitude in organism size, and moving it into the ocean depths. Previously there was little known about larvaceans in the Southern ...