Are antarctic zooplankton metabolically more cold-adapted than arctic zooplankton? An intra-generic comparison of oxygen consumption rates

• Published in: Journal of Plankton Research
• Main Author: Ikeda, T.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1989
• Subjects: SHORT COMMUNICATIONS; Arctic; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Zooplankton; Copepods
• Online Access: http://plankt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/11/3/619; https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/11.3.619

Because of the greater age of the antarctic ecosystem in relation to the arctic ecosystem, an elevated metabolic rate and more obligate stenothermy of antarctic zooplankton compared with their arctic counterparts are predicted from the concept of metabolic cold adaptation. When oxygen consumption rates were standardized to 1 mg body nitrogen and 0°C and compared between the species belonging to the same genus, the antarctic rates were greater than arctic rates in Clione (pteropods) and Calanus (copepods), while the reverse was true in Parathemisto (amphipods), Thysanoessa (euphausiids) and Sagitta (chaetognaths). No significant differences were seen in Limacina (pteropods) and Metridia (copepods). These inconsistent results do not support the hypothesis of metabolic cold adaptation in the zooplankton of polar seas.