Fatty acid ecology of plankton communities. Progress report, May 1, 1979-April 30, 1980

• Main Author: Jeffries, H P
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; CARBOXYLIC ACIDS; VARIATIONS; COASTAL WATERS; ZOOPLANKTON; ESTUARIES; POPULATION DYNAMICS; SPECIES DIVERSITY; CHEMICAL COMPOSITION; COMMUNITIES; CORRELATIONS; RHODE ISLAND; AQUATIC ORGANISMS; NORTH AMERICA; NORTH ATLANTIC REGION; ORGANIC ACIDS; ORGANIC COMPOUNDS; PLANKTON; SURFACE WATERS; USA; Block Island; Green Hill; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5424449; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5424449; https://doi.org/10.2172/5424449

The principal hypothesis addressed in this study states that community variability is related to fatty acid structure. As a test of this idea, the zooplankton in three regimes of increasing physical severity (Block Island Sound, Narragansett Bay and Green Hill Pond) are being compared. Measurements were made on the physical environment, on standing crop and on fatty acid composition in both the phytoplankton-microzooplankton and macrozooplankton. Fatty acid variation in these communities displays a unique trajectory in time at each location. Environmental change and biochemical variability are directly related. The resulting biochemical message is complex but apparently highly informative. Patterns of variation in some fatty acids are affected most strongly by physical environmental parameters whereas the variation of other fatty acids is more responsive to differences in species composition, diversity and food web relationships. Taken together, these two aspects of biochemical pattern appear to characterize complex species assemblages. The result offers a new strategem for convenient assessment of the ever changing state in a natural community.