Feeding ecology of shallow water meiofauna: insights from a stable isotope tracer experiment in Potter Cove, King George Island, Antarctica

Antarctic meiofauna is still strongly understudied, and so is its trophic position in the food web. Primary producers, such as phytoplankton, and bacteria may represent important food sources for shallow water metazoans, and the role of meiobenthos in the benthic-pelagic coupling represents an impor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar Biology
Main Authors: Pasotti, Francesca, De Troch, Marleen, Raes, Maarten, Vanreusel, Ann
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Biology and Life Sciences
Feeding ecology
West Antarctic Peninsula
Meiobenthos
Stable isotopes
DEEP-SEA NEMATODES
HARPACTICOID COPEPODS
ORGANIC-MATTER
PARAMPHIASCELLA-FULVOFASCIATA
ESTUARINE NEMATODES
DELTA-N-15 ANALYSIS
TROPHIC STRUCTURE
MARINE NEMATODES
CLIMATE-CHANGE
MARTEL INLET
Antarctic
Antarctic Peninsula
King George Island
Potter Cove
Martel
Martel Inlet
Antarc*
Antarctica
Polar Biology
Copepods
Online Access:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/3069012
http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-3069012
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1203-6
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/3069012/file/3158497
Description
Summary:Antarctic meiofauna is still strongly understudied, and so is its trophic position in the food web. Primary producers, such as phytoplankton, and bacteria may represent important food sources for shallow water metazoans, and the role of meiobenthos in the benthic-pelagic coupling represents an important brick for food web understanding. In a laboratory, feeding experiment C-13-labeled freeze-dried diatoms (Thalassiosira weissflogii) and bacteria were added to retrieved cores from Potter Cove (15-m depth, November 2007) in order to investigate the uptake of 3 main meiofauna taxa: nematodes, copepods and cumaceans. In the surface sediment layers, nematodes showed no real difference in uptake of both food sources. This outcome was supported by the natural delta C-13 values and the community genus composition. In the first centimeter layer, the dominant genus was Daptonema which is known to be opportunistic, feeding on both bacteria and diatoms. Copepods and cumaceans on the other hand appeared to feed more on diatoms than on bacteria. This may point at a better adaptation to input of primary production from the water column. On the other hand, the overall carbon uptake of the given food sources was quite low for all taxa, indicating that likely other food sources might be of relevance for these meiobenthic organisms. Further studies are needed in order to better quantify the carbon requirements of these organisms.

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