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Phytoplankton-zooplankton inter-relationships in tropical waters - Grazing and gut pigment dynamics

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title Phytoplankton-zooplankton inter-relationships in tropical waters - Grazing and gut pigment dynamics
 
Creator Goes, J.I.
Caeiro, S.
Gomes, H.
 
Subject plankton
feeding behaviour
herbivores
food consumption
grazing
enzymatic activity
chlorophylls
faecal pellets
food chains
 
Description An examination of the feeding mechanisms in two taxonomically dissimilar classes of tropical planktonic harbivores Evadne tergestina (Cladocera) and Acrocalanus spp. (Copepoda) revealed a distinct rhythmicity of food intake. Brief bouths of phytoplankton intake were interspersed with breaks during which grazing activity ceased probably due to the onset of digestive enzyme activity. Over 90% of the chl a ingested was rapidly degraded during its passage through the digestive tract of the animals suggesting a high assimilatory and metabolic capacity within tropical planktonic herbivores as compared to temperate and polar forms. When subject to prolonged periods of starvation, both animals exhibited a clear tendency to reingest their own fecal pellets. In tropical oligotrophic waters where an invariably limiting size of phytoplankton food stock imposes constraints on zooplankton growth, the ability of tropical planktonic herbivores to resort to coprophagic feeding assumes particular importance as existing models make no allowances for reingestion of fecal pellets when quantifying and computing energy transfer in the food chain.
 
Date 2009-01-10T11:49:37Z
2009-01-10T11:49:37Z
1999
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, Vol.28; 116-124p.
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/1840
 
Language en
 
Rights Copyright [1999]. All efforts have been made to respect the copyright to the best of our knowledge. Inadvertent omissions, if brought to our notice, stand for correction and withdrawal of document from this repository.
 
Publisher Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi