Don Deibel

Temperature regulation of bacterial activity during the spring bloom in Newfoundland Coastal waters

While the spring phytoplankton bloom in Newfoundland coastal waters is in progress during April and May, at water temperatures between -1� and +2�C, bacterial growth and respiratory rates remain low. Microbial community respiration is not measurable at -0.2�C. Particulate materials that would be utilized by microorganisms in 2 to 3 days at 20� to 25�C require 11 days at 4�C and 18 days at -0.2�C. Thus, photosynthesis is active but microbial utilization of the products is suppressed. High secondary production in cold water may result from the low rate of microbial decomposition, enabling herbivores to utilize much of the primary production.

Vertical Flux of Biogenic Carbon in the Ocean: Is There Food Web Control?

Models of biogenic carbon (BC) flux assume that short herbivorous food chains lead to high export, whereas complex microbial or omnivorous food webs lead to recycling and low export, and that export of BC from the euphotic zone equals new production (NP). In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, particulate organic carbon fluxes were similar during the spring phytoplankton bloom, when herbivory dominated, and during nonbloom conditions, when microbial and omnivorous food webs dominated. In contrast, NP was 1.2 to 161 times greater during the bloom than after it. Thus, neither food web structure nor NP can predict the magnitude or patterns of BC export, particularly on time scales over which the ocean is in nonequilibrium conditions.

Feeding mechanism and house of the appendicularian Oikopleura vanhoeffeni

Although the feeding apparatus of oikopleurid Appendicularia has been described in general, functional details of the feeding mechanism and fluid mechanical constraints on the feeding process remain unknown. My goals were to determine the number of mucous-net layers in the feeding filter of Oikopleura vanhoeffeni collected from March 1985 to February 1986, and to describe the pathway of water flow through the filter. Marker particles (i.e. Isochrysis galbana, carmine, charcoal powder, and starch), and rhodamine dye were added to the natural food suspension to help in visualizing structure and flow. The feeding filter was composed of three layers. Water flowed into the filter through two large, lateral openings at the base of each wing, and along the open distal margins of the filter. Under hydrostatic pressure generated by the tail, water moved through the filter in a one-way bulk flow and was forced through the mucous mesh of both the dorsal and ventral layers. Thus, the feeding filter concentrated the food suspension by sieving most of the incoming water. The filter did not collect or trap food particles. Because of its function, I propose calling the feeding filter the “food concentrating filter”.

Filter feeding by Oikopleura vanhoeffeni: grazing impact on suspended particles in cold ocean waters

Because of the abundance and size of Oikopleura vanhoeffeni its quantitative role as a suspension feeder in cold ocean waters needs to be defined. To minimize the effect of manipulation and containment, and to assess the effect of naturally occurring factors on clearance rate, I used an in situ latex microbead technique in Logy Bay, Newfoundland, from February 1985 to June 1986. Individual clearance rates ranged from 8–944 ml h-1, increasing exponentially with increasing trunk length. Partial correlation and principal components analysis indicated that trunk length and the concentration of ingestible chlorophyll a accounted for a majority of the variation in clearance rate. At densities of 4–110 m-3, O. vanhoeffeni populations removed from >1 to 13% of the standing stock of ingestible food particles each day. Grazing by near-surface populations was lowest during the spring diatom bloom (>1.4% of daily particle production removed per day), and was highest in June during the post-bloom crash (4 to 10% of daily production removed). Some populations in mid-depth waters had much higher population clearance rates (ca. 50% of daily production removed) because of a greater proportion of large animals. The median percentage daily ration (μg Cxμg C-1xd-1x100%) of 64% accounted for observed house production rates (1 to 2 d-1, with each house=23% of body carbon).

Seasonal variations in the densities of fecal pellets produced by Oikopleura vanhoeffeni (C. Larvacea) and Calanus finmarchicus (C. Copepoda)

Two abundant macrozooplankters, Oikopleura vanhoeffeni (Lohmann) and Calanus finmarchicus (Gunnerus) were collected from the coastal waters off Newfoundland in different seasons during 1990–1991 and incubated in natural seawater to collect freshly egested, field produced, fecal pellets. The densities of fecal pellets from O. vanhoeffeni and C. finmarchicus were measured in an isosmotic density gradient. These are the first reported seasonal measurements of fecal pellet densities from two different types of macrozooplankters, O. vanhoeffeni, a larvacean, filter feeder and C. finmarchicus, a crustacean, suspension feeder. Pellet density ranges and medians were significantly different among seasons for both species, depending primarily on the type of phytoplankton ingested and its ability to be compacted. Winter O. vanhoeffeni and fall C. finmarchicus feces filled with nanoplankters and soft bodied organisms had less open space [packing index (% open area) = 3.5 and 4% for O. vanhoeffeni and C. finmarchicus, respectively] and were more dense (1.23 and 1.19 g cm-3) than spring feces filled with diatoms (packing index = 15 and 23%, density = 1.13 and 1.11 gcm-3). For copepods, these results contrast with previously published density values and with the predicted copepod fecal pellet density calculated, in the present study, using the conventional mass/volume relationship. Copepod spring and summer diatom-filled feces had a calculated density of 1.12 and 1.24 gcm-3 vs a measured median density of 1.11 gcm-3 for both spring and summer feces; the fall feces containing nanoplankters had a calculated density of 1.08 gcm-3 vs a measured median density of 1.19 gcm-3. Knowledge of the seasonal variations in fecal pellet densities is important for the development of flux models.

THE MARINE MIXOTROPH DINOBRYON BALTICUM (CHRYSOPHYCEAE): PHAGOTROPHY AND SURVIVAL IN A COLD OCEAN1

The marine chrysophyte Dinobryon balticum (Schzütt) Lemm. was one of the dominant members of the phytoplankton community (1.8×103 cells‐L−1) in June and July in Conception Bay, Newfoundland. Dinobryon balticum colonies were common only in samples from June and July. The cells were concentrated at 5 m (X±SD=1.11±4 × 105 cells.L−1) and at 40 m (3.32±2×104.L−1) depths. Colonies were composed of up to 560 cells with a mean (±SD) colony size of 10 ± 1 cells at 5 m and 40 ± 8 cells at 40 m. Fluorescent latex bead‐uptake experiments conducted with field samples indicated that this marine species was capable of phagotrophy and that twice as many Dinobryon cells were ingesting beads at 40 m than at 5 m, although the ingestion rates for those cells actively ingesting beads were similar at both depths. This chrysophyte was found in association with bacteria‐and nutrient‐rich microhabitats of microaggregates and fecal pellets. The cells and colonies observed in this study appeared to be healthy, as demonstrated by their appearance and their ability to ingest beads.

Flow rate and particle concentration within the house of the pelagic tunicate Oikopleura vanhoeffeni

AbstractThe food-concentrating filter within the house of Oikopleura vanhoeffeni Lohmann consists of three layers, upper and lower fine-mesh layers and an intermediate coarse-mesh layer. The filter is a natural analogue of man-made tangential, or cross-flow, filters that are used to concentrate fine particulate and colloidal material by the exclusion of water. Flow analysis using video microscopy of O. vanhoeffeni, collected in 1989 and 1990 at Logy Bay, insular Newfoundland, indicates concentration of particles of 74 to 1089 times that of ambient seawater (

Elemental composition, total lipid content, and lipid class proportions in zooplankton from the benthic boundary layer of the Beaufort Sea shelf (Canadian Arctic)

\bar x \pm {\text{SE}} = 328 \pm 48,n = 23