Marine Biology 

About: Marine Biology is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Population & Phytoplankton. It has an ISSN identifier of 0025-3162. Over the lifetime, 12140 publications have been published receiving 565480 citations.

Thymidine incorporation as a measure of heterotrophic bacterioplankton production in marine surface waters : Evaluation and field results

Abstract: To assess bacterioplankton production in the sea, we have developed a procedure for measuring growth based on incorporation of tritiated thymidine into DNA; the accuracy of this procedure was tested under a variety of laboratory and field conditions. By autoradiography, we have found that for all practical purposes our technique is specific for the nonphotosynthetic bacteria and that virtually all of the “active” bacteria (one-third or more of the total countable bacteria) take up thymidine. We also measured (1) the intracellular isotope dilution of thymidine assessed by parallel experiments with labeled phosphorus, and (2) DNA content of natural marine bacteria (0.2 to 0.6 μm size fraction); a conversion factor derived from these data permitted estimation of production from thymidine incorporation results. A very similar conversion factor was independently derived from the empirical relationship between thymidine incorporation and growth of natural bacterioplankton under controlled conditions. Combined results show that this technique, which can be performed rapidly and easily at sea, provides good estimates of production. Data from Southern California Bight waters, which contain oligotrophic as well as moderately eutrophic regions, show that average bacterioplankton doubling times, like those of the phytoplankton, are on the order of a few days, with fastest growth at depths just below those of greatest phytoplankton abundance. Offshore bacterial production is roughly 5 to 25% of the primary production; thus, at a 50% assimilation efficiency, the bacterioplankton would consume 10 to 50% of the total fixed carbon.

Estimating the grazing impact of marine micro-zooplankton

Abstract: This paper describes a dilution technique for estimating the micro-zooplankton grazing impact on natural communities of marine phytoplankton. Experiments performed in coastal waters off Washington, USA (October, 1980), yield estimates of micro-zooplankton impact equivalent to 6 to 24% of phytoplankton standing biomass and 17 to 52% of production per day. Indirect evidence suggests that most of this impact is due to the feeding of copepod nauplii and tintinnids; in contrast, non-loricate ciliates, comprising 80 to 90% of numerical abundance, appeared to contribute little to phytoplankton mortality.

Role of sinking in diatom life-history cycles: ecological, evolutionary and geological significance

Abstract: Rapid mass sinking of cells following diatom blooms, observed in lakes and the sea, is argued here to represent the transition from a growing to a resting stage in the life histories of these algae. Mass sinking is of survival value in those bloom diatoms that retain viability over long periods in cold, dark water but not in warm, nutrient-depleted surface water. Mechanisms for accelerating sinking speed of populations entering a resting or “seeding” mode are proposed. Previously unexplained features of diatom form and behaviour take on a new meaning in this context of diatom seeding strategies. Diatoms have physiological control over buoyancy as declining growth is accompanied by increasing sinking rates, where the frustule acts as ballast. Increased mucous secretion in conjunction with the cell protuberances characteristic of bloom diatoms leads to entanglement and aggregate formation during sinking; the “sticky” aggregates scavenge mineral and other particles during descent which further accelerates the sinking rate. Such diatom flocs will have sinking rates of ∼ 100 m d-1 or more. This is corroborated by recent observations of mass phytoplankton sedimentation to the deep sea. This mechanism would explain the origin of marine snow flocs containing diatoms in high productivity areas and also the well-known presence of a viable deep sea flora. That mortality is high in such a seeding strategy is not surprising. A number of species-specific variables pertaining to size, morphology, physiology, spore formation and frustule dissolution rate will determine the sinking behaviour and thus control positioning of resting stages in the water column or on the bottom. It is argued that sinking behaviour patterns will be environmentally selected and that some baffling aspects of diatom form and distribution can be explained in this light. Rapid diatom sedimentation is currently believed to be mediated by zooplankton faecal pellets, particularly those of copepods. This view is not supported by recently published observations. I speculate that copepod grazing actually retards rather than accelerates vertical flux, because faecal pellets tend to be recycled within the surface layer by the common herbivorous copepods. Egestion of undigested food by copepods during blooms acts as a storage mechanism, as ungrazed cells are likely to initiate mass precipitation and depletion of the surface layer in essential elements. Unique features of diatoms are discussed in the light of their possible evolution from resting spores of other algae. An evolutionary ecology of pelagic bloom diatoms is deduced from behavioural and morphological characteristics of meroplanktonic and tychopelagic forms. Other shell-bearing protistan plankters share common features with diatoms. Similar life-history patterns are likely to be present in species from all these groups. The geological significance of mass diatom sinking in rapidly affecting transfer of biogenic and mineral particles to the sea floor is pointed out.

Analysis of the influence of substrate variables on coral reef fish communities

Abstract: A simple field technique to obtain a gross estimate of the surface area of a quadrat on a coral reef is described. This measure, termed the substrate rugosity index, was determined, in conjunction with two other substrate variables (vertical relief and coral species richness), in a series of 4 quadrats (10 to 40 m depth) along 4 transects. The mean substrate rugosity and vertical relief of a quadrat were highly correlated. A correlation analysis was made of the substrate variables and several reef fish community parameters (species richness, number of fishes and diversity). Species richness was highly correlated with substrate rugosity. This relationship was tested in two experimental quadrats and the results were generally in accord with those predicted. Stratification of the fish communities by body size revealed that the correlation with substrate rugosity was scale-dependent. The fish community parameters were poorly correlated with percentage substrate cover by corals (ramose and glomerate) and by sand. A significant area effect was determined for two species of sand-dwelling goby.

Food size spectra, ingestion and growth of the copepodAcartia tonsa during development: Implications for determination of copepod production

Abstract: Clearance rates on different sizes of spherically shaped algae were determined in uni-algal experiments for all developmental stages (NII through adult) of the copepodAcartia tonsa, and used to construct food size spectra. Growth and developmental rates were determined at 7 food levels (0 to 1 500 μg C l-1 ofRhodomonas baltica). The lower size limit for particle capture was between 2 and 4 μm for all developmental stages. Optimum particle size and upper size limit increased during development from ∼7 μm and 10 to 14 μm for NII to NIII to 14 to 70 μm and ∼250 μm for adults, respectively. When food size spectra were normalized (percent of maximum clearance in a particular stage versus particle diameter/prosome length) they resembled log-normal distributions with near constant width (variance). Optimum, relative particle sizes corresponded to 2 to 5% of prosome length independent of developmental stage. Since the biomass of particulate matter is approximately constant in equal logarithmic size classes in the sea, food availability may be similar for all developmental stages in the average marine environment. Juvenile specific growth rate was exponential and increased hyperbolically with food concentration. It equaled specific female egg-production rate at all food concentrations. The efficiency by which ingested carbon in excess of maintenance requirements was converted into body carbon was 0.44, very similar to the corresponding efficiency of egg-production in females. On the assumptions that food availability is similar for all developmental stages, and that juvenile and female specific growth/egg-production rates are equal, female egg-production rates are representative of turnover rates (production/biomass) of the entireA. tonsa population and probably in other copepod species as well. Therefore, in situ estimates of female fecundity may be used for a rapid time- and site-specific field estimate of copepod production. This approach is shown to be fairly robust to even large deviations from the assumptions.