Microzooplankton herbivory and bacterivory in the North Water Polynya

Bussey, Heather Jane (2003) Microzooplankton herbivory and bacterivory in the North Water Polynya. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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    Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission.
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Abstract

Polynyas are regions of reduced ice cover in high latitude environments, which are ordinarily ice-covered. There are few comprehensive studies of microbial processes in polynyas although there are many of phytoplankton and metazoans which show their productivity is greater than surrounding regions. Here I report rates of growth of microbial prey and pattems of microzooplankton herbivory and bacterivory in the North Water Polynya (NOW), from April through July, 1998. Growth rates ranged from 0.0 to 1.1 day⁻¹ for phytoplankton and 0.0 to 1.2 day⁻¹ for bacteria. Highest bacterial grazing mortality was during July (1.3 day⁻¹) whereas for phytoplankton highest mortality was during late April (2.2 day⁻¹). Further investigation of protist size-dependent grazing, using high-resolution image analysis, indicated that microzooplankton were preferentially grazing small-sized bacteria. A substantial amount of carbon was channeled through the microbial food web in the NOW suggesting that microbial processes cycle large amounts of biogenic carbon in this polar region.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
URI: http://research.library.mun.ca/id/eprint/7014
Item ID: 7014
Additional Information: Includes bibliographical references.
Department(s): Science, Faculty of > Biology
Date: 2003
Date Type: Submission
Geographic Location: Arctic Ocean--North Water Polynya
Library of Congress Subject Heading: Marine zooplankton--Food--Arctic Ocean; Marine bacteria--Arctic Ocean; Polynyas--Arctic Ocean; North Water Polynya (Arctic Ocean)

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