The grazing rate of planktonic copepods

D. T. Gauld1
1Department of Zoology, University of Edinburgh, and the Marine Station, Millport

Tóm tắt

The filtering rate of four species of marine planktonic copepods was measured by estimating the rate at which they consumed cultures of Chlamydomonas.

The filtering rate was independent of the concentration of the food organism and it is concluded that the copepods were acting as filter feeders.

The filtering rates were much greater than those reported by Fuller & Clarke (1936) and Fuller (1937), but agreed with those reported by Harvey (1937).

Some evidence was obtained that grazing was restricted to some only of the 24 hr., most probably to the hours of darkness.

The filtering rates were approximately proportional to the square of the linear dimensions of the copepod.

The purely mechanical selection suggested by Fuller (1937) to account for differences in filtering rates obtained with different species of diatoms cannot account for all the differences which have been observed.

It is probable that the copepods could obtain sufficient particulate food in the sea by filtering a daily volume of water corresponding to the filtering rates found.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Riley, 1949, Quantitative ecology of the plankton of the western North Atlantic, Bull. Bingham Oceanog. Coll., 12, 169

Lowndes A. G. , 1935. The swimming and feeding of certain calanoid copepods. Proc Zool. Soc. Lond., 1935, pp. 687–715.

10.1002/iroh.19110040102

10.1111/j.1469-185X.1931.tb01032.x

10.1017/S0025315400011899

Esterly, 1916, The feeding habits and food of pelagic copepods and the question of nutrition by organic substances in solution in the water, Univ. Calif. Pbl. Zool., 16, 171

10.1017/S0025315400009164

10.1017/S0025315400046658

Raymont, 1942, On the feeding and breeding of Calanus finmarchicus under laboratory conditions, Proc. R. Soc. Edin. B, 61, 267

10.1017/S002531540000761X

10.1017/S002531540001211X

Pütter, 1925, Die Ernährung der Copepoden, Arch. Hydrobiol., 15, 70

Lebour, 1930, The Planktonic Diatoms of Northern Seas

10.2307/1537475

10.1017/S0025315400009681

Pütter, 1909, Die Ernährung der Wassertiere und der Stoffhaushalt der Gewässer

Pütter, 1907, Die Ernährung der Wassertiere, Zeits. Allg. Physiol., 7, 283

Lohmann, 1908, Untersuchungen zur Feststellung des vollständigen Gehaltes des Meeres an Plankton, Wiss. Merresunters., Abt. Kiel, 10, 129

10.1002/iroh.19090020103

10.1002/iroh.19080010603

10.2307/1537257