Ingestion Rates and Trophic Relationships of Deep-Sea Benthic Boundary Layer Zooplankton

本研究将探讨底栖边界层浮游动物在深海近底群落中的摄食速率、营养关系和影响。在合作调查中，Wishner博士和Ging博士将获得深海浮游动物活动的指标，并估计它们作为粒子改进剂和能源消耗者的影响。新的现场测量浮游动物摄食率的方法，使用荧光颗粒作为摄食的明确示踪剂，将允许记录肠道通过时间和这些浮游动物对食物存在的反应能力。对浮游动物肠道内容物的检查，以及对水柱颗粒的类似分析，将使他们能够确定深海BBL的特定营养路径。电子显微镜将有可能分解通常被标记为无定形的物质，确定肠道内容物的超微结构条件(活的或碎屑的)，并识别生物，如金属沉淀菌。由于浮游动物摄取颗粒物并将其重新包装成粪便颗粒，它们改变了近底颗粒物的大小、密度和组成，从而可能影响底栖和远洋群落的动态以及BBL的化学和颗粒物通量。

This research will investigate the feeding rates, trophic relationships, and impact of the benthic boundary layer (BBL) zooplankton in deep-sea near-bottom communities. In the collaborative investigations, Drs. Wishner and Gowing will obtain indicators of zooplankton activity in the deep sea and estimate of their impact as particle modifiers and energy consumers. The new methods for measuring in situ zooplankton ingestion rates, with the use of fluorescent particles as unambiguous tracers of ingestion, will allow documentation of gut passage time and the ability of these zooplankters to respond to the presence of food. Examination of the gut contents of the zooplankton, along with similar analyses of water column particulates, will enable them to determine specific trophic pathways in the deep-sea BBL. Electron microscopy will make it possible to resolve material often labeled amorphous, determine the ultrastructural condition living or detrital) of the gut contents, and recognize organisms such as metal-precipitating bacteria. Since zooplankton ingest particulate material and repackage it as fecal pellets, they alter the size, density, and composition of the near-bottom particulates, and thus may affect benthic and pelagic community dynamics and BBL chemical and particulate fluxes.