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

本研究将调查摄食率，营养 海底边界层的影响 深海近海底群落中的浮游动物。 在 合作调查，Wishner博士和Gowing将获得 深海浮游动物活动的指标和估计 它们作为颗粒改性剂和能量消耗者的影响。 的 测量原位浮游动物摄食率的新方法， 使用荧光颗粒作为 摄入，将允许记录肠道通过时间和 这些动物园动物对存在的 食物 检查浮游动物的肠道内容物，沿着 对水柱微粒进行类似的分析， 以确定深海BBL中的特定营养途径。 电子显微镜将有可能分辨出 通常标记为无定形，确定超微结构条件 活的或碎屑）的肠道内容物，并识别生物体 例如金属沉淀细菌。 由于浮游动物摄取 颗粒物质并将其重新包装为粪便颗粒， 改变近底的大小、密度和组成 颗粒物，因此可能影响海底和远洋生物群落 动力学和BBL化学和颗粒通量。

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.