The Consumption of Marine Snow by Macrozooplankton and Its Impact on Aggregate Abundance In Situ

浮游动物对马林雪(0.5毫米碎屑聚集体)的消耗有可能成为改变海洋中大型下沉颗粒的大小、分布和丰度的重要途径之一，并被认为是混合层以下颗粒物通量随深度指数下降的主要原因。然而，关于远洋动物摄取稀有稀土聚集体的能力，人们几乎一无所知。我们建议对海洋雪的两个潜在的最重要的大型浮游动物消费者进行调查，它们是真浮游动物和浮游动物。我们实验室的野外观测和初步实验清楚地表明，这些动物贪婪地食用海雪。我们建议1)根据提供的团聚体的大小、类型和质量、动物的大小和饥饿状态以及替代悬浮食物来源的可获得性来量化太平洋真甲藻和多里约埃塔对海洋雪的消耗量，以及2)评估聚集性大型浮游动物，特别是垂直迁移的真浮游动物对沿海表层水中海雪的丰度和垂直分布的影响。

Consumption of maarine snow (detrital aggregates0.5 mm) by zooplankton has the potential to be one of the mosst significnt pathways altering the size distribution and abundance of large sinking particales in the ocean and has been hypothesized to be a major cause of the exponential decrease in particulate flux with depth below the mixed layer. Yet almost nothing is known about the ability of pelagic animals to consume lare aggregates. We propose investigations of two of the potentially most important macrozooplankton consumers of marine snow, euphausiids and doliolids. Field observaations and preliminary experiments in our laboratory cleary demonstrate that these animals voraciouslly consume marine snow. We propose to 1) quantify the consumption of marine snow by Euphausia pacifica and Doliioetta gegenbauri as a function of the size, type and quality of aggregates offered, the size and hunger state of the animals, and the avialbility of alternate suspeended food sources, and 2) assess the impact of aggregate-conssuming macrozooplankton, especially vertically migrating euphausids, on the aabundance and vertical distripbution of marine snow in coastal surface water.