ABR: Studies on the Ecological Physiology of Midwater Animals

[9415543] Childress本研究旨在验证一个假设，即微藻和浮游动物对海洋碳的再矿化是海洋碳收支的重要组成部分。这将通过将代谢模式数据应用于加利福尼亚洋流在4100米水柱中收集的中水动物生物量数据集，并使用代谢数据来估计该群落及其主要组成部分的呼吸碳通量来实现。研究工作将集中在改进胶状动物的生物量估计，改进在水中最低氧层中发现的低氧分压下的代谢率估计，以及收集更稀有和更脆弱物种的数据。这项研究的意义在于了解巨大的全球中水生态系统的重要性。这是一个与地表群落广泛相互作用的生态系统，但我们对它的了解相对较少。中水动物群（包括微浮游动物和浮游动物）是物质通过水柱通量的主要因素，其结果是垂直迁移、捕食垂直迁移者、以沉积物质为食以及在深度产生生物量和粪便。这种动物群在深海对有机化合物的呼吸氧化可能是水中碳通量的一个重要组成部分。要了解这些生物在海洋经济和全球碳循环中的重要性，就必须获得有关这些动物群进行的生物过程速率的信息。

9415543 Childress This research is directed at testing the hypothesis that the remineralization of oceanic carbon by micronekton and zooplankton is a significant fraction of the oceanic carbon budget. This will be carried out by applying the data on metabolic patterns to a midwater animals biomass dataset which has been collected in the California Current in a 4100 m water column and using the metabolic data to estimate respiratory carbon flux due to this community and its major components. The research effort will focus on improved biomass estimates for gelatinous animals, improved estimations of metabolic rates at the low oxygen partial pressures found in midwater oxygen minimum layers, and collection of data from rarer and more fragile species. The significance of this research is tied to the importance of understanding the immense, global midwater ecosystem. An ecosystem which interacts extensively with the surface communities, but about which we know relatively little. The midwater fauna (including both micronekton and zooplankton) is a major factor in the flux of material through the water column as a result of vertical migration, predation on vertical migrnats, feeding on sedimenting materials and production of biomass and feces at depth. The respiratory oxidation of organic compounds at depth by this fauna is potentially a significant component of the carbon flux in midwater. To understand the importance of this assemblage of organisms in the economy of the ocean and in global carbon cycles, it is essential to obtain information on the rates of biological processes carried out by this fauna.