U.S.-Brazil Cooperative Research: Trophic Role of Zooplankton on the Brazilian Continental Shelf

这个美洲计划奖将支持乔治B博士之间的美国-巴西研究项目。McManus和Hans G. Dam博士和Rubens M.洛佩斯在巴西圣克鲁斯的州立大学。 该项目的目标是调查浮游动物在巴西大陆架上的营养作用，特别是生态系统对浮游动物生物结构和营养关系的影响，在该项目中，将研究控制南大西洋中央海水季节性侵入巴西湾南部大陆架的物理机制，及其对该区域生态系统生物过程的影响将得到评估。 据推测，营养丰富的南部ACW入侵大陆架是造成渔业产量高以及鱼类种群逐年波动的部分原因。 营养物输入事件和鱼类生产之间的联系是通过微型和后生浮游动物。 这项研究将填补这些浮游动物的结构和功能以及它们之间相互作用的知识空白。 它将联合收割机结合巴西研究人员在分类学和描述生态学方面的优势与美国科学家在实验过程研究方面的优势。

This Americas Program award will support a US-Brazil research project between Drs. George B. McManus and Hans G. Dam, University of Connecticut, and Dr. Rubens M. Lopes at the State University of Santa Cruz in Brazil. The goal of the project is to investigate the trophic role of zooplankton on the Brazilian continental shelf, and in particular the effect of ecosystem forcing on biological structure and trophic relationships within the plankton.In this project the physical mechanisms that control the seasonal intrusion of the South Atlantic Central Water (SACW) onto the continental shelf of the Southern Brazilian Bight will be studied, and its impact on the biological processes of the region's ecosystem will be evaluated. It is hypothesized that intrusions of the nutrient-rich SACW onto the shelf are partly responsible for the high fisheries yield as well as for some of the year-to-year fluctuations in fish stocks. The linkages between nutrient-input events and fish production are made though micro- and metazoan zooplankton. This research will fill a gap in the knowledge of the structure and function of these zooplankton and of the interactions between them. It will combine the strengths of the Brazilian researchers in taxonomy and descriptive ecology with those of U.S. scientists in experimental process studies.