BEST: A novel molecular approach to measuring In situ feeding rates of copepods in the South Eastern Bering Sea.

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。中浮游动物在决定从初级生产者到更高营养水平的碳流中起着关键作用。在白令海东南部，海冰覆盖和夏季分层的时间和范围的年际变化将影响它们在确定碳流路径中的作用，无论是通过上层生态系统还是到底栖动物。了解实际的原位中浮游动物饮食组成和摄食率对于了解该系统中的碳流至关重要。由于中浮游动物捕食环境具有很强的垂直梯度，因此很难对适当的猎物区域进行采样，因此使用传统的瓶孵育技术获取这些速率的信息将受到损害。PIs建议在春季和夏季对东白令海陆架的桡足类动物进行实地调查，使用他们开发的一种新的分子技术，通过胃内容物分析定量测量不同猎物物种的摄食率。他们将使用18S核糖体RNA基因作为标记来识别桡足类内脏中存在的不同猎物物种，并使用定量实时聚合酶链反应（q-PCR）来测量每种猎物物种的该基因拷贝数。摄取率将根据肠道内容物信息、18S拷贝数/生物体和DNA消化率计算。通过将这些就地摄食率测量与浮游动物丰度测量和猎物区组成相结合，他们将能够确定浮游植物生产在不同环境条件下的命运。最终，他们计划利用这些就地消耗估算来评估桡足类动物在白令海陆架生态系统中碳流中的作用。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Durbin 0909415University of Rhode islandMesozooplankton play a critical role in determining carbon flow from primary producers to higher trophic levels. In the SE Bering Sea interannual changes in the timing and extent of both sea ice cover and summer stratification will affect their role in determining the path of carbon flow, whether through the pelagic ecosystem or to the benthos. Knowledge of the actual in situ mesozooplankton diet composition and ingestion rates is essential to understanding the flow of carbon in this system. Information about these rates using traditional bottle incubation techniques will be compromised because of the strong vertical gradients in the mesozooplankton prey environment making sampling the appropriate prey field difficult. The PIs propose a field investigation of in situ feeding rates by copepods on the SE Bering shelf during spring and summer using a novel molecular technique they have developed to quantitatively measure ingestion rates on different prey species from stomach content analysis. They will use the 18S ribosomal RNA gene as a marker to identify different prey species present in the guts of copepods and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) to measure copy number of this gene for each prey species. Ingestion rates will be calculated from this gut content information, 18S copy number/organism, and DNA digestion rates. By combining these in situ ingestion rate measurements with zooplankton abundance measurements and the prey field composition, they will be able to determine the fate of phytoplankton production under the varying environmental conditions. Ultimately, they plan to use these in situ consumption estimates to evaluate the role of copepods in carbon flow in the Bering shelf ecosystem.