Instrumentation for the Analysis of Zooplankton Lipids

这项提议寻求支持设计一种分析工具来分离和量化类脂类别。该仪器在商业上被称为医用扫描，结合了两种原理：薄层色谱(TLC)和火焰离子化检测(FID)。不到十年前，随着医用扫描技术的出现，人们有可能对浮游生物、沉积物和沉积物中的脂类进行灵敏、快速的定量。可以分析单个桡足类动物的脂类组成，现在允许将脂类用作种群生物学研究的工具。购买一台医用扫描仪将允许完成一项研究，并进行初步探索，作为未来研究的基础。首先，我们将评估海洋锋面对桡足类营养的影响。这一假设将被检验，即3种悬浮摄食的桡足类对Ensenada锋面的营养反应存在种间差异。Ensenada锋面是加州海流中持续存在的深水锋面系统。感兴趣的物种是真甲藻、太平洋甲藻和太平洋哲水蚤。储存脂肪(蜡酯、三酰甘油)和肠道荧光将被用作“条件因素”，在一系列与额叶区域相交的线上评估这3种动物的营养状况。其次，将探索垂直细分的桡足类种群可以通过脂类分布来区分的可能性。后者涉及浮游动物种群增长的连续性/间断性以及迁徙浮游动物对脂类的垂直运输问题。Ensenda锋面对浮游动物营养的影响和垂直脂肪变化研究都将利用为此目的收集并在1988年邮轮期间冷冻的现有浮游动物样本进行(ZBI和Fronts‘88)。

This proposal seeks support for an analytical instrument designed to separate and quantify lipid classes. The instrument, known commercially as an Iatroscan, combines two principles: thin-layer chromatography (TLC) with flame ionization detection (FID). The advent of the Iatroscan, less than a decade ago, made possible sensitive, rapid quantitation of lipid classes from planktonic organisms, seston, and sediments. Lipid class composition from as little as a single copepod can be analyzed, now permitting lipids to be used as a tool in the study of population biology. Purchase of an Iatroscan will permit one study to be completed and a preliminary exploration conducted as a foundation for future research. First, the effects of an oceanic front on copepod nutrition will be evaluated. The hypothesis will be tested that interspecific differences exist in nutritional responses of 3 suspension-feeding copepods to the Ensenada front, a persistent, deep-water frontal system in the California Current. The species of interest are Eucalanus californicus, Metridia pacifica, and Calanus pacificus californicus. Storage lipids (wax esters, triacylglycerols) and gut fluorescence will be used as "condition factors," to assess the nutritional status of these 3 species on a series of lines that intersect the frontal region. Secondly, the possibility that vertically subdivided copepod populations can be differentiated by lipid profiles will be explored. The latter issue bears on the problem of the continuous/discontinuous character of zooplankton population growth as well as the vertical transport of lipids by migratory zooplankton. Both the effects of the Ensenda front on zooplankton nutrition and the vertical lipid variation study will be done with existing zooplankton samples that were collected for this purpose and frozen during cruises in 1988 (ZBI and Fronts '88).