Insights into the Structure and Function of Planktonic Food Webs Through the Automated Analysis of Size Distributions

930259 CHISHOLM浮游生物大小谱（总生物量在不同大小类间的分布）是浮游生态系统结构和功能的体现。因此，它们所包含的信息可能有助于了解海洋不同生物地球化学省的生产力调节。它们还包含了制定解释卫星海洋颜色测量的算法所必需的信息。该项目的总体目标是通过观察和实验，研究海洋不同区域浮游生物大小光谱的特征如何变化，并确定产生和维持它们的潜在机制是什么。流式细胞术将用于开发自动化技术，用于生成0.3至100微米尺寸范围内的远洋尺寸光谱，使人们能够测量微型浮游生物，植物，细菌和微型浮游动物的大小和丰度。这些方法一旦开发出来，将应用于各种不同条件下的各种不同海洋学制度的研究。＊＊＊

930259 CHISHOLM Planktonic size spectra (the distribution of total biomass among different size classes) are a manifestation of the structure and function of pelagic ecosystems. As such, they embody information which could be useful for understanding the regulation of productivity in different biogeochemical provinces of the oceans. They also contain information essential to formulating algorithms to interpret satellite ocean color measurements. The overall goal of this project is to study, through observation and experimentation, how the characteristics of planktonic size spectra vary in different regions of the oceans and to determine what the underlying mechanisms are that generate and maintain them. Flow cytometry will be used to develop automated techniques for the generation of pelagic size spectra in the 0.3 to 100 micrometer size range, allowing one to measure size and abundance of picoplankton, phytoplantkon, bacteria, and microzooplankton. Once developed these methods will be applied to studies in a variety of different oceanographic regimes under a variety of different conditions. ***