Collaborative Research: Salp Swarm Dynamics: Energetics, Growth and Reproduction of Two Bloom-Forming Species

Salps是一种全浮游食草动物，它们的生活史、摄食生物学和种群动态与桡足类或其他甲壳类浮游动物截然不同。它们可以发生在覆盖大片区域的非常密集的种群中，这些水华已经被证明由于放牧和快速下沉的粪便颗粒的生产而产生了重大影响。然而，支持水华形成的条件，以及形成水华的盐分的能量学、繁殖和行为仍然知之甚少。这项研究将集中在两种盐生植物上，这两种盐生植物在分布上是全球性的，它们代表了通常形成大水华的两个属。夏季在大西洋中部海湾的斜坡水域中经常高密度地发生，而在佐治亚湾的冬春期间经常形成密集的种群。研究人员将检查这些盐生动物的摄食、新陈代谢、生长、繁殖和种群动态。他们将使用两种独立的建模方法，以实验和现场数据为基础，将他们的观测扩展到其他时间和空间尺度。解释我们的实验和模拟结果将在盐碱地暴露的环境条件下进行解释。这种综合方法将为理解盐华如何形成和持续提供最好的基础。这项研究的结果将扩展到在许多地点高密度出现的其他物种，使科学家能够更好地评估盐碱地在生物地球化学循环和构建远洋环境结构中的重要性。

Salps are holoplanktonic grazers that have a life history, feeding biology and population dynamicstrikingly different from copepods or other crustacean zooplankton. They can occur in very dense populations that cover large areas, and these blooms have been shown to have major impacts due to grazing and production of fast?sinking fecal pellets. However the conditions supporting bloom formation, and the energetics, reproduction and behavior of the bloom?forming salps are still poorly understood. This study will focus on two species of salps that are global in their distribution and representative of two genera that commonly form large blooms. Salpa aspera regularly occurs during the summer in high concentrations in the slope waters of the Mid?Atlantic Bight, while Thalia democratica regularly forms dense populations during the winter spring in the Georgia Bight. The investigators will examine feeding, metabolism, growth, reproduction and population dynamics of these salps. They will use two independent modeling approaches, grounded in experimental and field data, to extend their observations to other time and space scales. interpret ouexperimental and modeling results will be interpreted within the context of the environmental conditions to which the salps are exposed. This integrated approach will provide the best basis for understanding how salp blooms form and persist. Results of this study will extend to other species that occur in high densities in many locations, allowing scientists to better evaluate the importance of salps in biogeochemical cycles and in structuring the pelagic environment.