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

海鞘是全浮游食草动物，其生活史、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。它们可以发生在非常密集的种群中，覆盖大面积，这些水华已经被证明对放牧和生产快？下沉的粪便颗粒。然而，支持华花形成的条件，以及华花的能量学、繁殖和行为？人们对海鞘的形成仍然知之甚少。这项研究将集中在全球分布的两种海带，它们是通常形成大花的两属的代表。在夏季，萨尔帕沙经常出现在中部的斜坡水域，浓度很高。大西洋湾，而塔利亚民主定期形成密集的种群在冬季春季在格鲁吉亚湾。研究人员将研究这些海鞘的摄食、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，将他们的观察扩展到其他时间和空间尺度。解释实验和建模结果将在海鞘所暴露的环境条件下进行解释。这种综合方法将为理解海藻华的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方高密度发生的其他物种，使科学家能够更好地评估海鞘在生物地球化学循环和构建远洋环境中的重要性。

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.