Abstract
Grazing and faecal pellet production by the copepods Calanus helgolandicus and Pseudocalanus elongatus, feeding on the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi, were measured under defined laboratory conditions, together with the chemical characteristics and sinking rates of the faecal pellets produced. Ingestion rates of both copepods were equivalent at comparable cell concentrations, the relationship between ingestion rate (I, cells copepod-1 h-1) and food concentration (C, cells ml-1), being I=0.558C for both species. P. elongatus produced a larger number of smaller faecal pellets than C. helgolandicus, but egested a larger volume of material per individual. Only between 27 and 50% of the ingested coccolith calcite was egested in the faecal pellets, and it is possible that acid digestion in the copepod gut is responsible for these considerable losses. Average sinking rates of faecal pellets containing E. huxleyi coccoliths, produced by both species, were >100 m d-1. The implications of the quantitative laboratory estimates for the vertical flux of inorganic carbon are considered using recently studied shelf-break and oceanic E. huxleyi blooms in the N. E. Atlantic as examples.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ayukai T, Nishizawa S (1986) Defaecation rate as a possible measure of ingestion rate of Calanus pacificus pacificus (Copepoda: Calanoidea). Bull Plankton Soc Japan 33: 3–10
Bathmann UV, Noji TT, Voss M, Peinert R (1987) Copepod fecal pellets: abundance, sedimentation and content at a permanent station in the Norwegian Sea in May/June 1986. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 38: 45–51
Berger (1973) Deep-sea carbonates: evidence for a coccolith lysocline. Deep-Sea Res 20: 917–921
Bienfang PK (1980) Herbivore diet affects fecal pellet sinking rate. Can J Fish aquat Sciences 37: 1352–1357
Bramlette MN (1958) Significance of coccolithophorids in calcium carbonate sedimentation. Bull geol Soc Am 69: 121–126
Cadee GC (1985) Macroaggregates of Emiliania huxleyi sediment traps. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 24: 193–196
Dagg MJ, Walser WE (1986) The effect of food concentration on fecal pellet size in marine copepods. Limnol Oceanogr 31: 1066–1071
Fernandez E, Boyd P, Holligan PM, Harbour DS (1993) Production of organic and inorganic carbon within a large-scale coccolithophore bloom in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 97: 271–285
Frost BW (1972) Effects of size and concentration of food particles on the feeding behaviour of the marine planktonic copepod Calanus pacificus. Limnol Oceanogr 17: 805–815
Gamble JC (1978) Copepod grazing during a declining spring phytoplankton bloom in the Northern North Sea. Mar Biol 49: 309–315
Gaudy R (1974) Feeding four species of pelagic copepods under experimental conditions. Mar Biol 25: 125–141
Gauld DT (1957) A peritrophic membrane in calanoid copepods. Nature, Lond 179: 325–326
Guillard RRL, Ryther JH (1962) Studies on marine phytoplanktonic diatoms. 1. Cyclotella nana Hustedt and Detonula confervacea (Cleve) Gran. Can J Microbiol 8: 229–239
Harris RP (1982) Comparison of the feeding behaviour of Calanus and Pseudocalanus in two experimentally manipulated enclosed ecosystems. J mar biol Ass UK 62: 71–91
Holligan PM, Fernandez E, Aiken J, Balch WM, Boyd P, Burkill PH, Finch M, Groom SB, Malin G, Muller K, Purdie DA, Robinson C, Trees CS, Turner SM, van der Wal P (1993a) A biogeochemical study of the coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi, in the North Atlantic. Global biogeochem Cycles 7: 879–900
Holligan PM, Groom SB, Harbour DS (1993b) What controls the distribution of the coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi, in the North Sea? Fish Oceanogr 2: 175–183
Holligan PM, Viollier M, Harbour DS, Camus P, Champagne-Phillipe M (1983) Satellite and ship studies of coccolithophore production along a continental shelf edge. Nature, Lond 304: 339–342
Honjo S (1976) Coccoliths: production, transportation and sedimentation. Mar Micropaleont 1: 65–79
Honjo S, Roman MR (1978) Marine copepod faecal pellets: production, preservation and sedimentation. J mar Res 36: 45–57
Huntley M (1981) Nonselective, nonsaturated feeding by three calanid copepod species in the Labrador Sea. Limnol Oceanogr 26: 831–842
Ishimaru T, Nishida S, Marumo R (1988) Food size selectivity of zooplankton evaluated from the occurrence of coccolithophorids in the guts. Bull Plankton Soc Japan 35: 101–114
Lampitt RS, Noji T, von Bodungen B (1990) What happens to zooplankton faecal pellets? Implications for material flux. Mar Biol 104: 15–23
Löhmann H (1902) Die Coccolithophoridae, eine Monographie der Coccolithen-bildenden Flagellaten, zugleich ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis des Mittelmeerauftriebs. Arch Protistenk 1: 89–165
Lorenzen CJ, Welschmeyer NA (1983) The in situ sinking rates of herbivore fecal pellets. J Plankton Res 5: 929–933
Marshall SM, Orr AP (1955) On the biology of Calanus finmarchicus. VIII. Food uptake, assimilation and excretion in adult and stage V Calanus. J mar biol Ass UK 34: 495–529
Martens P (1976) Artspezifische Merkmale der Faeces von vier dominierenden Copepodenarten der Kieler Bucht. Helgoländer wiss Meeresunters 28: 411–416
McCave IN (1975) Vertical flux of particles in the ocean. Deep-Sea Res 22: 491–502
Murray J, Hjort J (1912) The depth of the ocean. London, MacMillan
Noji TT, Estep KW, MacIntyre F, Norrbin F (1991) Image analysis of faecal material grazed upon by three species of copepods. Evidence for coprorhexy, coprophagy and coprochaly. J mar biol Ass UK 71: 465–480
Okada H, McIntyre A (1979) Seasonal distribution of modern coccolithophores in the Western North Atlantic Ocean. Mar Biol 54: 319–328
Paffenhöfer G-A, Knowles SC (1979) Ecological implications of fecal pellet size, production and consumption by copepods. J mar Res 37: 35–49
Pilskaln C, Honjo S (1987) The fecal pellet fraction of biogeochemical particle fluxes to the deep sea. Global biogeochem Cycles 1: 31–48
Roth PH, Mullin MM, Berger WH (1975) Coccolith sedimentation by fecal pellets: laboratory experiments and field observations. Bull geol Soc Am 86: 1079–1084
Roy S, Harris RP, Poulet SA (1989) Inefficient feeding by Calanus helgolandicus and Temora longicornis on Coscinodiscus wailesii: quantitative estimation using chlorophyll-type pigments and effects on dissolved free amino acids. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 52: 145–153
Small LF, Fowler SW, Unlu MY (1979) Sinking rates of natural copepod fecal pellets. Mar Biol 51: 233–241
Tsuda A, Nemoto T (1990) The effect of food concentration on the faecal pellet size of the marine copepod Pseudocalanus newmani Frost. Bull Plankton Soc Japan 37: 83–90
Turner JT, Ferrante JG (1979) Zooplankton fecal pellets in aquatic ecosystems. BioSci 29: 670–677
Urban JL, Deibel D, Schwinghammer P (1993) Seasonal variations in the densities of fecal pellets produced by Oikopleura vanhoeffeni (C. Larvacea) and Calanus finmarchicus (C. Copepoda). Mar Biol 117: 607–613
Urrere MA, Knauer GA (1981) Zooplankton fecal pellet fluxes and vertical transport of particulate organic material in the pelagic environment. J Plankton Res 3: 369–385
Voss M (1991) Content of copepod faecal pellets in relation to food supply in Kiel Bight and its effect on sedimentation rate. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 75: 217–225
Westbroek P, Young JR, Linschooten K (1989) Coccolith production (biomineralization) in the marine alga Emiliania huxley. J Protozool 36: 368–373
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by J. Mauchline, Oban
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Harris, R.P. Zooplankton grazing on the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi and its role in inorganic carbon flux. Marine Bioliogy 119, 431–439 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00347540
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00347540