What happens to zooplankton faecal pellets? Implications for material flux

Lampitt, Richard S.; Noji, Thomas T.; Bodungen, Bodo von

doi:10.1007/bf01313152

Cited by 287 publications

(241 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…It has been hypothesised that removal by metazooplankton is the most likely fate of fecal material in the upper layers of the sea (Paffenhöfer & Knowles 1979, Lampitt et al 1990, González & Smetacek 1994, Viitasalo et al 1999) since bacteria alone can not be responsible for the majority of the remineralisation of freshly egested fecal pellets (Jacobsen & Azam 1984, Lampitt et al 1990. Support for this hypothesis is found in the few existing publications, which show that some copepod species do clear fecal pellets at high rates in the laboratory (Table 5).…”

Section: Ecological Implicationssupporting

confidence: 63%

“…There are some reports with evidence of coprorhexy, coprochaly and coprophagy, and a few estimates of actual pellet grazing rates (Paffenhöfer & Strickland 1970, Paffenhöfer & Knowles 1979, Paffenhöfer & Van Sant 1985, Ayukai & Nishizawa 1986, Lampitt et al 1990, González et al 1994a. The reported grazing rates are, however, highly variable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Centropages hamatus also lacks a functional response when grazing solely fecal pellets (Lampitt et al 1990), and Eucalanus pileatus similarly has a higher fecal pellet grazing rate in the presence than in the absence of phytoplankton (Table 5, Paffenhöfer & Van Sant 1985). Paffenhöfer & Van Sant (1985) concluded that the feeding rate on non-living food particles was a function of the feeding rate on living food particles and that the increased ingestion of pellets in the presence of T. weissflogii was attributed to an increased filtration activity similar to what we observe here for Acartia tonsa.…”

Section: Processes Governing the Clearance Of Fecal Pelletsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A reduced vertical flux is often attributed to recycling and repackaging of the fecal pellets by coprophagous (ingestion of pellets) copepods (Smetacek 1980, Bathmann et al 1987, González & Smetacek 1994, González et al 1994a, Lane et al 1994, Urban-Rich et al 1999. Also, coprorhexy (fragmentation of pellets) and coprochaly (loosening of pellets) may increase the residence time of fecal material in the water column (Lampitt et al 1990, Noji et al 1991) and make it subject to enhanced microbial degradation (Turner 2002), thus accelerating recycling of fecal pellet material in the water column.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coprophagy and coprorhexy in the copepods Acartia tonsa and Temora longicornis: clearance rates and feeding behaviour

Poulsen¹,

Kiørboe²

2005

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Decades of sediment trap studies have revealed that zooplankton fecal pellets constitute a much smaller fraction of the sedimentary flux than expected from the abundance of copepods and their anticipated production rates of fecal pellets. The explanation for this is thought to be coprophagy (ingestion) of fecal pellets by copepods. We examined fecal pellet clearance rate of Acartia tonsa and Temora longicornis and feeding behaviour of A. tonsa. Pellet clearance rates in A. tonsa and T. longicornis females were similar but low on their own pellets (11 to 22 ml female -1 d -1 ). Our own data together with observations compiled from the literature revealed that copepod fecal pellet clearance rates decrease with increasing relative pellet size and that all species can be described by a common relationship. In A. tonsa, the presence of alternative phytoplankton food increased pellet clearance rate. Direct observations revealed that this was accomplished through the modulating effect of phytoplankton on the feeding behaviour. In the absence of phytoplankton, A. tonsa is nonmotile but perceives sinking fecal pellets at distance. However, only a small fraction of the pellets that came within detection distance elicited an attack. In the presence of phytoplankton food, A. tonsa switched to suspension feeding, and all fecal pellets entrained in the feeding current were encountered. Independent of the feeding mode, fecal pellets were mainly degraded by fragmentation during rejection and only a small fraction was actually ingested (5%). The main impact of A. tonsa on the vertical flux of fecal pellets is therefore through coprorhexy (fragmentation) turning fecal pellets into smaller, slower-sinking particles.

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Section: Ecological Implicationssupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Processes Governing the Clearance Of Fecal Pelletsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coprophagy and coprorhexy in the copepods Acartia tonsa and Temora longicornis: clearance rates and feeding behaviour

Poulsen¹,

Kiørboe²

2005

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…Because the density dependence of bacterial bioluminescence (3-6) is a reliable indicator of a rich patch of food, the benefit of finding rare food in nutrient-deprived waters may outweigh the increase in predation risk. Marine snow is consumed by zooplankton (40)(41)(42)(43), and fecal pellets also might be used as a food source through coprophagy (44)(45)(46). Although our experiments with liquid cultures of P. leiognathi did not fully simulate in situ conditions, the fact that similar glow was promoted in Artemia that ingested particles of the bacterial colonies (Figs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Bacterial bioluminescence as a lure for marine zooplankton and fish

Zarubin

Belkin

Ionescu

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The benefits of bioluminescence for nonsymbiotic marine bacteria have not been elucidated fully. One of the most commonly cited explanations, proposed more than 30 y ago, is that bioluminescence augments the propagation and dispersal of bacteria by attracting fish to consume the luminous material. This hypothesis, based mostly on the prevalence of luminous bacteria in fish guts, has not been tested experimentally. Here we show that zooplankton that contacts and feeds on the luminescent bacterium Photobacterium leiognathi starts to glow, and demonstrate by video recordings that glowing individuals are highly vulnerable to predation by nocturnal fish. Glowing bacteria thereby are transferred to the nutritious guts of fish and zooplankton, where they survive digestion and gain effective means for growth and dispersal. Using bioluminescence as bait appears to be highly beneficial for marine bacteria, especially in food-deprived environments of the deep sea.B ioluminescence is common in the marine environment, occurring in numerous organisms, from bacteria to invertebrates and fish (1, 2). Bacterial bioluminescence occurs as a continuous glow in the presence of oxygen at cell concentrations exceeding quorum-sensing levels (3-6). Luminous bacteria occur free-living in seawater (7,8), in symbiotic associations with marine organisms (most notably fish and squids; see refs. 7 and 8 and references therein), as saprophytes on suspended organic material such as marine snow (9, 10), as a major component of fecal pellets (11-13), and as parasites on crustaceans (14).Although the adaptive benefits of energetically costly bioluminescence in symbiotic bacteria are well understood (e.g., 7, 15), those benefits in nonsymbiotic bacteria and those living as ectoparasites on zooplankton are less obvious. Several different physiological and biochemical functions of bacterial bioluminescence have been proposed (7,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), focusing mostly on antioxidative activity, enhanced DNA repair, and UV resistance, although the validity of some of these hypotheses has been questioned (21).An ecological function in propagation and dispersal also has been postulated (6,7,22). According to this hypothesis (hereafter, "bait hypothesis"), the bacteria, by glowing, visually mark the presence of a food particle for fish in order to get into their nutritious guts. So far, this hypothesis was supported by circumstantial evidence showing that luminous bacteria thrive in and survive passage through fish guts (7,12,23,24). Here we propose that the mechanism underlying the bait hypothesis is based on the following steps: (i) Quorum sensing assures that bacterial bioluminescence is a reliable signal of the presence of food aggregates, e.g., marine snow; (ii) zooplankton is attracted to luminous particles and grazes on the bacteria-rich organic matter; (iii) because of its contact with or ingestion of the luminous bacteria, the zooplankton itself becomes glowing; (iv) the glowing zooplankton is detected readily and consumed by fish; (v) once in the ...

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Using Lagrangian‐based process studies to test satellite algorithms of vertical carbon flux in the eastern North Pacific Ocean

et al. 2015

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The biological carbon pump is responsible for the transport of ∼5–20 Pg C yr−1 from the surface into the deep ocean but its variability is poorly understood due to an incomplete mechanistic understanding of the complex underlying planktonic processes. In fact, algorithms designed to estimate carbon export from satellite products incorporate fundamentally different assumptions about the relationships between plankton biomass, productivity, and export efficiency. To test the alternate formulations of export efficiency in remote‐sensing algorithms formulated by Dunne et al. (2005), Laws et al. (2011), Henson et al. (2011), and Siegel et al. (2014), we have compiled in situ measurements (temperature, chlorophyll, primary production, phytoplankton biomass and size structure, grazing rates, net chlorophyll change, and carbon export) made during Lagrangian process studies on seven cruises in the California Current Ecosystem and Costa Rica Dome. A food‐web based approach formulated by Siegel et al. (2014) performs as well or better than other empirical formulations, while simultaneously providing reasonable estimates of protozoan and mesozooplankton grazing rates. By tuning the Siegel et al. (2014) algorithm to match in situ grazing rates more accurately, we also obtain better in situ carbon export measurements. Adequate representations of food‐web relationships and grazing dynamics are therefore crucial to improving the accuracy of export predictions made from satellite–derived products. Nevertheless, considerable unexplained variance in export remains and must be explored before we can reliably use remote sensing products to assess the impact of climate change on biologically mediated carbon sequestration.

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What happens to zooplankton faecal pellets? Implications for material flux

Cited by 287 publications

References 42 publications

Coprophagy and coprorhexy in the copepods Acartia tonsa and Temora longicornis: clearance rates and feeding behaviour

Coprophagy and coprorhexy in the copepods Acartia tonsa and Temora longicornis: clearance rates and feeding behaviour

Bacterial bioluminescence as a lure for marine zooplankton and fish

Using Lagrangian‐based process studies to test satellite algorithms of vertical carbon flux in the eastern North Pacific Ocean

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