Biological oceanography across the Southern Indian Ocean - basin scale trends in the zooplankton community

• We present a study on the protozooplankton > 5 mu m and copepods larger than 50 mu m at a series of contrasting stations across the Southern Indian Ocean (SIO). Numerically, over 80% of the copepod community across the transect was less than 650 mu m in size, dominated by nauplii, and smaller copepods, while 80% of the biomass (as mg C m(-3)) was larger than 1300 mu m in body length. Predation by the carnivorous copepod Corycaeus sp. was estimated to be able to remove up to 2% d(-1) of the copepods < 1000 mu m in size. By the help of grazing models we estimated that primary producers were mainly grazed upon by ciliates and heterotrophic dinoflagellates (40-80% d(-1) combined) in temperate waters but appendicularians became increasingly important in the tropical waters grazing about 40% of the biomass per day. Despite their high abundance and biomass, copepods contributed less than 20% of the grazing at most stations. Secondary production was low (carbon specific egg production < 0.14 d(-1)) but typical for food limited oligotrophic oceans.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Oceanografi, hydrologi och vattenresurser (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Mesozooplankton

Heterotrophic protists

Egg production

Grazing

Indian Ocean

Galathea 3

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)