An official website of the European Union How do you know?      
European Commission logo
JRC Publications Repository Menu

Turbulence and Feeding Behaviour Affect the Vertical Distributions of Oithona Similis and Microsetella Norwegica

cover
The small copepods Oithona similis and Microsetella norwegica are often numerically abundant and widely distributed, but the factors controlling their vertical distributions and role in carbon cycling are yet unknown. Here we examined the vertical distributions of copepods during spring and summer in the Skagerrak and during autumn in the North Sea with respect to different physiochemical factors. The ambush feeder O. similis numerically dominated the copepod community and were located in the layers with high microzooplankton abundance. M. norwegica were dominant in the Skagerrak and observed within or just below the pycnocline and are assumed to feed on sinking detrital aggregates. Both copepods use remote detection of either hydromechanical (O. similis) or chemical signals (M. norwegica) generated by the prey and both species migrated to deeper depths in response to elevated surface turbulence. The potential effect of turbulence on both types of feeding is theoretically shown to be negative and we suggest a turbulent dissipation rate in the range 10-7 ¿ 10-6 m2 s-3 as a threshold to trigger the observed avoidance responses.
2006-05-18
INTER-RESEARCH
JRC30814
Language Citation
NameCountryCityType
Datasets
IDTitlePublic URL
Dataset collections
IDAcronymTitlePublic URL
Scripts / source codes
DescriptionPublic URL
Additional supporting files
File nameDescriptionFile type 
Show metadata record  Copy citation url to clipboard  Download BibTeX
Items published in the JRC Publications Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Additional information: https://ec.europa.eu/info/legal-notice_en#copyright-notice