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Winter–spring feeding and metabolism of Arctic copepods: insights from faecal pellet production and respiration measurements in the southeastern Beaufort Sea

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Abstract

Faecal pellet production (FPP) and respiration rates of Calanus glacialis, C. hyperboreus and Metridia longa were measured under land-fast ice in the southeastern Beaufort Sea during the winter–spring transition (March–May 2004) prior to the phytoplankton spring bloom. Despite different overwintering and life cycle strategies and remaining low concentrations of suspended chlorophyll a and particulate organic matter, all species showed increasing FPP rates in spring. A corresponding increase in respiration was only observed in C. glacialis, while respiration remained constant in C. hyperboreus and M. longa. In C. glacialis and C. hyperboreus calculated ingestion covered respiratory expenditures. The constancy of the oil sac volume in M. longa suggests that the animals fed during winter-spring. Pre-bloom grazing as shown here seems to acclimate the copepod populations physiologically for the upcoming high feeding season, so that they are able to resume maximum grazing and reproduction as soon as the phytoplankton bloom is initiated.

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Acknowledgments

This study was made possible through financial support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the International Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES). We thank the officers and crew of the CCGS ‘Amundsen’ for their outstanding help during the CASES 2003–2004 expedition. We are grateful to the many colleagues who helped with sampling and experiments: T. Businski, A. Forest, P. Lafrance, P. Massot, L. Michaud, V. Perron, M. Pilotte, A. Prokopowicz, M. Sampei, T. Suzuki, P. Trela, and S. Yamamoto. We are particularly grateful to T. Juul-Pedersen for conducting the FPC experiment in July. Thanks to M. Reigstad and H. Hodal for POC analysis and to S. Brugel for sharing her knowledge and preliminary data with us. P. Renaud, M. Reigstad, and three anonymous referees made very helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This study was financially supported by the Roald Amundsen Centre for Arctic Research and CABANERA (financed by the Norwegian Research Council; project number 155936/700).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Norwegian College of Fishery Science, University of Tromsø, 9037, Tromsø, Norway

    Lena Seuthe, Christian Wexels Riser & Paul Wassmann

  2. Québec-Océan, Département de Biologie, Université Laval, G1K 7P4, Quebec, QC, Canada

    Gérald Darnis & Louis Fortier

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  1. Lena Seuthe
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  2. Gérald Darnis
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Correspondence to Lena Seuthe.

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Seuthe, L., Darnis, G., Riser, C.W. et al. Winter–spring feeding and metabolism of Arctic copepods: insights from faecal pellet production and respiration measurements in the southeastern Beaufort Sea. Polar Biol 30, 427–436 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-006-0199-1

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