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Feeding ecology and trophic impact of the hydroid Obelia dichotoma in the Kongsfjorden (Spitsbergen, Arctic)

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Abstract

Obelia dichotoma is a thecate hydroid with a worldwide distribution, occurring mainly on shallow water hard substrates. Since the trophic ecology of hydroids in polar waters is badly understood, the aim of the present work was to study qualitatively and quantitatively the diet of these organisms in an Arctic environment and to determine their trophic significance. For this purpose, the density of the hydroid population was documented, and simultaneously, zooplankton was sampled in two different years (1997 and 1998). Prey capture rates were estimated by analysing the gastrovascular content of the polyps in a diurnal cycle. Additionally, the digestion time of O. dichotoma was measured by laboratory feeding experiments using diatoms as food items. The analyses of the gastrovascular cavities of the polyps sampled during the diurnal cycles showed that O. dichotoma fed mainly on faecal pellets, organic matter and microalgae. Zooplankton prey was also observed, but gastrovascular contents and zooplankton abundance did not show any correlation in both years. The consumption rates of the hydroid populations differed between the 2 years. It was almost double (8.9 mg Carbon m−2) in 1998 compared to 1997 (5.5 mg Carbon m−2). The significance of the environmental variability in the feeding ecology and population dynamics of hydroids under Arctic conditions is discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The support of the scientific and technical staff of the Koldewey-Station, the members of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) diving team and the Ny-Ålesund International Research and Monitoring Facility is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are due to the AWI for technical and financial support. The first author was financially supported by a Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) fellowship (A/96/13073) and a European Commission fellowship from the programme Training and mobility of researchers (TMR-CT97-2813). S. Rossi was funded by a Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC-2007-01327). Special thanks to Prof. Dr. Wolf E. Arntz who supported enthusiastically the development of this work. We would like to dedicate this paper to the memory of our colleague Francesc Pagès, great cnidarian researcher and best friend.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Moll de Ponent s/n, 07015, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Covadonga Orejas

  2. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (CSIC), Pg. Maritim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Covadonga Orejas, Àurea Peralba, Eva García & Josep Maria Gili

  3. Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Columbusstrasse, 27568, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Covadonga Orejas & Heike Lippert

  4. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona UAB, UAB Campus Cn s/n., 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain

    Sergio Rossi

  5. Institute of Biological Sciences, Department of Applied Ecology, University of Rostock, 18057, Rostock, Germany

    Heike Lippert

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  1. Covadonga Orejas
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  2. Sergio Rossi
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Correspondence to Covadonga Orejas.

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Orejas, C., Rossi, S., Peralba, À. et al. Feeding ecology and trophic impact of the hydroid Obelia dichotoma in the Kongsfjorden (Spitsbergen, Arctic). Polar Biol 36, 61–72 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1239-7

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