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“Picopellets” Produced by Phagotrophic Nanoflagellates: Role in the Material Cycling within Marine Environments

  • Chapter
Dynamics and Characterization of Marine Organic Matter

Part of the book series: Ocean Sciences Research (OSR) ((OCRE,volume 2))

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that marine phagotrophic protists can release large numbers of small fecal pellets (<1 μm in linear size dimension). These “picopellets” may contribute substantially to the turnover of submicron and colloidal particles in the sea. This paper reviews recent studies that examined release of colloidal and dissolved organic matter by phatotrophic nanoflagellates, dominant grazers of picophytoplankton and bacteria in diverse marine environments. Difficulties in quantitative recovery of flagellate egesta have seriously restricted the analysis of the mass balance and stoichiometry of ingestion/egestion processes in flagellates, but available evidence suggests that a significant fraction of ingested prey materials is egested as colloidal and dissolved organic matter particularly when prey abundance is high. Biochemical characterization of picopellets has revealed that some of these particles have liposome-like structures, which may partly explain the formation of the semi-labile and refractory pool of dissolved organic matter in seawater. Future challenges include recovery, detection and characterization of picopellets from natural environments and evaluation of their roles in major biogeochemical fluxes including particle sinking, organic matter decomposition and nutrient regeneration.

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  1. Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 1-15-1 Minami-dai, Nakano, Tokyo, 164-8639, Japan

    Toshi Nagata

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  1. Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Aichi Prefectural University, Aichi-gun, Japan

    Nobuhiko Handa

  2. Institute for Hydrospheric-Atmospheric Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Eiichiro Tanoue

  3. Institute of Biological Sciences, Tsukuba University, Tsukuba, Japan

    Takeo Hama

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Nagata, T. (2000). “Picopellets” Produced by Phagotrophic Nanoflagellates: Role in the Material Cycling within Marine Environments. In: Handa, N., Tanoue, E., Hama, T. (eds) Dynamics and Characterization of Marine Organic Matter. Ocean Sciences Research (OSR), vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1319-1_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1319-1_12

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