Abstract
Because of the abundance and size of Oikopleura vanhoeffeni its quantitative role as a suspension feeder in cold ocean waters needs to be defined. To minimize the effect of manipulation and containment, and to assess the effect of naturally occurring factors on clearance rate, I used an in situ latex microbead technique in Logy Bay, Newfoundland, from February 1985 to June 1986. Individual clearance rates ranged from 8–944 ml h-1, increasing exponentially with increasing trunk length. Partial correlation and principal components analysis indicated that trunk length and the concentration of ingestible chlorophyll a accounted for a majority of the variation in clearance rate. At densities of 4–110 m-3, O. vanhoeffeni populations removed from >1 to 13% of the standing stock of ingestible food particles each day. Grazing by near-surface populations was lowest during the spring diatom bloom (>1.4% of daily particle production removed per day), and was highest in June during the post-bloom crash (4 to 10% of daily production removed). Some populations in mid-depth waters had much higher population clearance rates (ca. 50% of daily production removed) because of a greater proportion of large animals. The median percentage daily ration (μg Cxμg C-1xd-1x100%) of 64% accounted for observed house production rates (1 to 2 d-1, with each house=23% of body carbon).
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Communicated by R. W. Doyle, Halifax
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Deibel, D. Filter feeding by Oikopleura vanhoeffeni: grazing impact on suspended particles in cold ocean waters. Mar. Biol. 99, 177–186 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00391979
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00391979