Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:16:50.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Microzooplankton composition in the winter sea ice of the Weddell Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2017

Marina Monti-Birkenmeier ,
Tommaso Diociaiuti ,
Serena Fonda Umani  and
Bettina Meyer
Marina Monti-Birkenmeier*
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale, Via A. Piccard 54, I-34151, Trieste, Italy
Tommaso Diociaiuti
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via L. Giorgieri 10, I-34127, Trieste, Italy
Serena Fonda Umani
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via L. Giorgieri 10, I-34127, Trieste, Italy
Bettina Meyer
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Section Polar Biological Oceanography, Am Handelshafen 12, D-27570 Bremerhaven, Germany Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Carl von Ossietzky Straße 9-11, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sympagic microzooplankton were studied during late winter in the northern Weddell Sea for diversity, abundance and carbon biomass. Ice cores were collected on an ice floe along three dive transects and seawater was taken from under the ice through the central dive hole from which all transects were connected. The areal and vertical microzooplankton distributions in the ice and water were compared. Abundance (max. 1300 ind. l-1) and biomass (max. 28.2 µg C l-1) were high in the ice cores and low in the water below the sea ice (max. 19 ind. l-1, 0.15 µg C l-1, respectively). The highest abundances were observed in the bottom 10 cm of the ice cores. The microzooplankton community within the sea ice comprised mainly aloricate ciliates, foraminifers and micrometazoans. In winter, microzooplankton represent an important fraction of the sympagic community in the Antarctic sea ice. They can potentially control microalgal production and contribute to particulate organic carbon concentrations when released into the water column during the ice melt in spring. Continued reduction of the sea ice may undermine the roles of microzooplankton, leading to a reduction or complete loss of diversity, abundance and biomass of these sympagic protists.

Keywords

aloricate ciliatesforaminifersmicrometazoanssympagic protiststintinnids
Type
Biological Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , August 2017 , pp. 299 - 310
Check for updates
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alder, V.A. 1999. Tintinnoinea. In Boltovskoy, D., ed. South Atlantic zooplankton. Leiden: Backhuys, 321–384.Google Scholar
Archer, S.D., Leakey, R.J.G., Burkill, P.H., Sleigh, M.A. & Appleby, C.J. 1996. Microbial ecology of sea ice at a coastal Antarctic site: community composition, biomass and temporal change. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 135, 179–195.Google Scholar
Arrigo, K.R. 2014. Sea ice ecosystems. Annual Review of Marine Science, 6, 439–467.Google Scholar
Balech, E. 1976. Clave ilustrada de Dinoflagelados Antarticos. Buenos Aires: Instituto Antártico Argentino, 99 pp.Google Scholar
Beers, J.R. & Stewart, G.L. 1970. Numerical abundance and estimated biomass of microzooplankton. In Strickland, J.D.H., ed. The ecology of the plankton off La Jolla, California, in the period April through September 1967. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 67–87.Google Scholar
Boltovskoy, D. & Alder, V.A. 1992. Microzooplankton and tintinnid species-specific assemblage structures: patterns of distribution and year-to-year variations in the Weddell Sea (Antarctica). Journal of Plankton Research, 14, 1405–1423.Google Scholar
Bray, J.R. & Curtis, J.T. 1957. An ordination of upland forest communities of southern Wisconsin. Ecological Monographs, 27, 325–349.Google Scholar
Caron, D.A. & Gast, R.J. 2010. Heterotrophic protists associated with sea ice. In Thomas, D.N. & Dieckmann, G.S., eds. Sea ice. Chichester: Blackwell, 327–356.Google Scholar
Edler, L. ed. 1979. Recommendations for marine biological studies in the Baltic Sea. Phytoplankton and chlorophyll. Baltic Marine Biologists Publication, 5, 1–37.Google Scholar
Garrison, D.L. 1991. Antarctic sea ice biota. American Zoologists, 31, 17–33.Google Scholar
Garrison, D.L. & Buck, K.R. 1986. Organism losses during ice melting: a serious bias in sea ice community studies. Polar Biology, 6, 237–239.Google Scholar
Garrison, D.L. & Buck, K.R. 1989. The biota of Antarctic pack ice in the Weddell sea and Antarctic Peninsula regions. Polar Biology, 10, 211–219.Google Scholar
Garrison, D.L. & Close, A.R. 1993. Winter ecology of the sea ice biota in Weddell sea pack ice. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 96, 17–31.Google Scholar
Garzio, L.M. & Steinberg, D.K. 2013. Microzooplankton community composition along the Western Antarctica Peninsula. Deep-Sea Research I - Oceanographic Research Papers, 77, 36–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gifford, D.J. & Caron, D.A. 2000. Sampling, preservation, enumeration and biomass of marine protozooplankton. In Harris, R., Wiebe, P., Lenz, J., Skjoldal, H.R. & Huntley, M., eds. ICES zooplankton methodology manual. London: Academic Press, 193–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemle-von Mücke, S. & Hemleben, C. 1999. Foraminifera. In Boltovskoy, D., ed. South Atlantic zooplankton. Leiden: Backhuys, 43–73.Google Scholar
Kling, S.A. & Boltovskoy, D. 1999. Radiolaria Phaeodaria. In Boltovskoy, D., ed. South Atlantic zooplankton. Leiden: Backhuys, 213–264.Google Scholar
Knap, A., Michaels, A., Close, A., Ducklow, H. & Dickson, A. 1996. Measurement of chlorophyll a and phaeopigments by fluorometric analysis. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study Report 19. Woods Hole, MA: US JGOFS, 118–122.Google Scholar
Kramer, M., Swadling, K.M., Meiners, K.M., Kiko, R., Scheltz, A., Nicolaus, M. & Werner, I. 2011. Antarctic sympagic meiofauna in winter: comparing diversity, abundance and biomass between perennially and seasonally ice-covered regions. Deep-Sea Research II - Topical Studies in Oceanography, 58, 1062–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larink, O. & Westheide, W. 2006. Coastal plankton: photo guide for European seas. Munich: Dr Friedrich Pfeil, 143 pp.Google Scholar
Legendre, P. & Legendre, L. 1998. Numerical ecology, 2nd edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 853 pp.Google Scholar
Lessard, E.J. 1991. The trophic role of heterotrophic dinoflagellates in diverse marine environments. Marine Microbial Food Webs, 5, 49–58.Google Scholar
Lindholm, T. 1985. Mesodinium rubrum – a unique photosynthetic ciliate. Advantages in Aquatic Microbiology, 3, 1–48.Google Scholar
McMinn, A. & Scott, F.J. 2005. Dinoflagellates. In Scott, F.J. & Marchant, H.J., eds. Antarctic marine protists. Canberra, ACT: Australian Biological Resources Study, 202–250.Google Scholar
Meyer, B. 2012. The overwintering of Antarctic krill, Euphasia superba, from an ecophysiological perspective. Polar Biology, 35, 15–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mikrjukov, K.A., Siemensma, F.J. & Patterson, D.J. 2000. Heliozoa. In Lee, J.J., Leedale, G.F. & Bradbury, P., eds. The illustrated guide to the protozoa, 2nd edition. Chichester: Blackwell, 860–872.Google Scholar
Monti, M., Zoccarato, L. & Umani, S.F. 2016. Microzooplankton composition under the sea ice and in the open waters in Terra Nova Bay (Antarctica). Polar Biology, 10.1007/s00300-016-2016-9.Google Scholar
Petz, W. 2005. Ciliates. In Scott, F.J. & Marchant, H.J., eds. Antarctic marine protists. Canberra, ACT: Australian Biological Resources Study, 347–448.Google Scholar
Petz, W., Song, W. & Wilbert, N. 1995. Taxonomy and ecology of the ciliate fauna (Protozoa, Ciliophora) in the endopagial and pelagial of the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Linz: Landesmuseum Biology Centre, 223 pp.Google Scholar
Putt, M. & Stoecker, D.K. 1989. An experimentally determined carbon:volume ratio for marine oligotrichous ciliates from estuarine and coastal waters. Limnology and Oceanography, 34, 1097–1107.Google Scholar
Roberts, D., Craven, M., Cai, M.H., Allison, I. & Nash, G. 2007. Protists in the marine ice of the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica. Polar Biology, 30, 143–153.Google Scholar
Schnack-Schiel, S.B. 2003. The microbiology of sea ice. In Thomas, D.N. & Dieckmann, G.S., eds. Sea ice: an introduction to its physics, chemistry, biology and geology. Oxford: Blackwell, 211–239.Google Scholar
Schnack-Schiel, S.B., Thomas, D., Dahms, H.U., Haas, C. & Mizdalski, E. 1998. Copepods in Antarctic sea ice. Antarctic Research Series, 73, 173–182.Google Scholar
Schnack-Schiel, S.B., Dieckmann, G.S., Gradinger, R., Melnikov, I.A., Spindler, M. & Thomas, D.N. 2001. Meiofauna in sea ice of the Weddell Sea (Antarctica). Polar Biology, 24, 724–728.Google Scholar
Song, W.B. & Wilbert, N. 2000. Ciliates from Antarctic sea ice. Polar Biology, 23, 212–222.Google Scholar
Spindler, M., Dickmann, G.S. & Lange, M.A. 1990. Seasonal and geographical variations in sea ice community structure of the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. In Kerry, K.R. & Hempel, G., eds. Antarctic ecosystems: ecological change and conservation. Berlin: Springer, 129–135.Google Scholar
Stoecker, D.K., Buck, K.R. & Putt, M. 1993. Changes in the sea-ice brine community during the spring-summer transition, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. II: Phagotrophic protists. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 95, 103–113.Google Scholar
Utermöhl, H. 1958. Zur vervollkommung der quantitativen phytoplankton-methodik. Mitteilungen Internationale Vereinigung fuer Theoretische und Angewandte Limnologie, 9, 1–38.Google Scholar
Verity, P.G. & Langdon, C. 1984. Relationships between lorica volume, carbon, nitrogen, and ATP content of tintinnids in Narragansett Bay. Journal of Plankton Research, 6, 859–868.Google Scholar
Warwick, R.M. & Clarke, K.R. 2001. Practical measures of marine biodiversity based on relatedness of species. Oceanography and Marine Biology, 39, 207–231.Google Scholar