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Vertiquant: A Device for Automatically Recording Vertical Migration of Plankton
Author(s) -
Vareschi Ekkehard,
Reuter Rainer,
Brandorff Dietmar,
Jannsen Manfred,
König Edmund,
Wübben Dirk L.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
international review of hydrobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1522-2632
pISSN - 1434-2944
DOI - 10.1002/iroh.199900033
Subject(s) - plankton , zooplankton , daphnia , diel vertical migration , ecology , environmental science , stimulus (psychology) , biology , psychology , cognitive psychology
Vertical migration is a key subject in understanding zooplankton ecology and its influence on aquatic ecosystems. This paper introduces a device for automatically recording vertical plankton migrations to study proximate factors regulating the stimulus, timing and amplitude of these movements under controlled laboratory conditions. The instrument records the light scattered by organisms at their respective depths and processes the signals in real time to a graphic representation of the organisms vertical distribution. Organisms of different taxa from a size of <40 μ, to > 10 000 μm were used for these experiments. Daphnia migrations in response to UV light are used to demonstrate the basic functions of the instrument.