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An Approach to Some Problems of Secondary Production in the Western
Author(s) -
REGION LAKE ERIE,
DAVIS CHARLES C.
Publication year - 1958
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1958.3.1.0015
Subject(s) - phytoplankton , zooplankton , biomass (ecology) , environmental science , volume (thermodynamics) , plankton , organic matter , oceanography , microbial loop , ecology , environmental chemistry , nutrient , biology , chemistry , geology , physics , quantum mechanics
It has been suggested by Pennak (1955) that tripton, rather than phytoplankton, is the main food of zooplankters in lakes. This concept is based upon his findings that the zooplankton biomass regularly exceeds the phytoplankton biomass, but that the mass of the tripton is greater than that of the zooplankton. In the present study samples of water were gathered from western Lake Erie and from several ponds. These were analyzed for dissolved organic matter, dissolved inorganic matter, volume of phytoplankton, volume of zooplankton, volume of µ ‐cells (mostly bacteria), and volume of organic and inorganic tripton. The phytoplankton biomass exceeded that of the zooplankton in nearly all samples. The average phytoplankton volume was 4.08 times greater than the average zooplankton volume. Furthermore, the phytoplankton volume usually was greater than that of the organic tripton, the ratio of the average volumes being 2.43 to 1. The reported results support the traditional concept that the zooplankton consumes primarily the phytoplankton. Consideration also is given of the bearing upon this problem of the dynamics of phytoplankton production and of grazing by zooplankters.