Premium
Grazing rate of the tintinnid Stenosemella ventricosa (Clap. & Lachm.) Jorg. on the spectrum of the naturally occurring particulate matter from a Mediterranean neritic area 1
Author(s) -
Rassoulzadegan Fereidoun,
Etienne Michele
Publication year - 1981
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.1981.26.2.0258
Subject(s) - mediterranean climate , population , plankton , particulates , biology , particle (ecology) , range (aeronautics) , ingestion , mediterranean sea , particle size , zoology , ecology , biochemistry , materials science , demography , sociology , composite material , paleontology
Stenosemella ventricosa , a Mediterranean neritic tintinnid, is a consumer of nanoplankton. It feeds on particles with diameters from 1.3 to 27 µ m and more intensively on particles in the 3–12‐ µ m range. After being acclimated for 24 h without food, S. ventricosa exhibits a very high feeding rate on a population of natural particles during the first few hours: 4 × 10 5 µ m 3 (wet vol food)·tintinnid −1 ·d −1 . The rate decreases at about 20 h and stabilizes around a mean value of 4.6 × 10 4 µ m 3 . The stabilized rate is equal to 66% of the fresh weight of the tintinnid (7 × 10 4 µ m 3 ), or 43% (0.0024 µ g C·tintinnid −1 ·d 1 ) of its body organic carbon (about 0.0056 µ g). The ingestion rate of S. ventricosa feeding on particles between 1.3 and 27 µ m seems to be a function of particle concentration. Significant correlations (at 0.01 or 0.05 level) were observed between ingestion rate per size class and particulate food concentration within each class. After feeding in some size range for a certain period, S. ventricosa seems to be able to switch its feeding pressure to particles in other size categories which have not yet been consumed.