School of Engineering and Science - Jacobs University

CHAPTER III
Other microzooplankton
Beside ciliates and dinoflagellates, a thecate amoeba and a rotifer (Synchaeta sp.)
occurred in the microzooplankton community (Figure 4c). Both species together
contributed 4-30% to the total microzooplankton biomass with values over 13% during
the last 10 days of the experiment when Synchaeta sp. became more abundant, whereas
the parasitic thecate amoeba (mainly attached to Chaetoceros spp.) dominated this
group until the end of March.
Microzooplankton grazing and selectivity
The microzooplankton community showed carbon specific grazing rates g c between
0.006 and 0.014 (µgC predator) -1 d -1 during the grazing experiments (Figure 5). All
groups of phytoplankton where grazed while we detected different selectivity patterns
for different genera/species. Detailed information is given in Table 1+2 and on prey
taxon level in the appendix.
Figure 5: Predator carbon specific grazing rates g c of microzooplankton and Temora longicornis grazing
on phytoplankton during the four experiments. Error bars correspond to one standard error (n = 36 for
microzooplankton, n = 9 for T. longicornis).
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