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Dissolution of coccolithophorid calcite by microzooplankton and copepod grazing
Citation
Antia, AN and Suffrian, K and Holste, L and Muller, MN and Nejstgaard, JC and Simonelli, P and Carotenuto, Y and Putzeys, S, Dissolution of coccolithophorid calcite by microzooplankton and copepod grazing, Biogeosciences Discussions, 5, (1) pp. 1-23. ISSN 1810-6277 (2008) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright © Author(s) 2008. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Independent of the ongoing acidification of surface seawater, the majority of the calcium
carbonate produced in the pelagial is dissolved by natural processes above the
lysocline. We investigate to what extent grazing and passage of coccolithophorids
5 through the guts of copepods and the food vacuoles of microzooplankton contribute
to calcite dissolution. In laboratory experiments where the coccolithophorid Emiliania
huxleyi was fed to the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis, the heterotrophic flagellate Oxyrrhis
marina and the copepod Acartia tonsa, calcite dissolution rates of 4555%, 3753%
and 522% of ingested calcite were found. We ascribe higher loss rates in microzoo10
plankton food vacuoles as compared to copepod guts to the strongly acidic digestion
and the individual packaging of algal cells. In further experiments, specific rates of
calcification and calcite dissolution were also measured in natural populations during
the PeECE III mesocosm study under differing ambient pCO2 concentrations. Microzooplankton
grazing accounted for between 27 and 70% of the dynamic calcite stock
15 being lost per day, with no measurable effect of CO2 treatment. These measured calcite
dissolution rates indicate that dissolution of calcite in the guts of microzooplankton
and copepods can account for the calcite losses calculated for the global ocean using
budget and model estimates.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Oceanography |
| Research Field: | Biological oceanography |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences |
| UTAS Author: | Muller, MN (Dr Marius Muller) |
| ID Code: | 72203 |
| Year Published: | 2008 |
| Deposited By: | IMAS Research and Education Centre |
| Deposited On: | 2011-08-23 |
| Last Modified: | 2012-03-08 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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