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Food web of an Antarctic midwater ecosystem

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Abstract

The diets of 93 species of plankton and micronekton taken in the upper 1000 m of Croker Passage (Gerlache Strait) in the austral fall, 1983, were examined and the principal features of the food web were characterized. Most species were small particle feeders, with phytoplankton and debris (of phytoplankton and krill) being the principal diet components. Krill remains were found in the guts of the majority of species examined, with the krill playing a greater role in the form of molts and debris than as living prey. Carcinores fed mostly on copepods, coelenterates and salps. Some of the larger species fed on live krill. No-hierarchical cluster analysis of diet information supported the concept of resource partitioning and determined the arrangement of the species into 21 feeding groups. Cluster analysis groupings tended to be along genetic lines with closely related and morphologically similar species having similar diets. These analyses were based on collections made in the austral fall (March–April, 1983) when phytoplankton standing crop was low, most zooplankton species had descended into the mesopelagic zone, and some of the more abundant species, such as Calanoides acutus, had ceased feeding. Because the trophodynamics of Antarctic ecosystems is strongly pulse-induced, it is essential to examine the food web at different periods in the seasonal cycle.

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  1. Department of Marine Science, University of South Florida, 33701, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA

    T. L. Hopkins

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Communicated by J. M. Lawrence, Tampa

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Hopkins, T.L. Food web of an Antarctic midwater ecosystem. Mar. Biol. 89, 197–212 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00392890

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