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Bacterioplankton in the diet of the calanoid copepod Eurytemora sp. in the Humber Estuary

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Abstract

Abundance of zooplankton (principally Eurytemora sp.: probably E. affinis) standing crop of attached and free-living planktonic bacteria, physico-chemical variables, and individual and population feeding rates of Eurytemora sp. on attached and free-living bacteria, were measured during 1979 in the Humber Estuary, Northeast England. Eurytemora sp. individual feeding rates were highly variable and somewhat low; total bacterial biomass eaten represented, on average, only 12% of carbon required to maintain respiration. It is suggested that feeding on attached bacteria was restricted by the large mass of suspended solids relative to the small biomass of attached bacteria, while feeding on free-living bacteria was limited by their small size. Population feeding rates were greater at the more upstream sites, where Eurytemora sp. was more abundant. Total bacteria eaten, however, was always a very small proportion of bacterial standing crop (mean values were only 0.03% of attached bacteria and 0.04% of free-living bacteria per day), hence grazing appears to have an insignificant effect on bacterioplankton in the Humber.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biology, The University, HU6 7RX, Hull, North Humberside, England

    A. C. Boak & R. Goulder

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  1. A. C. Boak
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  2. R. Goulder
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Communicated by J. Mauchline, Oban

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Boak, A.C., Goulder, R. Bacterioplankton in the diet of the calanoid copepod Eurytemora sp. in the Humber Estuary. Mar. Biol. 73, 139–149 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00406881

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