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Gut contents and isotopic profiles of Salpa fusiformis and Thalia democratica

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Abstract

Little is known about the diet of planktonic tunicates such as salps, which can comprise around 80% of zooplankton abundance under bloom conditions. The gut contents of solitary and aggregate phases of the salps Thalia democratica and Salpa fusiformis were analysed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and stable isotope analyses (SIA) to describe their diets under field conditions. The gut contents contained representatives of diatoms, dinoflagellates, haptophyte flagellates (Order Prymnesiales and Coccolithophorales), prasinophytes (Order Chlorodendrales) and, in a few instances, copepods (Crustacea). SEM confirmed the presence of many species of phytoplankton in the salp guts and was broadly supported by HPLC and SIA. The dominant peaks in the HPLC chromatograms corresponded to fucoxanthin, alloxanthin, chlorophyll b and β-carotene, indicating the ingestion of diatoms, cryptophytes and green algae. Solitary stages of both S. fusiformis and T. democratica fed on items that were not common in the phytoplankton samples, namely coccolithophores and copepods, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by the Winifred Violet Scott Foundation (to KMS), the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (Project Numbers 2009/067 and 2014/031; to KMS and RE) and Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (Fisheries and Aquaculture Program). The Storm Bay project team—Jason Beard, Lisette Robertson, Hugh Jones and Andrew Pender—are thanked for help in the field. Justin Hulls produced the map and we thank two anonymous reviewers for helping to improve the manuscript. This work has been carried out while the lead author held Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu scholarships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Private Bag 129, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Nurul H. Ahmad Ishak, Guy D. Williams & Kerrie M. Swadling

  2. School of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Mengabang Telipot, 21030, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

    Nurul H. Ahmad Ishak

  3. CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, G. P. O. Box 1538, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Lesley A. Clementson & Ruth S. Eriksen

  4. Australian Antarctic Division, 203 Channel Highway, Kingston, TAS, 7050, Australia

    Rick L. van den Enden

  5. Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, Private Bag 80, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Ruth S. Eriksen, Guy D. Williams & Kerrie M. Swadling

Authors
  1. Nurul H. Ahmad Ishak
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  2. Lesley A. Clementson
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  3. Ruth S. Eriksen
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  4. Rick L. van den Enden
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  5. Guy D. Williams
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  6. Kerrie M. Swadling
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nurul H. Ahmad Ishak.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Winifred Violet Scott Foundation and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (Grant Numbers 2009/067 and 2014/031). The lead author held Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu scholarships (Grant SLAB/SLAI).

Conflict of interest

Author Ahmad Ishak declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Clementson declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Eriksen declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author van den Enden declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Williams declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Swadling declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Tasmania.

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Responsible Editor: X. Irigoien.

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Ahmad Ishak, N.H., Clementson, L.A., Eriksen, R.S. et al. Gut contents and isotopic profiles of Salpa fusiformis and Thalia democratica . Mar Biol 164, 144 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-017-3174-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-017-3174-1

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