Ingestion of the cyanobacterium Trichodesmium spp. by pelagic harpacticoid copepods Macrosetella, Miracia and Oculosetella

Abstract

Trichodesmium is a filamentous, colonial nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria, ubiquitous in tropical and subtropical regions of the world’s oceans. Trichodesmium fixes atmospheric nitrogen and can comprise a significant fraction of total primary production in oceanic surface waters. Therefore, the consumption and fate of Trichodesmium has important consequences for understanding carbon and nitrogen cycling in the open ocean. The pelagic harpacticoid copepod Macrosetella gracilis uses Trichodesmium not only as a physical substrate for juvenile development, but also as a food source. Several different types of pelagic copepods (including several species of calanoids, harpacticoids and a poecilostomatoid species) were tested for ingestion of Trichodesmium by labelling the cyanobacteria with ¹⁴C. Only the pelagic harpacticoids ingested Trichodesmium. Here we report the first grazing rates based on ¹⁴C-uptake measurements for Macrosetella gracilis (0.173 μg C copepod⁻¹ h⁻¹), and the first quantitative measurements of both Miracia efferata (0.402 μg C copepod⁻¹ h⁻¹) and Oculosetella gracilis (0.126 p,g C copepod⁻¹ h⁻¹) ingesting this cyanobacteria. Ingestion rates of M. gracilis and M. efferata on the two different species of Trichodesmium, T thiebautii and T. erythraeum, as well as the two different colonial morphologies of T. thiebautii, spherical-shaped (‘puffs’) and fusiform (‘tufts’), were also compared. Both Miracia and Macrosetella had higher ingestion rates on the ‘puff’ colonies than the ‘tuft’ colonies of T. thiebautii.. Both also had higher ingestion rates of T. erythraeum than T thiebautii. Trichodesmium thiebautii contains a previously reported neurotoxin which may be an important factor in determining trophodynamic interactions. Our results suggest that pelagic harpacticoid copepods can be quantitatively important in determining the fate of Trichodesmium carbon and nitrogen.