Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lorenzen, C.J.
Right arrow Articles by Welschmeyer, N.A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Lorenzen, C.J.
Right arrow Articles by Welschmeyer, N.A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

JOURNAL OF PLANKTON RESEARCH | VOLUME 5 | NUMBER 6 | PAGES 929-933 | 1983
© Oxford University Press

other

The in situ sinking rates of herbivore fecal pellets1

C.J. Lorenzen and N.A. Welschmeyer2

School of Oceanography, University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195, USA

Received on November 1, 1982; accepted on June 1, 1983

The vertical flux of pigmented fecal pellets was measured for periods of 4 h or less with closely spaced sediment traps. The settling of the nighttime injection resulting from macrozooplankton grazing activity could be monitored as the pellets settled through the water column. Sinking rates of fecal pellets showed a range of 31 – 122 m d–1 with an average of 87 m d–1. Longer term experiments show that the vertical phaeopigment flux is conservative, and that there is no significant loss of pigments en route to the sea floor. In Dabob Bay, coprophagy in the water column is most likely a minor consideration. The amount of chlorophyll sinking out of the euphotic zone usually represents <1% of the standing crop, and is usually only 5% or less than the phaeopigment flux. This suggests that grazing is the predominant process accounting for the major loss of chlorophyll from the water column.

1Contribution no. 1332 from the School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.

2Present address: The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.